Import a bank statement

What this does

Instead of typing every line off your bank statement, you upload the statement and let Worklog read it for you. It pulls out every transaction, sorts them into money in and money out, and lets you pick which ones to keep before anything is saved. You'll find it in Banking — tap "Let Worklog read it".

It works with a PDF straight from your bank or a clear photo of the statement. If your PDF has a password, Worklog can unlock it right on your phone.

Before you start

• Have your statement ready as a PDF, JPG or PNG.
• If the PDF is password-protected, know the password. It's usually in the email the statement came in, and is often your ID number.
• It helps to set up your bank accounts first, so you can tell Worklog which account the statement is from.

Say yes to the privacy step

The first screen, Before you upload, explains what happens to your statement. To read it, Worklog sends the file to an AI service (Anthropic, in the United States) that pulls out the transactions, uses the file only for that, and keeps it briefly before deleting it. Worklog itself never saves the file, only the transactions you choose to keep. If the PDF has a password, it's unlocked on your phone and the password is never sent anywhere. Your data is never used to train AI models.

1. Read the points on the Before you upload screen.
2. Tap I understand — continue to carry on, or Cancel to go back.

Upload your statement

1. Tap Choose a PDF or photo and pick your file.
2. If Worklog sees the PDF is password-protected, it shows a note saying it will ask for the password next.
3. Tap Read my statement. For a protected PDF the button reads Unlock & read my statement instead.
4. If it asks for a password, type it into the PDF password box and tap Unlock & read. Your password stays on your phone.

You'll see a Reading your statement screen while the AI works. This can take up to a minute for a long statement.

Pick the account

If you have bank accounts set up, Worklog tries to work out which account the statement is from and shows a note on the review screen. Under Which account is this statement from? you can leave its choice or change it. Everything you import is filed against that account.

Review and tick the transactions

Worklog lists every transaction it found. Money in shows with a plus, money out with a minus. A box near the top keeps a running total of money in, money out, anything you have marked as a move, and how many are selected. Every row starts ticked — except two kinds that start unticked: salary lines your pay runs already recorded, and lines your books already hold.

1. Go down the list and tap any row you don't want, to untick it.
2. When there's more than one transaction, you can tap Select all or Select none at the top of the list to tick or untick everything at once.
3. Look for rows with a small ⚠️ check tag — that means the AI wasn't sure, so double-check the amount and detail.
4. Rows with a 💼 wages tag come unticked: a pay run in Worklog already booked those wages (the note under the row names the payslip), so importing the line would count the cost twice. Only tick it back if that pay run isn't in Worklog.
5. Rows with an ↩️ already in tag come unticked too: your books already hold that day, that amount and that name, which usually means this statement — or part of it — has been read before. The note under the row says what it matched. Tick one back only if it really is a second payment.
6. Was a line actually money moved to another of your own accounts? Under a ticked row, pick that account from the "not a move" box — see below.
7. Watch the totals box to confirm the money in and money out look right.

Link payments to invoices and bills

If a deposit was a customer paying an invoice you already made, or a payment was you settling a supplier invoice, you should link it. Linking stops the same money being counted twice in your Profit & Loss.

1. Under a ticked money-in row, use Is this payment for an invoice? - optional to find and tap the matching invoice.
2. If the deposit covers the whole balance, Worklog offers a tick to also mark that invoice as paid. A part payment stays linked but leaves the invoice unpaid.
3. Under a ticked money-out row, use Is this paying off something in your credit book? - optional or Is this paying a supplier invoice? - optional to link what it settles, and tick to mark it paid if the payment covers the full amount.

A line that was really a move

A bank statement prints money you moved to another of your own accounts — banking the till, a top-up from the cheque account — as an ordinary payment. It is not spending, and importing it as spending puts a shuffle between your own pockets into your Profit & Loss.

1. Under a ticked row, open the box that reads "Money out — not a move" (or "Money in — not a move").
2. Pick the account the money went into. It appears in the list once you have two or more accounts saved.
3. The row turns purple and says it will save as a transfer. Its category, VAT and matching controls disappear, because a transfer has nothing to file and nothing to settle.

Those lines are counted apart in the totals box, under Moved, and never in money in or money out. Once imported, the transfer shifts both accounts' balances and stays out of your Profit & Loss and your tax.

Import

1. When the list looks right, tap the Import button at the bottom — it shows how many transactions you've selected.
2. Wait for it to finish. You'll see a screen confirming how many were imported and the dates they cover.
3. Tap Back to dashboard.

Your transactions are now in your Money records and will show in reports like Profit & Loss. If Worklog is VAT-registered, it works the VAT out of each amount for you, since a bank statement only ever shows the total that landed.

Importing a CSV instead

A CSV export from your bank goes through Banking → ⬆ Import (not the statement reader). Pick the account the file is for at the top of the dialog — every line lands on that account and moves its balance, so one file is one account. Only date is required; a date must be written YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. 2026-09-07, and a line in any other date format is skipped. A minus amount means money out, or say it in the type column (in/out, credit/debit).

Tap ⬇ Download template CSV for a file with every column and three worked example lines — money in, money out and a move. The columns are the same questions the capture screen asks, so a filled-in template lands exactly what typing the lines in would have: date, amount, type, description, party, reference, category, vat, receipt, personal, method and to_account. Everything after date is optional.

• A two-line file that imports: the header row “date,amount,description,party”, then “2026-09-01,4200,Job payment,Thandwe Mokoena”, then “2026-09-02,-780.50,Fuel,Engen”.
• Each imported line becomes a real Banking entry with its own INC-, EXP- or TRF- reference, on the account you picked, carrying that account's everyday payment method unless the method column says otherwise.
• type “move” imports a transfer between your own accounts — name the other account in to_account (its name, or the last four digits of its number). A move Worklog can't place is shown as “can't import” with the reason, rather than being filed as money out.
• vat: on money in it is how the sale is treated — standard, zero-rated or exempt, and standard if you leave it blank. On money out, write “claim” to claim the VAT inside the amount; blank claims nothing, deliberately — silently claiming 15% on every card swipe would over-claim to SARS.
• receipt and personal take yes or no: receipt records that you have proof for a payment, personal keeps the owner's own money out of your business totals and tax.
• A line without a recognisable SARS category arrives under Needs a home — work that pile down afterwards, matching lines to invoices and bills or booking them to a heading.
• Import the same statement twice and the repeats are skipped as duplicates, moves included — so a file you are unsure about is safe to run again.
• Salary lines a pay run already booked are skipped too, and the preview names the payslip. Importing them would count the same wages twice — once when the pay run was saved, once as the bank line paying it.

If nothing happens after choosing a file

• The dialog says “Reading the file…” while it works, and any problem lands in red under the button — including dates that aren't YYYY-MM-DD, the commonest reason a file produces nothing.
• Fix the file and choose it again — picking the same file a second time works.
• A PDF or a photo of a statement doesn't go through this dialog at all: use “Let Worklog read it” at the top of Banking, and its lines land in the same list.