How to Download and Import Credit Card Transactions into Register

Applies to Excel templates: "Georges Budget for Excel", "Georges Excel Checkbook Register", "Georges Excel Checkbook for Mac"

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Why download and import credit card transactions?

Many credit card companies or financial institutions allow you to download credit card account transactions from your online credit card account. The credit card transactions can be downloaded into a .csv (comma separated values) file format which can be opened in an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, imported or copied into an Excel register or another budget software program, thereby allowing you to keep track of your credit card transactions, reconcile your credit card account, create a budget, categorize your transactions, and create budget reports and charts to see how you are managing your expenses. Downloading and importing credit card transactions can save you time so you do not have to manually enter each credit card transaction into a register.

Help Topic: Importing Credit Card Transactions into Account Registers from Credit Card Company

  • Importing transactions into the Registers is done manually. Note: It is best to enter transactions in the Registers as they happen so that the Registers, reports and charts will have the most current data.
  • Follow these general guidelines to import transactions from online banking or another financial institution into a Register.
    1. Download the needed transactions from the online website into a format that can be opened by Excel such as comma separated values (csv).
    2. Open the downloaded transaction file in Excel and format the downloaded transactions to be in the same column order / data types as the Register. Delete any unnecessary data. You need to verify that there are no duplicated transactions, that are already in the Registers.
    3. Make sure that the file of the downloaded transactions and Georges Budget for Excel or Georges Excel Checkbook Register or Georges Excel Checkbook for Mac are opened in the same instance / session of Excel.
    4. Make sure there are no error(s) in the Register as noted in the Balance Column and Cell L2 of the Register.
    5. Copy the data to the Register. (When copying data, you must use Copy and then Paste Special and then Values. See Important Help Topic: How to copy data in Excel registers.) Copy the data to the first available row (starting from the top of the Register) that has no data in it and no data below it. Verify that the Amount column for the transactions copied into the credit card registers are in the proper format (positive vs negative amounts) as required by the Excel checkbook software.
    6. Once the transactions are in the Register, add categories and any other data that is needed.

 

 

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