Bank statement to FreshBooks.
Reconciled before you import.
Convert a PDF bank statement into the simple Date, Description, Amount CSV that FreshBooks bank reconciliation imports, reconciled against the printed balances first so the opening balance you set in FreshBooks and the rows you import agree with the bank.
Drop your bank statements here
One file or a whole year. PDF, scanned image, CSV, QIF or OFX. Up to 12 files at a time; long PDFs are split for you.
Not ready to upload your own? See a sample result
5 pages free, no account. The QuickBooks CSV download appears on the results page.
Step by step: PDF statement to FreshBooks
- Drop the statement on the home page and confirm the balance check is green.
- Click QuickBooks CSV. It is a three-column file, Date, Description and Amount, with money out negative and no blank cells, which is the layout FreshBooks describes as its one-column amount option.
- In FreshBooks: open Accounting, then the bank account you are reconciling (create it first under Bank Reconciliation if it does not exist), and set its opening balance to the statement's opening balance and date.
- Under Unreconciled Bank Transactions choose Add Bank Transaction, then Import from File, and pick the CSV.
- Match Date, Description and Amount to the file's columns, choose 1 Column for the amount format and month, day, year for the date format, then Import Transactions. FreshBooks allows up to 500 transactions per file and can take several minutes.
- Reconcile the imported lines against your FreshBooks expenses and invoices. The account balance after the last row should match the printed closing balance.
What usually goes wrong, and how this avoids it
- FreshBooks rejects a CSV with empty cells or with mixed date formats. The three-column export has a value in every cell and one date format throughout.
- A bank's own export often lists newest first; FreshBooks wants the rows in chronological order. Converted rows are always in date order.
- The 500-transaction cap per file means a busy annual statement needs splitting. Convert month by month and import one CSV per month.
FreshBooks questions
Why the QuickBooks CSV and not the plain CSV for FreshBooks?
FreshBooks wants a header row of Date, Amount and optionally Description and Category, with no other columns and no blank cells. The plain CSV has Balance and Category columns that can be blank on some rows and would fail the import. The three-column file matches FreshBooks' own example exactly.
Does FreshBooks import bank statements in OFX or QBO?
No. As of September 2026 FreshBooks imports bank transactions from a CSV file or through a live bank connection, and it does not read OFX, QFX or QBO. The CSV route is the only file import.
How do I set the opening balance in FreshBooks?
From the statement. The converted Summary shows the printed opening balance and the period start date; enter those under the bank account's reconciliation settings before importing, so FreshBooks's running balance lines up with the bank's from the first row.