Import a statement from your phone

On your phone, you can send your AI a photo of a paper statement, a screenshot of your banking app, or a PDF, and ask it to add the transactions to one of your Pennyweight accounts. Your AI reads the file and sends Pennyweight the rows. You see a preview first, and nothing is saved until you say yes.

Before you start

The account must already exist in Pennyweight. If it doesn't, ask your AI to add a manual account first, with the balance it held at the start of the statement.

Whether you can attach a photo or a file to a message depends on your AI app.

How to do it

1. In your AI app, attach the photo, screenshot or PDF to your message.
2. Ask your AI to add the transactions, and name the account they belong to.
3. Your AI reads the rows and asks Pennyweight for a preview.
4. Check the preview and any flagged rows, then say yes. Your AI saves the rows.

What you'll see

Your AI shows the preview: how many rows are new, how many look like duplicates and how many need a look, how many rows Pennyweight received, and what the batch does to the account's balance. After you confirm, it reports how many rows were imported and lists any skipped row with the reason. Import a PDF or screenshot statement covers the same steps in more detail, and reading an import preview explains each label.

Good to know

• Pennyweight doesn't get the image. Your AI reads it in your chat and sends the transactions as rows. Pennyweight saves the transactions, not the photo or file.
• Check the count. The preview says how many rows Pennyweight received. Compare it with the number of transactions in your photo before you say yes, and tell your AI if one is missing or misread.
• Dates and amounts. Pennyweight takes dates in YYYY-MM-DD form and amounts as plain numbers, so your AI converts what it reads. If a row breaks one of these, Pennyweight refuses the batch and names the row number.
• Overlapping screenshots. When two screenshots overlap, the shared rows can reach Pennyweight twice. A line that exactly repeats an earlier line in the same import (same date, amount, currency and merchant) is marked as needing a look and is imported by default, because two equal purchases on one day can both be real. Tell your AI to skip the repeats from the overlap. A row that matches a transaction already in the account is a duplicate and is skipped by default.
• The account needs an opening balance. If a manual account has none, Pennyweight won't save the import and tells your AI to ask you for the balance at the start of the statement period. See set or correct an opening balance.
• Long statements. One import call takes up to 5,000 rows, and Pennyweight recommends parts of about 250, so your AI may import a long statement in several parts. Some AI apps can't save files between steps. In that case your AI can keep the rows it has prepared in Pennyweight while it works: encrypted, in parts of up to 300 KB, set to expire after 2 days. Only the rows are kept, not your photo or file. To bring in years of history across several accounts, see import years of history across many accounts.
• One batch, one undo. Every row is tagged with its import, so you can undo an import as a whole.
• Bank in the US? You can link it instead of importing statements. See connect a bank from your phone. Bank linking is US-only.
• Have a CSV? See import a CSV.