Connections and imports

Connect your Canadian bank to LEDGR, or import a CSV

Can’t connect your bank account? Download a CSV from online banking and follow five steps to check and import your transactions into LEDGR.

By Ledgr Financial Inc. · Revised November 7, 2026

How would you like to bring in your transactions?

Connect through Plaid
Start here when
Your bank and the accounts you need appear in the connection picker.
What LEDGR does
Onboarding can add transactions to your ledger automatically.
What you do next
Compare the ledger with your statement after connecting.
Import a CSV
Start here when
Your bank is missing, the connection fails, or you need more history.
What LEDGR does
CSV imports from Accounts are staged for review. You commit the eligible rows you want.
What you do next
Export and upload again when you want to bring in more activity.

Check your bank before you subscribe

Bank connections may be temporarily unavailable. When the connection flow is open, search for your institution in Plaid and see which accounts it offers before you subscribe. Coverage can differ by account, even within the same bank.

A bank in the list might offer your chequing account but leave out your credit card. Check the accounts you want to use. How far back you can import and how often you’ll need to reconnect depend on the bank.

Read each consent screen before continuing. It lists the access requested for your connection.

Still deciding how to get started? See what LEDGR supports for CSV imports and bank connections.

Check the ledger after you connect

Plaid onboarding can add transactions to your ledger right away, without a separate review step. Open the ledger after connecting and compare it with your statement.

When an import opens in Mapping Studio, check dates, amounts, categories and exclusions before committing. A transfer between your own accounts or a payment to your credit card can appear in both accounts. Leave those movements out of spending. The worked transaction review shows how card payments, refunds and transfers affect spending and balances.

Imports can arrive late or incomplete, and pending activity can change when it posts. Check the ledger against your bank statement before relying on a monthly total.

When your bank is missing, import a CSV

Try one account and one week first. In online banking, look for a download or export option in your transaction history, then choose CSV if it’s offered. Open the file in LEDGR and check the dates and amounts before adding the transactions.

When you want to bring in more activity, download and upload the next date range.

From your bank file to your budget

Here’s what happens with two small exports for the same chequing account. The transactions are fictional. The tables show the results we verified with LEDGR’s importer.

1 · The first CSV file

Date,Description,Amount
2026-04-05,Grocery shop,-86.40
2026-04-06,Coffee shop,-4.50

2 · Check the preview

2 valid transactions from April 5 to 6. Match Date, Description and Amount. For this file, positive amounts mean Money in, so both negative amounts are spending. The preview leaves your ledger untouched.

Sample rows in the preview
Date	Transaction	CAD
2026-04-05	Grocery shop	−$86.40
2026-04-06	Coffee shop	−$4.50

3 · Add the rows you reviewed

Choose your CAD chequing account and review the rows in Mapping Studio. After you confirm both, the ledger contains one grocery shop and one coffee shop charge.

Ledger after the first import
Date	Transaction	CAD
2026-04-05	Grocery shop	−$86.40
2026-04-06	Coffee shop	−$4.50

What if the next file overlaps?

The second CSV file

Date,Description,Amount
2026-04-06,Coffee shop,-4.50
2026-04-08,Bus fare,-3.35

The preview can read 2 valid transactions. When LEDGR checks the same account during import, it finds the April 6 coffee charge already in the ledger. Only the April 8 bus fare is new. Review it before adding it.

Ledger after both imports · 3 transactions
Date	Transaction	CAD
2026-04-05	Grocery shop	−$86.40
2026-04-06	Coffee shop	−$4.50
2026-04-08	Bus fare	−$3.35

The coffee charge still appears once. Check the overlap against your statement, especially when the export has changed or two real purchases look alike.

Figure 1 · A fictional credit card export

1Date,Description,Amount
204/05/2026,GROCERY STORE 0412,86.401 · 2
304/09/2026,PAYMENT - THANK YOU,-250.003
404/12/2026,GROCERY STORE 0412,-12.154
504/18/2026,STREAMING SERVICE,16.99

04/05/2026
April 5 or May 4? The last row settles it. There is no eighteenth month, so this file uses Month / Day.
86.40
This export uses positive amounts for purchases. If LEDGR asks, choose Money out and check the result against a purchase you recognise.
−250.00
This is a card payment. If you also import chequing, the other entry is the same money leaving that account. The payment adds nothing to spending.
−12.15
This is a return to the grocery store. Check that it reduces spending in the same category as the purchase.

Before you upload

Download one account and one short date range. Keep the original so you can compare it with the import. A bank may put amounts in one column or split them into Debit and Credit. Excel workbooks use the separate spreadsheet option.

Five steps from file to ledger

Accounts
Choose Import History, then Bank statement CSV.
Upload a bank statement
Add your .csv file.
Confirm columns
Check Date, Description and either Amount or Debit and Credit. Answer the date and amount questions if they appear. A saved or detected layout can skip this screen.
Ready to import
Check validation and choose the destination account. If asked for statement currency, match the file. Choosing CAD does not convert USD amounts.
Review in Mapping Studio
Check categories, exclusions and overlap with earlier imports. Commit the eligible rows you want in the ledger.

Read the counts before you commit

Valid transactions: Rows LEDGR can read and stage. The sample rows show only part of the file.
Duplicates inside this file: Repeated rows in the upload itself. This check does not compare the file with your ledger.
Rows that need fixing: Fix unreadable rows or choose to import the valid rows and skip the rest. Check what was skipped before treating the month as complete.
Already in ledger: Rows that match transactions already saved in this account. LEDGR skips the matched rows.

Compare the committed rows with your statement. If you later connect the same account or upload an overlapping date range, check those dates again. Duplicate detection may miss some overlap.

The monthly budget CSV template is a planning worksheet for a spreadsheet. Use your bank's own transaction export for this import.

What LEDGR can read and how to disconnect

The connection reads account and transaction data for budgeting. It cannot start payments or move money. Your consent screen lists the access it requests.

Connecting shares financial data with LEDGR and its service providers, including Plaid. Uploading a CSV shares the file contents with LEDGR without linking your bank. Include only the records you intend to import.

LEDGR’s privacy policy explains how data is kept and deleted, including that information may be processed in the United States. Disconnecting stops future syncing and leaves imported transactions in place. Account deletion is a separate step.

If a connection is unavailable, describe the error on the support page. Keep bank passwords, connection tokens and full statements out of your message.