Overview
Multi-currency accounts add two common pain points: FX rates and fees. A clean export needs to preserve original currency, settlement currency, and references.
This guide shows how to export transactions, keep the fee breakdown, and produce a CSV that reconciles with payouts and bank balances.
Quick summary:
- PDF statements are usually the most stable source for consistent imports.
- Structured conversion reduces manual cleanup in recurring monthly workflows.
- CSV, Excel, QuickBooks, and Xero can be handled in one process.
3 methods at a glance
KontoCSV
PDF-first conversion with consistent output fields.
Typically ~30 sec per page
Bank export
Native and free, but often limited by period or format.
Typically ~10 min
Manual entry
Works for tiny datasets, scales poorly for multi-page statements.
Typically ~5 min per page
Method 1: KontoCSV (Recommended)
- Automatic parsing of bank-specific PDF structures
- Stable columns for recurring monthly and quarterly runs
- Target profiles for CSV, Excel, QuickBooks, and Xero
- Lower manual correction effort after import
- Use original bank PDFs whenever possible
- Choose target profile explicitly for mixed currency workflows
- Run a short plausibility check before final booking
Method 2: Native banking export
Typical flow:
- Sign in to online banking and open the account
- Select period and open the export section
- Export and validate columns in your target system
Native exports are useful but not always consistent across periods and statement variants. For PDF-heavy bookkeeping, a standardized PDF-to-CSV workflow is often more reliable.
Method 3: Manual entry
Manual copy/paste can work for one-offs but becomes fragile quickly. Error risk rises with each additional page, especially for date, sign, amount, and balance consistency.
Method comparison
KontoCSV
Fast, consistent, and scalable for recurring imports.
Bank export
Free, but often constrained by period and layout changes.
Manual
Best reserved for exceptions, not recurring bookkeeping.
Step-by-step with KontoCSV
1. Export transactions per account / currency
When possible, export native CSV files from the provider dashboard. For archived periods, convert PDFs with KontoCSV to keep tables consistent.
2. Keep FX + fee fields where available
Preserve original currency, converted amount, and fee lines. This makes reconciliation and accounting postings transparent.
3. Import using the right profile and reconcile
Pick an accounting export profile (QuickBooks/Xero) where applicable, then reconcile totals against statements and balances.
Best practices
- Use consistent file naming per client/account and month.
- Validate date, amount, sign, and balance before final posting.
- Keep one output profile per recurring workflow to reduce remapping.
- Separate fees from principal amounts instead of hiding them in net values.
- Use consistent account naming for each currency so you can reconcile faster.
Conclusion
For PDF-based statement workflows, a standardized conversion process is usually the most reliable option for clean, repeatable imports.
It improves consistency across recurring monthly runs and reduces manual follow-up in accounting tools.
Try KontoCSVGerman original (more detail)
For the full German version with deeper context and local wording, open the original article: