Import a bank statement into a UAE Xero organisation

A Xero organisation in the United Arab Emirates can take bank lines from a feed or from a file. On the question of a PDF, the two Xero pages that apply give different answers, so this guide follows the CSV route that Xero Central documents. It sets the two pages side by side, quotes what the regional page says about feeds, lists what Xero asks of a CSV, and ends with the ExtractPro settings that write one.

What the two Xero pages say about PDF

Xero Central’s article on PDF statements says “PDF bank statement imports are currently only available in Xero organizations in Canada and the United States.” It goes on “If your bank has the option to export statements in OFX format, we recommend using this format over PDF.” Source: Import a PDF bank statement – Xero Central, central.xero.com/s/article/Import-a-PDF-bank-statement, accessed 12 October 2026.

The Xero page for the United Arab Emirates on connecting a bank lists “Export bank data from your online banking in OFX, QIF, QBO, QFX, or CSV formats” for the file route, and the same page also tells the reader to export from online banking in those formats “or download a PDF, then upload the file into Xero”. Source: Connect Your Bank to Xero: Save Time With Bank Feeds | Xero AE, www.xero.com/ae/accounting-software/connect-your-bank/, accessed 12 October 2026.

The two pages do not agree about PDF, and this guide does not settle which one applies to your organisation. It follows the CSV route that Xero Central documents, because that article covers both what the file must contain and the steps of the import.

What the Xero page for the United Arab Emirates says about feeds

Feeds get a passage of their own: “When setting up an automated bank feed in Xero, you’ll be given the option to pull historical transaction data from the past 90 days or up to 2 years, depending on the bank.” and “Import up to 12 months of historical data when you first connect.” Where a feed has not reached far enough back, a CSV made from the statement is a way to fill the gap. Source: Connect Your Bank to Xero: Save Time With Bank Feeds | Xero AE, www.xero.com/ae/accounting-software/connect-your-bank/, accessed 12 October 2026.

What Xero asks of the CSV file

• Fields: “You only need the Date and Amount fields to create bank statement lines, but reconciling your transactions is easier if you include more detail.”
• Signs: “Show income as positive amounts and expenses as negative amounts using a negative sign in front of the amount or with brackets, for example -30.00 or (30.00). Don't use commas to show decimal places.”
• Dates: the example Xero gives is “DD/MM/YYYY (eg 15/01/2023)”.
• Balances: the article also names “Columns containing opening and closing balances, as Xero calculates the bank balance from the transactions”, and the settings below leave those columns out.
• Size: “You can’t import a CSV file with more than 100,000 rows.”

Source: Import a bank statement in CSV format – Xero Central, central.xero.com/s/article/Import-a-CSV-bank-statement, accessed 12 October 2026.

Choosing the ExtractPro settings

With a converted statement open, set the panel as follows, top to bottom:

1. 1Open the Output format section, choose See more formats or customise, then pick Custom.
2. 2Set File type to CSV.
3. 3Set Date format to DD/MM/YYYY (15/01/2026), the order of Xero’s own example.
4. 4Under Amounts choose Single column (signed), so that a payment out carries a minus sign and a receipt carries none, all within one column.
5. 5Under Include balance leave Add Balance column unticked, and leave Categories unticked too, so each line is a date, a description and an amount.
6. 6Choose Comma (,) as CSV separator and Decimal point, no separator (1234.56) as Number format, so that no amount carries a comma or a space.
7. 7Choose Apply format, then download the CSV.

Loading it into Xero

Xero Central’s CSV article lays out the import. It starts with “From the Accounting menu, select Bank accounts.” Then, on the account the lines belong to, “For the relevant bank account, click the menu icon, then select Import a Statement.” If a date prompt appears, the article says “If prompted, select the date format used in your bank statement”; choose DD/MM/YYYY, which is what the ExtractPro setting writes. The last step is “Click Complete import.” Source: Import a bank statement in CSV format – Xero Central, central.xero.com/s/article/Import-a-CSV-bank-statement, accessed 12 October 2026.

Keep the statement and the CSV side by side: the same transactions should appear, and their total should equal the movement over the period. Once Xero has loaded the lines, make the same comparison again.

Frequently asked questions

The questions that come up most: