Convert Wells Fargo statements to Excel

Three download windows at Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo keeps statements much longer than it lets you download raw activity, and the limits differ by account type. According to its account activity FAQs and statement FAQs:

To download activity, choose Download Account Activity under the Accounts tab, confirm the From and To dates, select Comma Delimited (ASCII, Spreadsheet) and click Download. If that file covers the dates you need, upload it here instead of PDFs — CSV, QFX and QBO uploads use no pages, though you need a plan or page pack to export them.

Why there's only 90 days of card activity

Wells Fargo says credit card account histories are available for up to 90 days or 300 transactions. That's enough to catch up on last month, but not to build a year of business expenses or answer a lender who wants twelve months of card spending.

The card statements themselves stay online for two years. Download the monthly PDFs for the period you need and convert them together: you get one Excel file in date order, with a category on each purchase. See credit card statements to Excel for how card statements are handled.

How a Wells Fargo bank statement is laid out

A Wells Fargo checking statement starts with a summary of the period — beginning balance, deposits, withdrawals, ending balance — followed by the transaction history. Deposits and withdrawals sit in separate columns, checks carry a check number, and the balance column shows an ending daily balance on the last transaction of each day rather than on every line.

Dates are printed as month and day, and the year comes from the statement period. When you convert, the two amount columns become one signed amount (negative for withdrawals), every date gets its year — including statements that run from December into January — and the ending daily balances are checked wherever they're printed.

Wells Fargo statements into QuickBooks

Business accounts can download activity as a QuickBooks (Web Connect) file directly from Wells Fargo, with an extended time frame beyond 90 days on the Account Activity page. For anything older, for personal accounts and for card statements, convert the PDFs:

• QuickBooks Online: export the QuickBooks Online CSV (Date, Description, Amount) and upload it to the bank account in QuickBooks — see importing bank statements into QuickBooks Online.
• QuickBooks Desktop: export a .qbo Web Connect file and open it in QuickBooks.
• More on both in bank statements to QuickBooks.

A year of statements in one workbook

Tax preparers, mortgage brokers and bookkeepers catching up a client usually need twelve months at once. Select all the statements you converted and export them together, optionally limited to a date range: one Excel file with a Transactions sheet and a Summary sheet totaling money in and out by category and by month.

Statements from a client's checking account and their Wells Fargo card can go into the same export. For the general method, see how to convert a bank statement PDF to Excel.

What the balance check catches

Long statements with many card purchases are where copying goes wrong: a line lost at a page break, a deposit read as a withdrawal. Each converted statement must add up from its beginning balance to its ending balance; if it doesn't, the rows to look at are flagged with their page number and you can fix them in the review screen. A statement that doesn't balance uses no pages (up to 30 pages a month). Other US banks are covered in all bank guides.

Questions