Learn about the most common errors encountered when importing bank files and what you can do to resolve the issue.
'Invalid date' error
This error usually happens when uploading a CSV file that has been previously opened in Excel.
To prevent this error, upload the file to PocketSmith directly after downloading it from your bank. Do not open the file on your computer before uploading.
Read more: 'Invalid date' error when importing a CSV file.
'Import failed due to date detection error' with a CSV file
PocketSmith will try to automatically detect the date format of your file, but if there are too few transactions to compare, it may not be able to determine the date format.
Exporting and uploading a bank file with a broader range of transaction dates within a month will usually fix this error.
Data is malformed
If you receive an error that 'Data is malformed', this indicates that the file is incorrectly formatted.
First, we recommend re-exporting the file from your bank and ensuring it is not opened or edited before importing it into PocketSmith.
Import failed because there were no transactions to import
This error normally occurs if the date of the transactions within the file are the same as the dates of transactions already within PocketSmith for this account and the overlapping option selected is Leave transactions on overlapping dates out
This can be fixed by changing the overlapping option when importing the file but be aware of deleting existing transactions.
Import failed due to an unknown error
This error can occur due to an incorrectly selected CSV format or due to various formatting errors within the file.
Read more: Import failed due to an unknown error
Expense transactions are showing as income after importing a bank file
If you've imported a bank file and notice that the transactions are showing expenses as income, and income as expenses, this is likely due to the way the bank has listed the transaction amounts in the bank file.
The good news is this is really easy to fix, and you can be fixed by choosing the Amounts in this statement file are reversed option when importing the file.
Transaction dates are incorrect after importing a bank file
When importing CSV and QIF bank files, PocketSmith will try to work out the date format that has been uploaded without asking you for additional input.
If the file has been opened in Excel before importing, PocketSmith may import transactions with the incorrect date format.
The easiest fix is to re-download the file and import it into PocketSmith without opening it in any application first.
Are you still having trouble? 🛟
Please get in touch, and include a copy of the file causing the trouble. This will help us investigate further.