Importing your bank CSV

Bank imports are the fastest route to accurate books. Instead of typing transactions in one at a time, you bring them in exactly as the bank recorded them. GBooks Air's Smart-Mapper was built with the actual, messy reality of Canadian bank exports in mind.

Step 1: Export a CSV from your bank

Log in to online banking and look for Download, Export, or Statement download on your account activity page. Pick CSV (sometimes it's labelled "Excel/CSV" or "Comma-delimited"). A few common spots:

• TD — Accounts → select account → Download (this exports a headerless CSV, and GBooks Air handles that automatically)
• RBC — Account details → Download transactions
• Scotiabank — Account activity → Export
• BMO / CIBC / Tangerine / credit unions — usually under account activity or statements, look for a CSV or "spreadsheet" option

Grab as wide a date range as you can. Importing a full year at once is fine — duplicates get caught automatically, so overlapping exports won't double-count anything.

Step 2: Run the Smart-Mapper

In GBooks Air, go to Transactions → Import CSV and drop your file in. From there the Smart-Mapper:

1. Detects headers, or their absence. A lot of banks (TD in particular) export raw rows with no header line at all. The mapper looks at the actual data, recognizes date-shaped, amount-shaped, and text columns, and maps them even without headers to go on.
2. Reads dates the way your bank writes them. DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, ISO dates — all recognized. Anything genuinely ambiguous gets flagged for you to confirm instead of silently guessed.
3. Handles both amount layouts — a single signed column, or separate debit/credit columns.
4. Shows you a preview. You see exactly how the first few rows will import before any of it gets saved.

Step 3: Review and categorize

Imported transactions land in the review queue with the bank's original description intact. Categorize each one, and let Smart Vendor Rules pick up the slack over time — a typical month of transactions takes a few minutes once your regular vendors have rules attached.

Duplicates, transfers, and other realities

• Duplicates get flagged (same date, amount, similar description) rather than quietly dropped, so you make the final call yourself.
• Transfers between your own accounts should be categorized as a transfer on both sides, so they don't end up inflating your income or expenses.
• Personal spending on a business card should get categorized to owner's draw or personal, so it stays out of your P&L.