Getting a statement file from your bank

Alvenera never connects to your bank, so statements arrive as files you download yourself and open in the app. Every bank offers this in its online banking, usually on the page that lists an account's transactions.

Finding the download#

Look for a button or link named Download, Export or Download transactions. You are asked for a range of dates and a format. The mobile banking app often lacks it; the bank's website on a computer nearly always has it.

Which format to choose#

• OFX is the best choice. It is a standard, it says exactly which account the lines belong to, and it carries the bank's own identifier for each transaction, which makes matching the most reliable.
• QFX is the same format under Quicken's name, and reads the same way.
• CSV works when nothing else is offered. Banks lay CSV files out differently, so the app works out the layout itself — the separator, the columns, how dates and amounts are written, in English or French — and shows you what it found before anything is applied.

If a format is described as being for Microsoft Money or Quicken, it is OFX or QFX.

Which dates to ask for#

From a little before your last import up to today. Ranges that overlap an earlier import are fine: lines already in the ledger come back as matched or duplicate, not as new entries.

Getting the file onto a phone#

On a phone, download the file with the phone's browser and choose it from Downloads when importing. On a computer, save it anywhere and pick it from there. Once imported, the file is no longer needed.