A monthly routine for statement-only accounts

Say your checking account is at a bank Pennyweight can't link, so once a month you download the statement and hand it to your AI. Each month's import keeps the account complete: new transactions go in, the ones already there are skipped, and you check the balance against the statement.

Before your first month

Add the account, and give it the balance it held at the start of your first statement. Your AI can do both. A manual account can't take an import until it has an opening balance, and the starting balance on the web form doesn't count as one. See use Pennyweight without a bank link and set or correct an opening balance.

How to do it

1. Get the statement. Once the month has closed, download the statement from your bank, as a PDF or a CSV.
2. Hand it to your AI. Attach the file and name the account it belongs to. Your AI reads it and sends Pennyweight the transactions, converting the dates as it goes, so you don't need to edit the file. See import a PDF or screenshot statement or import a CSV export.
3. Read the preview. Your AI tells you which rows are new, which are already in the account and which need a look. Nothing is saved yet. See reading an import preview.
4. Say yes. Your AI saves the import, reports how many rows went in and lists every skipped row with the reason.
5. Check the balance. Ask your AI for the account's balance and compare it with the closing balance on the statement. If it's off by a fixed amount, the opening balance is usually wrong. See reconcile an account against a statement.
6. Check the categories. Your active rules categorize matching transactions as the import is saved, and a rule's category wins over one the statement carried. A rule you make later doesn't change transactions already saved. To sort those, ask your AI to apply your rules to transactions you already have.

To see which months you've covered, ask your AI for your imports. Each one lists the account it went into, the dates it covered and how many transactions it added.

What you'll see

If some rows are already in the account from an earlier import covering the same dates, Pennyweight first warns your AI that this looks like a re-import and that those rows will be skipped. Your AI tells you which transactions were already there, flags any row that needs a look, and asks before saving. After you confirm, it reports how many transactions were added and lists the skipped ones.

For your list of imports, your AI gives each one's account and its dates or its number of transactions. Pennyweight saves the transactions, not the file.

Good to know

• Overlapping statements are safe for exact repeats. A row with the same date, the same amount to the cent, the same currency and the same merchant as a transaction already in the account is skipped. Capitals don't matter in merchant names, and any run of spaces or punctuation counts as one break between words: "Whole-Foods" matches "Whole Foods", but "WholeFoods" and "Joe's" don't match "Whole Foods" and "Joes".
• Reworded merchants and moved dates aren't skipped. If your bank words a merchant differently from last time, the repeat is flagged for a look and imported unless you say to skip it. If the date differs, it isn't matched at all. Check the preview before you confirm.
• Only that account is checked. A statement imported into the wrong account isn't flagged. If that happens, undo the import and import the file again into the right account. Removed transactions can be restored for 30 days.
• The preview's balance change counts every row, including the ones that will be skipped as duplicates. Check the balance after saving.
• The first opening balance stays. Once an import has set the account's opening balance, a later import's figure isn't applied. To change it, ask your AI to correct the opening balance.
• One account per import. If a statement covers two accounts, your AI imports each part into its own account.
• Outside the US? Find your region's tips in use Pennyweight without a bank link.