Convert Barclays bank statements to Excel

How far back Barclays statements go

Barclays says you can view statements for up to seven years in Online Banking and the app while the account is open, and for up to five years on a closed account as long as you still bank with Barclays (how long statements stay online).

For anything older, or a closed account you can't see online, order a copy by phone or in a branch: Barclays says a posted copy takes 5–7 working days, while a copy added to Online Banking appears about two working days after you ask. Paper copies aren't a dead end — a scan or phone photo of each page converts the same way as a PDF, and the balance check tells you if a line was missed. See scanned bank statements to Excel.

Can you download Barclays transactions as CSV?

Barclays' current help pages describe statements as PDFs. An older help page mentioned an Export option above the transaction list in Online Banking, without naming formats or a date range. If you see it and it covers the months you need, upload the file it gives you — CSV, OFX and QIF uploads use no pages here, as long as you have a plan or page pack.

For older months, for closed accounts and for statements a client emails you, the PDF statement is what you have. It's also the official record, with the start and end balances an accountant or lender relies on.

What a Barclays statement looks like

Barclays current account statements list each transaction with a date, a description, separate columns for money going out and coming in, and a balance, between a start balance and an end balance. Dates are printed as day and month; the year comes from the statement period.

When you convert, the two amount columns become one signed amount, each row gets a full date in the format you choose, and a clean payee name is pulled from the description — Tesco rather than the full card payment text. Pound amounts with thousands separators come through as real numbers, and a statement that runs from December into January gets the right year on both sides.

Barclaycard and business statements

Barclaycard credit cards have their own website and app, separate from Barclays current accounts. In the Barclaycard app, Statements and documents gives you full statements or a list of transactions (Barclaycard help). Convert the statement PDFs the same way as bank statements: purchases come out negative, payments and refunds positive, and each statement is checked from the previous balance to the new balance. More on card statements to Excel.

Barclays business accounts have a Statements option on the business app's home page. Their statements convert like personal ones — useful when a client's books are behind and the only records are a stack of monthly PDFs.

Barclays statements into Xero or QuickBooks

Many UK small businesses and bookkeepers use Xero or QuickBooks. When a bank feed starts later than the period you need, or has gaps, importing statement files fills them:

• Xero: export the Xero CSV, which uses Xero's own statement import columns, and import it into the bank account — see bank statements to Xero.
• QuickBooks Online: export the QuickBooks Online CSV (Date, Description, Amount) — see bank statements to QuickBooks.
• Spreadsheets: Excel with a Summary sheet by category and month, useful for a Self Assessment return or a mortgage application.

Check before you import

Every statement is checked against its own figures: start balance plus money in, minus money out, must equal the end balance, and the balance column is checked wherever it's printed. If something doesn't add up, you see which rows on which page to look at, and you can correct them before exporting. Statements that don't balance use no pages (up to 30 pages a month). For other UK banks, see all bank guides or the HSBC UK guide.

Questions