Bringing a statement in

From your bank's download button to the rows landing in your workbook, with the review table in between where nothing happens until you say so.

8 min Upload Monthly habit

Your workbook may look different. If there is no brown band of buttons along the top, use the Money Mastery menu in the menu bar above your workbook. The names are a little different there: Categorize is Categorize Transactions, Reports is Clarity AI & Reports, Dashboard is Open Dashboard, and Start Here is Getting Started.

Watch

The video for this page is being made. The written steps below are the same ones it shows.

Read the transcript

Start at your bank's website or app. Find the page called Transactions, or Statements, or Activity. Every bank has one; it is where each purchase and deposit is listed.

Look for a button that says Download, or Export, often a small arrow pointing down near the search box. Click it, choose last month, and choose CSV if it offers it. PDF is fine too. The file saves to your Downloads folder.

Now come back to Money Mastery. Click the Categorize button on the brown band at the top of your workbook. The Categorize window opens in a new tab. At the top right of the window is Upload. Click it. The upload opens right here, inside the window you already use, with the name of the account it will go into at the top: Upload a statement to Chase Checking.

It asks for one thing: the statement. Drag the file from your Downloads folder onto the dotted box, or click the box to browse and choose it. CSV, PDF or Excel, straight from the bank. The file's name appears in the box. Then click Preview transactions.

Money Mastery reads the file for you. Before it reads anything, it takes out your full card and account numbers, so only the last four digits stay. Then it picks out every transaction and puts the month in order. This takes a few seconds, and a line under the box says what it is doing.

What comes back is a table to look over, one row per transaction. Money in is green. Money out is red. Look at the first row and the last row: are the dates the month you meant.

Every cell in the table is yours to edit. Click a description to shorten it, click an amount the bank rounded, click a date you know is off, type, and press Enter. If the bank wrote your spending as positive numbers, click Flip Amounts above the table and the whole table turns the right way round. If the dates came in as day then month, click Swap Day-Month.

If a row looks like one already in your workbook, the table says so on that row. Click the small cross at the end of the row to leave it out.

When it looks right, click Add to Sheet. Nothing lands in your workbook until you click that. The window says how many rows were added.

And there they are: the new rows in the Categorize list, waiting for a label. Many already have a suggestion in italics. That is the next video.

Under the dotted box there is a link, Show me how to get it from my bank. Click it and the directions for your bank appear, step by step, without leaving the window.

Step by step

Start at your bank's website or app

Find the page called Transactions, or Statements, or Activity. Every bank has one; it is where each purchase and deposit is listed.
Look for a button that says Download, or Export, often a small arrow pointing down near the search box

Click it, choose last month, and choose CSV if it offers it. PDF is fine too. The file saves to your Downloads folder.
Now come back to Money Mastery

Click the Categorize button on the brown band at the top of your workbook. The Categorize window opens in a new tab. At the top right of the window is Upload. Click it. The upload opens right here, inside the window you already use, with the name of the account it will go into at the top: Upload a statement to Chase Checking.
It asks for one thing: the statement

Drag the file from your Downloads folder onto the dotted box, or click the box to browse and choose it. CSV, PDF or Excel, straight from the bank. The file's name appears in the box. Then click Preview transactions.
Money Mastery reads the file for you

Before it reads anything, it takes out your full card and account numbers, so only the last four digits stay. Then it picks out every transaction and puts the month in order. This takes a few seconds, and a line under the box says what it is doing.
What comes back is a table to look over, one row per transaction

Money in is green. Money out is red. Look at the first row and the last row: are the dates the month you meant.
Every cell in the table is yours to edit

Click a description to shorten it, click an amount the bank rounded, click a date you know is off, type, and press Enter. If the bank wrote your spending as positive numbers, click Flip Amounts above the table and the whole table turns the right way round. If the dates came in as day then month, click Swap Day-Month.
If a row looks like one already in your workbook, the table says so on that row

Click the small cross at the end of the row to leave it out.
When it looks right, click Add to Sheet

Nothing lands in your workbook until you click that. The window says how many rows were added.
And there they are: the new rows in the Categorize list, waiting for a label

Many already have a suggestion in italics. That is the next video.

The idea behind it

Worth knowing

Under the dotted box there is a link, Show me how to get it from my bank. Click it and the directions for your bank appear, step by step, without leaving the window.

Remember

Up next, Chapter 2

Getting the file from your bank