Introducing bank transactions import

Published on 04-08-2021

It is now possible to import transactions from your bank using a so called CSV file. This makes it a lot faster if you want to track expenses in Everlint! You'll avoid the hassle of manually entering everything and make less mistakes that way as well.

Tracking your expenses by category will make you aware of where your money is going. Even when you don't use budgets, you'll get insights such as how much that morning coffee costs you in a month. Some people decide they don't find it worth that much and reduce those coffee expenses. Of course it is no problem if you do find it worth the expense, as long as it is a deliberate choice, not an automatic habit.

How to obtain a CSV bank transactions file

Most banks provide a way for you to search for transactions in their web interface. This is generally the place where the bank also provides download or export options. Most of the time they offer various formats such as MT940, PDF and CSV. Select a date range that you want to export, download the file and you're ready for the next step.

Importing the transactions from the CSV file

Sign in to Everlint and go to the expenses or transactions list. Click the button at the top called "Import". Importing transactions is a two-step process. In this first form you'll need to select the CSV file from your computer and click "Preview". The next screen shows you a preview of the file with the headers and the first 10 transactions. You can use this to determine which columns should be used for Everlint for amount, description, date etcetera. After you've selected all the required columns you can start the actual import process. You'll be taken to the list of imported transactions when it is done. Anything wrong? Shoot me a message and I'll look into it.

Categorizing the imported expenses

To make the imported expenses useable by the varous charts and reports, they will need to be assigned to a category. This can be done on the expenses list with the "Select multiple" button. The checkmarks in front of the transactions can be used to select all the unassigned expenses that you want to assign to the same category. Next click "Change category" and assign the category you want. Repeat this until you have done so for all the expense categories you have.

Importing next time

The import functionality is currenctly quite basic, but it does remember your settings. Importing the next time should be a breeze. I plan to include the ability to automatically assign the category based on your previous expense assignments, although I'm not sure when that will be added yet.