Connect an account and import your bank statement in SamBooks

Today, bank transactions get into SamBooks by uploading your bank statement file: here is how to connect the account and import the file step by step, with every supported format.

What this is for

The Bank page (Finance → Bank in the left menu) is where SamBooks reconciles your bookkeeping with what actually happened on your bank account. To do that it needs to know what moved on the account, and today the only way to tell it is to upload the bank statement file exported from your online banking (CSV, Excel, or the standard banking formats CAMT.053 and MT940).

Automatic bank connection is not active yet. On the Bank page you will see a «Connect bank» button, but clicking it today only opens a notice — «Bank connection coming soon» — explaining that the integration is being built. Nothing else happens: no data is downloaded, no consent is requested. Until it goes live, the only way to bring your bank's transactions into SamBooks is importing the statement file, and that is exactly what this guide covers: connecting an account so you can import a file into it, then importing the file itself.

Once imported, transactions still need to be reconciled with your bookkeeping: that next step (matching each transaction to an invoice, a due item, or a new journal entry) is described in Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks — this guide stops once the data is inside SamBooks.

Before you start

• You need the bank statement file exported from your online banking, in one of these formats: CSV, Excel (.xlsx), CAMT.053 (.xml) or MT940 (.sta, .txt, .mt940). The file cannot exceed 15 MB.
• You need a cash or bank account already set up in SamBooks (a bank account, a cash drawer, a card...): if you haven't created one yet, the first step below shows you how.
• Only users with the Manager or Administrative role can import bank statements and manage cash/bank accounts. Users with the Viewer or Logistics role can see the Bank page but cannot perform these actions (the attempt is rejected).

Step by step

1. Open the Bank page

From the left menu go to Finance → Bank. At the top you'll find two tabs: Accounting (the account ledger, open by default) and Bank transactions (the queue of transactions waiting to be reconciled). Above the tabs, always visible in both, is the action bar with Reconcile now, Import bank statement, Cash & bank accounts and Connect bank (plus Close due item or Import history, depending on which tab is open).

2. Check that you have a cash or bank account

If you already have a bank or cash account connected, skip to step 4. Otherwise click Cash & bank accounts: a list opens with every account (bank, cash, POS, credit card, PayPal, Stripe, Wise, financing, cheque account, other) you already have in SamBooks.

If the list is empty or missing the account you need, click Add account: the New cash/bank account window opens. Fill in:

• Account type (Bank, Cash, POS, Credit card, PayPal, Stripe, Wise, Financing, Cheque account or Other) — for every type except «Other», SamBooks creates the matching sub-account in the chart of accounts by itself (banks and cards go under 1.35.05, cash drawers under 1.35.15); for «Other» you point it to an existing sub-account.
• Description (required, e.g. «Intesa current account»).
• Optional fields: Bank, Account holder, IBAN (encrypted: the list only shows the last 4 digits), BIC/SWIFT, Code, and the Default checkbox if you want it proposed first when recording collections and payments.

Confirm with Create. The new account appears in the list right away.

3. Connect the account so you can import a file into it

A newly created account has no bank connection yet: in the list you'll see the Manual badge once it's connected, or nothing if it isn't yet. For an account that is NOT connected, its row shows a chain icon, Link manually: click it to open the Link manually window, where you can enter a Name and an IBAN (both optional) and confirm with Connect.

This step creates a «manual» bank connection — meaning without the bank's consent — that only serves to make the account available in the destination list when you import a file later. It downloads nothing from the bank: the file itself is what brings the data in.

4. Start the import

Click Import bank statement in the action bar above the tabs (it works from either tab). In the window that opens, drag the file in or click to pick it from your computer: CSV, Excel (.xlsx), CAMT.053 (.xml) and MT940 (.sta, .txt, .mt940) are accepted, up to 15 MB.

5. Check the preview

After the upload, SamBooks shows a panel with the file name, the recognised format, the number of transactions found, and a balance-check badge: Matches, Doesn't match or Balances unavailable (the last one for files that don't carry balances, typically CSV/Excel). For CAMT.053 or MT940 files you also see the opening and closing balances declared by the bank.

Below the preview you'll see the first rows of transactions (date, description, amount) with a note of how many more there are.

6. For CSV/Excel files: check the column mapping

When you upload a tabular file (CSV or Excel), SamBooks tries to recognise on its own which columns hold the date, amount, description and so on, but it always shows you the mapping editor to confirm — even when the automatic detection already succeeded. If it couldn't detect the columns at all, you'll see the notice «I couldn't automatically recognise the columns: fill them in above and refresh the preview».

The available fields are: Transaction date (required), Value date, Amount (signed) or the pair Outgoing/Debit and Incoming/Credit (if your file uses two separate columns instead of one signed amount), Description, Extended description (optional — useful for statements, like Intesa's, that carry a short description plus a second, more detailed text field: SamBooks merges the two), Counterparty and Counterparty IBAN. Below that you'll also find Date format (dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd), Amount format (1,234.56 English-style or 1.234,56 Italian-style) and Header row (to skip any title rows before the actual data). After correcting the mapping, click Refresh preview to recalculate the recognised transactions. CAMT.053 and MT940 files don't need mapping: their structure is already standard.

7. Choose the destination account

In the Bank account (required) dropdown, pick the cash/bank account you want to import the transactions into (the one you connected in step 3). If the list is empty you'll see the notice «No cash or bank account: create one from "Cash & bank accounts"» — go back to step 2.

If the file does NOT carry balances (typically CSV or Excel), an optional Statement closing balance field also appears: fill it in if you know it, so SamBooks can check that the imported transactions add up to the right balance.

8. Import

Click Import N transactions (the number is how many transactions were found; the button stays disabled until you've picked an account). After a few seconds you'll see the result, with four side-by-side numbers:

• Imported — the new transactions just created.
• Duplicates — transactions matching a previous import, not recreated.
• Reconciled — transactions for which SamBooks already found and linked a matching journal entry.
• To confirm — matching proposals found but waiting for your confirmation.

From here you can click Import another file to repeat the operation with a second file, or Close to return to the Bank page. Transactions still waiting to be reconciled or confirmed are in the Bank transactions tab: the next step (matching or recording them) is described in Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks.

Re-uploading the same file by mistake: what happens

SamBooks recognises duplicates positionally — same date, same amount and same relative order among identical transactions on the same day — not by the text of the description. This means two useful things: if you upload the same file a second time you always get «Imported: 0, Duplicates: N», regardless of the row order in the file; and if you genuinely have two distinct transactions on the same day with the same amount (say, two identical POS payments), SamBooks keeps both as separate transactions — it doesn't discard one as if it were a duplicate.

If your format isn't supported

Some banks still export the fixed-width 120-character CBI format: SamBooks recognises it but cannot import it, and tells you so with an explicit message inviting you to export the statement as CSV, Excel or CAMT.053 from your online banking instead — almost every bank offers at least one of these alternative formats.

Reviewing past imports

From the Bank transactions tab you'll find the Import history button: it opens a list of every file uploaded, the date, and for each one how many transactions were imported, how many were duplicates and how many were already reconciled. Handy for checking whether you've already imported a given month's statement before doing it again.

Ask Sam

Once the file has been uploaded from the UI, you can ask Sam to take care of the rest: it can fix the column mapping of an import you've already uploaded («Sam, in my last import the extended description isn't being picked up, use column G») and it can apply the import to actually create the transactions («Sam, apply the import I just uploaded to the Intesa current account»). It can also create a manual bank account for you if you tell it which sub-account to link it to, and show you the list of past imports and the transactions they generated.

One thing stays manual-only: uploading the file itself. The file has to pass a security scan before SamBooks reads it, so it always has to be dragged or picked from the import window — you can't send it to Sam in chat and ask it to upload it for you.

If something goes wrong

• «File too large (max 15 MB)» — the file exceeds the limit: if your statement covers a very long period, try exporting a shorter date range from your online banking.
• CBI format cannot be imported — see the dedicated section above: export as CSV, Excel or CAMT.053 instead.
• «No cash or bank account: create one from "Cash & bank accounts"» — you don't have a connected account yet: go back to step 2 of this guide.
• Columns not recognised in a CSV/Excel file — use the mapping editor from step 6 to set them manually.
• The import fails with an error — a notice appears with an Upload another file button: check that the file isn't corrupted and try again; if the problem persists with several files from the same online banking, try exporting in a different format.
• The badge says «Doesn't match» — it doesn't block the import, it just warns you that the sum of the transactions doesn't exactly reach the closing balance you entered or the one the file declares: this can happen, for instance, if the statement covers a different period than the balances. You can still import and double-check by hand.

Frequently asked questions

How do I upload my bank statement into SamBooks? From the Bank page click «Import bank statement», choose the file (CSV, Excel, CAMT.053 or MT940) and follow the preview through to «Import N transactions». First make sure you have a connected cash/bank account — see steps 2 and 3 above.

Can I connect my bank account automatically, without uploading a file? Not yet: direct bank connection (Open Banking) is being built but isn't active. Today the only way is importing the bank statement file.

Which statement formats can I import? CSV, Excel (.xlsx), CAMT.053 (.xml) and MT940 (.sta, .txt, .mt940), up to 15 MB. The fixed-width 120-character CBI format is recognised but cannot be imported.

I uploaded the same file twice by mistake — does it duplicate the transactions? No: SamBooks recognises they were already imported and marks them as duplicates instead of recreating them.

I can't find my account in the list when importing It needs to be a cash/bank account already created and linked manually (the «Link manually» icon in the Cash & bank accounts list) — see steps 2 and 3.

My online banking only exports a 120-character file, why doesn't SamBooks accept it? That's the fixed-width CBI format: SamBooks recognises it but doesn't import it yet. Look in your online banking for an export as CSV, Excel or CAMT.053 — almost every bank offers one.

Can I ask Sam to import the bank statement for me? Sam can fix the mapping and apply an import you've already uploaded from the UI, but uploading the file itself stays a manual step (it has to pass the file security check).

Related guides

• Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks — what to do with transactions after the import.
• Read the bank ledger in SamBooks — the accounting view of cash/bank accounts after reconciliation.
• Open items and due dates in SamBooks — the due items a newly imported transaction can close.