How to import a Nationwide or Barclays CSV statement

To import a Nationwide or Barclays CSV statement, download the CSV from your bank's website, open Money by Zaweba and press Ctrl+I. The column wizard recognises both banks' layouts, reads the dates and amounts correctly, and remembers the layout in your money file so next month's import goes straight through. Monzo, Starling, Lloyds and Halifax, Santander and HSBC and First Direct are recognised the same way.

What you need

You need the CSV file from your bank and a money file with an account to put it in. If you haven't made the account yet, use New account on the File menu, choose current, savings or credit card as appropriate, and give it an opening balance and an opening date that sit just before the first transaction you plan to import. That way the running balance in the register lines up with the bank's.

On the bank's website, look for an option to download or export transactions, choose the date range and pick CSV if there's a choice of formats. Save the file somewhere you'll find it, such as Downloads.

Step by step

In Money, press Ctrl+I, or use Import a statement, and choose the file. Bank CSVs often start with a few lines of preamble, such as the account name and number, before the real column headings. The wizard looks past those and finds the header row itself.

Because Nationwide and Barclays are among the layouts it knows, the wizard matches the columns for you: which one is the date, which is the description that becomes the payee, and how the amount is shown. Some banks use a single signed amount column; others have separate money in and money out columns. Money copes with both. Check the preview looks right, choose the account the rows belong in, and carry on.

Next comes the review screen. Nothing is added until you've seen it. Rows that already exist in the account are set aside as duplicates, and the rest are listed as new. Overlapping a few days with your previous import is fine, because Money matches pairs one to one, so two identical coffees on the same day each match their own row.

Add the new rows, and payee rules put them into categories as they arrive.

Next month and after

The layout is remembered against the file's header row and stored inside the money file. The next time you import a Nationwide or Barclays CSV with the same headings, Money skips the wizard and goes straight to the review. If your bank ever changes its export, the header row will differ and the wizard will simply appear again so you can confirm the new columns.

It's a good habit to download a little more than you need, overlapping the last import by a week. The duplicate check deals with the overlap, and you won't miss anything that was still pending when you last downloaded.

Getting a good result

After the first import, open the account's register and go through anything uncategorised. When you change a category, Money asks whether to always do this for that payee. Saying yes creates a payee rule, applies it to the uncategorised rows from that payee already in the file and to every future import. Ten minutes of this on the first statement saves a lot of time later.

If you also import a credit card, its CSV may show spending as positive numbers. The wizard has a money out is positive option for card files, which makes purchases come in as money out rather than income.

Finally, once the rows are in, the reconcile wizard lets you tick them off against the statement's closing balance until the difference reads 0.00, which is a good check that nothing was missed.