Upload your spreadsheet or CSV as a bank statement — not as an expense. If you add a .xlsx or .csv of expenses the way you'd add a receipt, SparkReceipt reads the whole file as a single upload and captures it as one document with many line items. That's why a spreadsheet import can end up as one entry. The right approach is to upload the file as a bank statement: the statement extractor reads each row as its own transaction, and you can then convert those transactions into documents — giving you one document per row directly, with no manual splitting.
This flow is web-only. The mobile app can't upload CSV or spreadsheet files, and it can't view or convert statement transactions, so use the web app for this.
Import a spreadsheet of expenses as a bank statement
- In the web app sidebar, click Add documents, then choose Bank or credit card statement.
- Upload your
.xlsxor.csvfile. To bring in several files at once, use Mass upload with Import files into set to Statements. - Open the statement and use View transactions — SparkReceipt extracts one transaction per row.
- Select the rows you want and use Convert selected to create a document for each one.
That's the short version. For the full walkthrough — including how extraction and matching work — see Bank statement extraction: the complete guide and Can I bulk-import historical data into SparkReceipt?.
What the created documents contain. Each document made from a row carries the amount, date, description, and category from that transaction. There's no receipt image attached — the row is just data, so nothing gets scanned. You can open any document afterwards and attach the matching receipt if you have it.
Already imported the spreadsheet the wrong way?
If you already added the sheet as a normal expense and are now sitting on one document with many line items, the quickest fix is not to split it row by row. Instead:
- Remove or trash that single document.
- Re-upload the same file as a bank statement, following the steps above.
This is quicker and cleaner than splitting the document into one entry at a time — you get every row as its own document in one pass, instead of splitting off a line, then splitting again, and so on.
When splitting a document still makes sense
Splitting is a real, useful feature — it's just not the right tool for turning a many-row spreadsheet into many expenses. Reach for it when you want to:
- Peel off one or two lines that belong on their own document.
- Divide a document that isn't a spreadsheet at all — for example, a single receipt that actually covers two separate expenses.
To split a document in the web app, open it, open the more actions menu (the ⋮ button in the document editor), and choose Split document. Move the line items (and any files) you want onto the new document; everything you don't move stays on the original. You can also ask SparkAgent to do it — for example, "Split the second line item off this document into its own expense" — and it will show you what it plans to move and ask for approval first.
Two honest limits to keep in mind:
- A split creates two documents at a time. It peels a selection onto one new document — it doesn't fan a document out into many at once. That's exactly why splitting a ten-row import into ten entries means ten separate splits, and why uploading as a bank statement is the better path.
- A split can't be undone by merging. There's no merge-back that recombines the line items, so review your selection before you confirm.
If you're not sure how to bring in a large spreadsheet, contact us at support@sparkreceipt.com and we'll help you plan it.