How to import your bank statement (Excel, CSV or text) into an expense tracker
Download your statement from net banking, import it in one go, and skip months of manual entry. Step-by-step for Indian banks, with transfers handled correctly.
Starting an expense tracker is easy. Catching up on the last three months isn't. Your bank statement already has every transaction, with dates and amounts. Importing it takes a couple of minutes and gives you a complete picture from day one.
Step 1: Download your statement
Every Indian bank lets you download a statement from net banking or its app. Look for Account statement or Download statement under your savings account, and pick:
- The period: the last one to three months is a good start.
- The format: choose Excel (.xlsx) or CSV if offered. These are the most reliable to import. A text (.txt) statement works too.
PDF statements are made to be read by people rather than software. For bank accounts, use Excel or CSV where you can. (Credit card PDFs are a different case: the Dhuddu Android app reads those directly, including password-protected ones.)
Older banking sites sometimes offer only the old .xls Excel format. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets and save it as .xlsx or CSV.
Step 2: Know what's in it
A typical statement has a few header lines (bank name, account number, period), then a table with:
- Date (and sometimes a value date)
- Narration or Description: the UPI, NEFT or card details
- Withdrawal / Debit and Deposit / Credit, or one Amount column with Dr/Cr
- Closing balance
You don't need to edit any of this. A good importer finds the header row, works out which column is which, and reads Indian number formats like 1,23,456.50.
Step 3: Import and review
In Dhuddu, on the website open Sync → Bank statement, or in the Android app open More → Import bank statement. Choose the account, pick the file, and you'll see every row before anything is saved:
- Descriptions are cleaned up, so "UPI/DR/412345678/SWIGGY LIMITED/YESB/..." becomes "Swiggy Limited".
- Debits become expenses and credits become income, each with a suggested category.
- Transfers are marked as transfers: credit card bill payments, wallet top-ups, ATM withdrawals and transfers to your own accounts. They're kept out of your spending, so nothing is counted twice.
- Rows already in Dhuddu are left unticked, for example ones that came in through Gmail sync, so you don't get duplicates.
Untick anything you don't want, change a category if needed, and save.
Step 4: Make it a monthly habit
Once your history is in, you can keep it current with Gmail sync, which reads your bank's alert emails, or by importing a fresh statement at the start of each month. Either way, ten minutes a month gives you budgets that reflect reality and reports you can trust.
Is it safe?
The statement file is read on your device. Dhuddu saves only the transactions you choose to import, and never your net banking login. You can delete them, or your whole account, at any time.