Import a bank or mobile money statement

You don't need to retype your statements. Download them from your bank or mobile money provider (such as M-Pesa) as usual, upload them to Travada Books, and every line becomes a transaction you can categorise and match to receipts.

Before you start

Download the statement for the period you want. Keep the original file somewhere safe as your source record and upload a copy. Travada Books accepts two kinds of file:

• PDF, as most banks and mobile money providers send them. No setup needed.
• CSV, if your bank lets you export one. You check how the columns line up before importing.

Import a PDF statement

1. Select Transactions in the sidebar, then Import.
2. Choose the PDF File tab, then Choose PDF and pick your statement.
3. Select Import statement.

Travada Books reads the transactions from the PDF, so there are no columns to map. The import runs in the background, and transactions appear in your list as they're read. A long statement can take up to a minute.

Import a CSV statement

1. Select Transactions, then Import.
2. On the CSV file tab, select Choose file and pick your CSV. You can also drag the file straight onto the Transactions page.
3. Travada Books matches your file's columns to its own. Check each one: Date, Description, Reference and Currency. The first row of your file is shown beside each column so you can see what will come in.
4. If a column is wrong, pick the right one from the list, or choose — not mapped — to leave it out.
5. Select Confirm import.

After the import

Travada Books suggests a category for each transaction, based on who the money went to or came from. Go through the list and fix anything that isn't right. To change several at once, tick them and use the bar that appears at the bottom to set the category, payment method or status together.

Good to know: Importing the same file twice doesn't create duplicate transactions, so it's safe to try again if something went wrong. If a PDF won't import, check that it isn't password-protected or a scanned image: Travada Books needs to be able to read the text in the file.

Next steps

• Connect Gmail or Outlook so receipts are matched to these transactions for you.
• For a fuller month-end routine, read How to organise M-Pesa statements for bookkeeping.