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csv file upload - file type not recognised
I am attempting to upload my first bank statement and the system does not recognise the CSV file type I am saving from Excel into CSV (MS-dos) type and the usual CSV. Please advise what CSV type is accepted by the system.
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Jonathan,
Can you tell us which bank you're downloading the statement from? Although they're all 'CSV, each bank has a different way of formatting this data (there's no standard layout) and we can only support the formats we know about (Abbey, Cater Allen, Co-operative, HBOS).
If it's not on our list, could you send us a sample (formatting unchanged, but anonymise the names and value if you like) and we'll get it working for you?
ed at freeagentcentral dot co dot uk.
I’m sure we can get you up and running
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Inappropriate?Jonathan,
Can you tell us which bank you're downloading the statement from? Although they're all 'CSV, each bank has a different way of formatting this data (there's no standard layout) and we can only support the formats we know about (Abbey, Cater Allen, Co-operative, HBOS).
If it's not on our list, could you send us a sample (formatting unchanged, but anonymise the names and value if you like) and we'll get it working for you?
ed at freeagentcentral dot co dot uk.
I’m sure we can get you up and running
The company says
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?The statements are from Cooperative bank. I copy it form the website into a spreadsheet. I then 'save as' to CSV no other fomratting no changes. I will download a new file from their site and email it to you. That will be later this afternoon. Perhaps you could send me your format for Cooperative bank so I can check my format against that and perhaps make some changes from my side.
I’m unconcerned - sure we can sort it out.
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Inappropriate?Do you have a generic .csv file format that could be used as a template for unspecifically-supported imports?
I'm trying to import from www.barclaycardbusinessonlineservices...
It exports some nasty excel files, but I'm quite happy to reformat this into something that is already readable by your system.
I'm presuming that your csv import just recognises a particular order of date, description, cost? -
Inappropriate?Hi Toby
The simplest CSV format we support is that used by AMEX which has three fields: Date, Amount, Description. There is no header, the date format is dd/mm/yyyy and the description is in double quotes. Here's an example:
22/05/2008,29.38,"FreeAgent Central Subscription"
22/05/2008,-15.99,"Remittance"
If you don't mind could you send these 'nasty excel files' over to me at olly [at] freeagentcentral [dot] com so we can see how easy supporting them would be? Feel free to anonymize the data if you like but don't change the file structure.
Hope this helps!
I’m happy and looking forward to the weekend!
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I think this info needs to be a bit more accessible from the import screen please Olly! -
Inappropriate?It would be great if you published the CSV formats that you support, for those of us using banks that don't offer downloadable statements.
I’m hopeful
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Inappropriate?Hi Matthew,
You're right, we should be doing this and we'll make sure we add a full list to our new Knowledge Base next week.
In the mean time, if you do need to construct your own file I recommend using the AMEX format described in the reply above yours.
Our of interest, which bank are you using? I'm surprised they don't offer a download. Let me know and we'll get in touch with them.
Olly
I’m happy
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www.npbs.co.uk - A small, regional building society with no plans to start offering downloadable statements. ;)
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Ah, ok. Thanks for letting me know. I do find it rather astonishing that they offer internet banking but not a basic text-file export!
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Inappropriate?I notice that your upload now also appears to accept a slightly looser AMEX format of
d/m/yyyy, amount, description (unquoted).
it would be lovely if it also recognised and removed blank lines, rather than rejecting the file. Due to Excel being [not very good], my export has a number of lines that just consist of
,,
,,
,,
which i can remove manually easily enough, but would like to not have to :)
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Inappropriate?Hi Toby
We'll look at fixing this in the next release. Empty lines are ignored, just not ones with solely commas.
Olly -
Inappropriate?I have the same issues with barclays business Banking. Im a new user in trial mode. Has anyone else had the same problems?1 Comment Add a comment
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Hi Benjamin
We don't support Barclays CSV because Barclays Business allow you to export in Quickbooks (a.k.a. QBO or OFX) which FreeAgent natively supports. Could you give that a try please?
Olly
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