Question 1

Does ExtractPro work with South African banks?

Accepted Answer

Yes. These are the steps to get a statement from three South African banks, each taken from the bank’s own help pages. For FNB in the app, the steps are “Login to the FNB App”, “Select Statements”, “Choose which account you would like to view” and “Select the month for which you want to view the statement”, then “Click download icon to save verified statement onto your smartphone”. FNB says you can open the file from your cellphone files or “use a PDF viewer”. For Standard Bank, the Banking App page starts with “Get your stamped bank statements, confirmation letters and more on your Banking App”, and its steps include “Go to your home screen”, “Scroll down to Your documents and tap VIEW & SAVE” and “Tap the 6-Month statement option”. For Absa in Online Banking, the steps are “Choose a date range from the dropdown menu” and “Click or tap Download and Print”, and Absa says “A new window will open with a PDF that you can save or print”. If what you downloaded is a PDF or an Excel file (.xlsx, .xls), upload it to ExtractPro and you get back an Excel file with one transaction per row.

Question 2

How far back can I get old statements, what do they cost, and how long do I have to keep them?

Accepted Answer

Each bank sets its own window and its own fees. FNB says its business accounts include “Your last 12 stamped statements available on Online Banking or on the FNB App”. FNB’s business pricing guide lists “No charge” for “Your recent 12 stamped statements available online or on the FNB App”, and “R12.60 per statement” for “Historical statements”. In the Standard Bank app you can “Tap the 6-Month statement option” or “Scroll down to Previous statements to get a history of monthly statements for your account”. Standard Bank’s business pricing guide has a row for “3 Month Stamped Statements” marked “Free” in the “Online Banking/Mobile App” column. Nedbank says “You can download your bank statements from the last 3 months for free” and “A fee of R11 applies for each statement older than 3 months”. Absa says “Please note that there are additional costs when downloading a stamped statement”, and its business banking brochure says “All statements or proof of payment (POP) older than three months retrieved on your behalf will cost R95.00 per statement/POP”. Absa’s page on stamped statements has a list headed “Who accepts stamped statements?” that includes “SARS”. SARS (sars.gov.za) says “A person must keep records, books of account or documents”, and for “A person who has submitted a return” it gives “Five years: counting from the date of submission of a return until the last day of the period”.

Question 3

If my bank offers an export, when does converting the statement help?

Accepted Answer

When what you have is the statement itself, such as the stamped copy a bank issues, or when the period you need sits outside the window of the file you can export. For business customers, FNB’s Online Banking Enterprise help says “Scheduled Exports can be set up per transactional account for Transaction History, Interim Statements and/or your final Statements”, and its list of statement types includes “Statement Type - CSV” and “Statement Type - OFX”. For business customers, Standard Bank’s Online Banking for Business guide says “File exports allow users to download their account transactions, or payment data in various formats (such as OFX | CSV | PDF | EXCEL | QFX | QBO)” and “The client can choose from several export options, including CSV, OFX, QFX, QBO, PDF, and XLSX”, and it does not say how far back the export goes. Separately, Absa’s help on viewing older transactions says “Choose a date range from the dropdown menu or pick a custom start and end date”. Xero’s page for South Africa says that, when setting up an automated bank feed, “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”. If you have the statement for an earlier period, or one a client sent you, upload it as it is.

Question 4

How do I use the Excel file for bank reconciliation?

Accepted Answer

The ExtractPro Excel file has one transaction per row, with date, description and amount in separate columns (and the balance, when the statement shows it) and amounts as numbers. With the custom format you split amounts into two columns, debit and credit, and choose the column order, the date format and whether to download Excel or CSV. With that file you match each bank transaction against your records, in a spreadsheet or in your accounting software. SARS (sars.gov.za) says “A person must keep records, books of account or documents”, so keep the original statement as well.

Question 5

Is my banking data secure?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We process your statements in memory and keep a copy for a limited time, in private storage, for support and to improve conversion; it isn’t shared with anyone. Because our copy is not an archive, keep the original statement file with your own records. SARS (sars.gov.za) says “A person must keep records, books of account or documents”.

Question 6

How many conversions can I do for free?

Accepted Answer

The Free plan includes 2 conversions per month, no card required: sign up with your email or Google account and convert straight away. For more volume there are paid plans, with no commitment. Paid plans are priced in US$, not in rand.

Question 7

How do I cancel? Is there a commitment?

Accepted Answer

No commitment. You cancel yourself from your account in under a minute: go to Account and select “Cancel subscription”. You keep the plan until the end of the period you’ve already paid for, then move to the free plan. No paperwork, no penalty. Cancelling does not affect the Excel files you have already downloaded, or the statements at your bank: FNB, for one, says its business accounts include “Your last 12 stamped statements available on Online Banking or on the FNB App”.

Convert your bank statement to Excel for bank reconciliation

Secure

Built for firms

Accurate

How it works

Upload your statement

We organise it

Download the Excel file

What your Excel file contains

One transaction per row

Amounts as numbers

Dates as dates

Your file is not shared

Simple pricing

Starter

Professional

Business

Frequently asked questions

Supported banks

South Africa guides