Convert NatWest statements to Xero.
Checked against the printed balances first.
NatWest prints Paid in before Withdrawn, the reverse of the signed Amount column Xero expects; columns are read by heading, so the Xero CSV still carries money out as negative.
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 Xero download appears on the results page.
Download the statement from NatWest
- Log in to NatWest (or Royal Bank of Scotland) Online Banking and select 'Statements' from the top menu. Business customers see it as 'Statements & transactions'.
- Choose the account, then the statement you want from the list. NatWest holds up to seven years online.
- Click 'View' to open it, then the download or save icon to keep the PDF.
- In the app: tap the account, then 'Statements', pick the month and tap the share icon to save the PDF.
Then drop the file above. Several months at once is fine; each statement comes back as its own .csv file.
Before you upload: is the PDF password-protected?
NatWest and RBS statement PDFs are not password-protected. The same applies to Ulster Bank statements produced on the NatWest Group platform.
NatWest and Xero
NatWest prints Paid in before Withdrawn, the reverse of the signed Amount column Xero expects; columns are read by heading, so the Xero CSV still carries money out as negative. Multi-line Faster Payment references are joined into one Description, which Xero's bank rules can match on.
From the transactions screen you can search by date and then 'Export', with OFX offered for Money, Quicken and Sage, and CSV for Excel. There is no PDF-to-CSV of the statement itself; the export is the transaction search result, so it lacks the printed opening and closing balances and the descriptions are often cut shorter than on the statement. Credit card transactions can only be viewed and exported for the last three months. When the numbers have to agree with a statement, or you need the full reference on a Faster Payment, converting the statement PDF is the better option.
Import into Xero
- Drop the statement on the home page and confirm the balance check is green.
- Click Xero.
- In Xero: Accounting → Bank accounts → the account → Manage Account → Import a Statement.
- Upload the CSV. Xero recognises the columns; confirm and import.
- Reconcile as usual. The statement balance in Xero should match the printed closing balance.
What usually goes wrong
- Multi-line descriptions are merged into one row; the row count is checked against the printed number of transactions.
- Xero's importer is strict about date format and stops on the first bad row; ours uses the format Xero documents.
- Positive/negative convention: Xero wants money out negative. Bank PDFs print it positive in a "Withdrawals" column. We convert.
- Missing statements create reconciliation gaps for years. Convert a whole year at once and the batch Summary shows which months balanced.
None of this is bank-specific configuration. The balance check catches these cases for every bank; this list just explains what you will see on a NatWest file.
NatWest and Xero questions
What do NatWest abbreviations like D/D, BAC, OTR and POS stand for?
D/D is a direct debit, S/O a standing order, BAC a BACS credit or debit, OTR an online or telephone transfer, POS a debit card purchase, C/L a cash withdrawal, CHG a bank charge and INT interest. stmtai keeps the code from the Type column at the front of the description so you can filter on it later.
Why are Paid in and Withdrawn the wrong way round compared with my other banks?
They are not wrong, just NatWest's order. Columns are read by their headings rather than their position, so credits land in Money in and debits in Money out regardless of which the bank prints first. The output has the same column order for every bank, which makes it easier to stack several accounts into one workbook.
Why CSV and not OFX for Xero?
Xero imports CSV and OFX. CSV lets you see and fix descriptions before import, and it is the format Xero recommends for statements that did not come from a feed.
Can I import several months at once?
Yes. Convert up to 12 statements together and download the merged CSV, or one CSV per statement.
Can I get NatWest transactions into Xero without the bank's own export?
Yes. Download the statement PDF from NatWest, drop it on this page and wait for the balance check, which compares the rows with the balances printed on the statement. Then download the Xero file and import it with the steps above. No NatWest template is involved; the statement is read the way a person reads it, and the balance check is what tells you the rows are complete.