Bank statement extraction: the complete guide

Bank statement extraction turns an uploaded bank or credit card statement into individual transactions that SparkReceipt can categorize, match to your receipts, and turn into expense and income entries. The flow is: upload the statement, extraction runs on its own, review the transactions, then match them or create entries from them. You can do all of it on the web and in the mobile app. This guide walks through each step and answers the questions people ask most, like what to do when a statement stays Extraction queued, how to replace a statement file, and whether you can teach the extraction.

Step 1: Upload the statement

On the web: click Add documents in the sidebar and choose Bank or credit card statement, then upload the file.

In the mobile app: tap the scan button, switch to the Statement tab and add the file or photo.

SparkReceipt reads PDF, CSV and Excel (XLSX and XLS) statements best. Word files, HTML, XML and photos of a paper statement also work. Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked before you upload them.

Any file that lists your transactions can be uploaded as a statement, including the statement or transaction history you download from PayPal, Venmo, Wise or a similar payment app. SparkReceipt reads it the same way as a bank statement. A statement that shows an opening and a closing balance gives the best result, because SparkReceipt uses the balances to check that no transaction was missed.

Tip: upload your receipts before the statement. Matching runs as part of extraction, so receipts already in SparkReceipt get matched to transactions automatically.

Step 2: Extraction runs

Extraction starts automatically once the uploaded file has finished processing. If it doesn't start, open the statement and click Extract transactions.

To follow the progress, open the statement and click View transactions (on mobile, tap View on the statement's status card). The status feed shows each stage, for example "Extracting transactions…", "Checking transactions against statement totals…" and "Matching transactions to your receipts…". You can leave the page. Extraction continues in the background.

What the extraction statuses mean

You can find statements in each state in the Documents view with the Extraction status filter.

Why is my statement stuck in "Extraction queued"?

SparkReceipt runs a limited number of extraction jobs at the same time, both for your account and across all accounts. A statement stays Extraction queued while those slots are busy, most often because another statement on your account is still extracting. Queued statements start in the order they were queued, as soon as a slot frees up.

Credits don't keep a statement in the queue. If your credits run out, the status shows Extraction paused — credits exhausted instead.

If a statement has shown Extraction queued for a long time:

1. Check whether other statements on your account are still extracting, and give them time to finish.
2. On the web, open the statement's transactions and use Restart extraction. This discards the current attempt and starts a new one.
3. If it still doesn't move, write to support and tell us which statement it is.

If an extraction stalls completely, with nothing left running or waiting, SparkReceipt stops it automatically after about an hour and marks it Extraction failed, so you can restart it. A statement that is only waiting for a free slot isn't stopped.

Cancelling and restarting

While extraction is running you can Cancel extraction from the statement's toolbar. A cancelled extraction shows as Extraction failed. Restart extraction discards the current results and starts over. The confirmation reads "This will discard the current results and start a new extraction. This action cannot be undone."

What extraction costs

Each extracted transaction line consumes one credit. Credits are drawn first from any free allowance, then from your plan's monthly renewable credits, then from purchased extra credits. See Bank Statement extraction credits: What they are and how they work?

If you run out of credits mid-extraction, the extraction pauses and resumes automatically when you purchase more credits from Subscription & Billing or when your monthly credits renew.

Step 3: Review the extracted transactions

The statement's Transactions page lists every extracted line. It works like the Transaction Manager, limited to this one statement, so you get the same queues (All, Needs review, Unmatched, Reconciled, Transfers, Excluded), the same search and the same actions. The lines start in Statement order, the order they appear on the statement. Use Sort to switch to Newest first or Oldest first.

Useful things to do here:

• Check matches. Lines that matched one of your receipts show the receipt. Uncertain matches show as Suggested match and wait for you to Approve or Reject them. See Matching transactions to receipts in the Transaction Manager.
• Fix a line. Click the merchant, description, date or amount to correct it, or add a note with Add note. In the mobile app, tap the line and choose Edit details.
• Fix the type. Money out becomes an expense and money in becomes income. To flip lines the statement got wrong, select them and use More → Set transaction type. See Refunds, transfers and other special cases on bank statements.
• Split a line. If a purchase line includes a bank fee, use Split line from the line's actions menu (Split / itemize in the mobile app) to pull the fee out into its own line.
• Add a missing line with Add transaction, or remove a line the extraction invented with Delete transaction.

For editing, sorting, selecting and exporting in more detail, see How do I edit, sort, select and export transactions?.

The statement's own details (statement period, Opening balance, Closing balance, Total debits and Total credits) are on the Document Info tab next to the transactions.

Step 4: Turn transactions into expenses and income

Extracted transactions are not expenses or income yet. They stay as lines on the statement until you decide what each one is:

• Matched to a receipt or invoice. Nothing more to do. The receipt is the entry that counts in your reports.
• No receipt, but a real business cost or income (bank fees, interest, a sale paid straight to your account). Use Create expense or Create income on the line, or select several lines and use Create entries. SparkReceipt creates an entry from the line's own details.
• Money moved between your own accounts. Mark it as a transfer so it stays out of your income and expenses.
• Personal or out of scope. Use Exclude.

These tools are explained in Transfers, exclusions, and creating entries in the Transaction Manager.

Entries created from a statement get the payment method of the bank account the statement belongs to. Each account has its own payment method, which you can change under Account settings → Cards & Accounts → Transaction accounts. To set which account a statement belongs to, use Bank account on the Document Info tab, or select lines and use More → Assign account….

The new expense and income entries appear in your Documents view like any other document and flow into your reports. See Why aren't my bank statement transactions showing in my reports?

Can I stop SparkReceipt from turning my statement into transactions?

SparkReceipt never creates expenses or income from a statement on its own. The extracted lines only become entries when you match them or use Create expense, Create income or Create entries, so you can leave lines untouched and they won't affect your reports. Extraction itself starts automatically for every file uploaded as a bank or credit card statement. If you only want to keep a statement as a file, upload it as Other document instead.

Opening balance, closing balance and the totals check

The Opening balance and Closing balance on the Document Info tab are read from the statement. They can't be edited. A value marked "(calculated from transactions)" was worked out by SparkReceipt because the statement didn't show it.

During extraction SparkReceipt checks that the opening balance plus the transactions equals the closing balance, and uses that check to catch lines it missed. SparkReceipt doesn't keep a running balance for your bank accounts, so there's no place to enter an opening balance for an account or your current bank balance. If a statement's transactions don't add up, compare the lines with the statement, add any missing line with Add transaction, or use Restart extraction.

Can I train the extraction?

There's no setting that teaches the extraction your bank's layout, and the corrections you make to one statement aren't used to read the next one. What helps when lines are missing or wrong:

• Upload the statement as the original PDF, CSV or Excel file from your bank instead of a photo or a scan.
• Fix individual lines on the Transactions page, add missed lines with Add transaction, and delete lines that don't belong.
• Use Restart extraction to read the statement again from scratch.

Two later steps do learn from you. Categories are picked using your automations and the categories you set by hand, and matching learns from the matches you approve and reject.

Replacing a statement with a new file

There's no Replace file action. To use a different file for a statement you already uploaded:

• Start fresh (simplest). Delete the old statement and upload the new file. Entries you created from the old statement's lines are moved to the trash with it, while your own receipts are kept and only unmatched. See What happens when you delete a bank statement?
• Keep the same statement. Open the statement, use Delete file on the old file, add the new file, and then use Restart extraction. Restarting discards the old extraction results.

Extracting statements in the mobile app

Yes, the mobile app can extract statements too. Add the statement from the Statement tab, and extraction starts on its own. On the statement's page, the status card shows the extraction status and a View button that opens the transactions. If extraction hasn't started, use Extract transactions there. Cancel extraction and Restart extraction are in the More menu of the transactions view.

Good to know

• Every role can upload and extract statements, Accountants included. An account in read-only mode after its plan ended can't start new extractions.
• For the receipt-matching side of this workflow in more detail, see How to match receipts to bank OR credit card statements.
• Prefer automatic imports? See Connect a bank account for automatic transaction imports.