Help

1. Log in at app.clearstatement.co.uk.
2. Upload statements. Drag one or more PDF or CSV statements onto the upload box. Add several months and accounts at once and monthly averages are worked out across all of them.
3. Check the results. Transactions that match your category keywords are sorted straight away. Click Auto-categorise with AI to sort the rest.
4. Fix anything that's wrong. Change a category from its dropdown, or flip money in and money out with the arrow next to an amount.
5. Export an Excel workbook or a print-ready PDF summary.

Your statement files are read in your browser and never uploaded. Always review the results before relying on them.

When you subscribe, we email you a link to activate your account. Click it and choose a password, and you're in. After that, log in at app.clearstatement.co.uk with your email and that password.

No email? Check your junk folder. If it isn't there, get in touch and we'll send a fresh link.

ClearStatement reads PDF statements downloaded from online banking and CSV exports.

Current accounts: Barclays, Chase, Co-operative Bank, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Metro Bank, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS (Basic and Foundation accounts), Santander, Starling and TSB.

Credit cards: American Express, Barclaycard, Halifax Mastercard, HSBC, Lloyds, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Tesco Bank, Vanquis and Virgin Money.

Other banks often work too. Scanned or photographed statements and screenshots don't. If your client's bank doesn't work, use Help in the app to tell us and we'll look at adding it.

The statement was scanned, photographed or saved as a picture, so there's no text in it for ClearStatement to read.

Ask your client to download the statement directly from their online banking or banking app, or to export a CSV from the same account. Either will work.

Part of the statement is a scanned image. ClearStatement has read the other pages, but anything on the listed pages is missing from the totals.

If those pages are blank or just terms and conditions, you can ignore the message. If they show transactions, get a fresh download of the statement from online banking.

Upload it as normal. ClearStatement will ask for the PDF's password. Enter it and click Open PDF.

The password is only used to open the file on your computer. It isn't saved, and it isn't sent to us or anyone else. If you look at the statement again later in the same session, you'll be asked again.

Please don't remove the password by saving or printing a new copy. That copy is made by a different program, so it no longer shows how the bank made the file.

The statement's layout is probably one we don't support yet. Try a CSV export from the same account.

You can also click Tell us about this format under the message. We only receive technical details about the layout, like the number of pages, never the statement itself.

ClearStatement looks for a Date column plus either an Amount column or separate Paid in and Paid out columns.

• Check the first line of the file is column names, not a transaction
• Check it hasn't been opened in Excel and re-saved in a different format
• Export it again from online banking, choosing CSV

Still stuck? Click Send column headings. You'll see exactly what's sent first: the column names and whether each column holds dates, numbers or text. No rows or transactions are included.

PDF layouts vary by bank, so check the debit and credit arrows first. Click the arrow next to an amount to flip it between money in and money out. Totals and averages update straight away.

If a whole statement looks wrong, use Help in the app to tell us which bank it is.

Yes. Click the header of any category box to fold its transactions away, leaving the category name, number of items, total and monthly average. Click it again to open it. Above the list, Collapse all folds every box at once and becomes Expand all.

This only changes what you see on screen. Excel exports and printed summaries always include every transaction. Boxes you have folded are not remembered once you start a new case.

Type an amount into Large transactions, above the category boxes, for example 1,000 or 2.5k. Every transaction of that amount or more is listed, largest first, with its category. Choose Money in or Money out to see one side only. The transactions also stay in their own categories, marked Large.

From the list you can change a transaction's category, exclude it from the averages, open it in the original statement with the magnifying glass, or go to it in its category with the arrow. Changing a category in this list changes that one transaction only. If others have the same description, you're asked whether to move them too.

The list follows the date range you've picked, and excluded transactions stay in it, greyed out. The amount is remembered on this computer and saved with a case file. The list is on screen only: it isn't added to the Excel export or the printed summary.

A monthly average is the total for a category divided by the length of the period you are looking at, so it will change whenever you change the date range. The same spending over a shorter period gives a higher monthly figure, because it is being spread over fewer months.

The length of the period is the number of days divided by 30.44 (the average length of a month). If the result is within about three days of a whole number of months, it is rounded to that number, so a period running from the 1st to the 31st of three consecutive months counts as exactly 3 months. A custom range that does not line up with whole months can give a part-month figure, for example six weeks counts as about 1.4 months.

This applies to every range option, including Full range (all uploaded):

• Statements that overlap are only counted once, so two files covering the same weeks do not double the period
• A gap of more than about ten days between statements is left out, so a missing month is not averaged in as a month of zero spending
• Transactions you have excluded are left out of the totals and averages, and shown separately

If an average looks different from what you expected, check the Quick range setting and make sure every statement you meant to include has loaded.

File checks are being trialled with a small group of users, so you may not see them in the app yet.

File checks look for signs that a PDF has been changed since the bank produced it. They run in your browser on the file you uploaded, and only you can see the results. They aren't included in the Excel export or the printed summary.

Each file gets one of three results:

• No issues found: every check that could run found nothing. That isn't proof the statement is unchanged.
• Worth a closer look: one or more checks found something. Many have innocent explanations, listed below and in the panel.
• Couldn't be checked: a CSV, a scanned statement, or a file where no check could run.

If in doubt, ask your client for a fresh download from their bank, or to show you the transactions in their banking app. Lenders run their own checks.

What each check looks at, and the usual innocent causes:

• Totals add up: the transactions we read against the statement's own money in, money out and closing balance. A mismatch is most often us misreading a line. Check the transactions and their arrows; fixing an arrow re-runs the check.
• Running balance: each printed balance should follow from the one before. A break is usually a line we misread or an arrow the wrong way round. Show me opens the line.
• Fonts in the amount columns: an amount in a different font from the rest of its column can mean it was typed over. Some banks print certain figures in bold or another font, and some PDF tools change fonts when they save.
• Program that made the file: whether the file was saved by document-editing software, re-saved, or printed to PDF, or had these details removed. If none is named, the panel says no editing or printing software is named in the file's details. Clients often print a statement from online banking, merge PDFs, or open and re-save them. A web page can be changed before printing, so ask for the PDF downloaded from the bank.
• File dates: a file can't be made before its own transactions, and some banks' files are normally changed only within a short time of being made. Some apps re-save a file when it's opened.
• Save history: how many times the file was saved. Some banks add a signature as a second save.
• Notes or marks added: highlights, comments, boxes or unapplied redaction marks. Clients sometimes mark up lines for you.
• Readable text: pages that are images. Inserts and notices are often images; a scanned page can also hide transactions.

For a bank layout we haven't yet confirmed against real statements, a totals or balance mismatch is shown as a note about our reading instead. It doesn't change the result, but your categorised totals may be off, so check the transactions.

Files that came through a client document portal show the date the client uploaded them. The portal replaces the file's own details, so the checks look at the statement pages inside.

Each file also has a fingerprint, a code unique to that exact file, so you can note which file you reviewed. Saved cases keep the results, but not the file, so Show me needs the file uploaded again.

The Category template on the left decides where transactions go before any AI is used. Each category has match keywords, separated by commas. A transaction whose description contains one of them goes into that category.

• Add keywords for merchants your clients use often. They apply straight away
• Use + Add category for a new category, and the ✕ to remove one
• Reset to default template puts back the standard categories

Your template is saved to your account, so it follows you to other computers. The more your keywords catch, the fewer transactions need AI and the faster each statement is done.

It sorts the transactions your keywords didn't catch. Anything the AI sorts is marked as a guess, so you can check it.

The first time in a session, you're asked to confirm your client has agreed. Only each transaction's description, amount and direction (money in or out) are sent, through ClearStatement's secure service to our AI provider. Names, account numbers, sort codes and the statement file are never sent, and nothing is stored.

• "The AI service is busy" or "took too long": wait a minute and click again. It carries on from where it stopped
• "Your session has expired": log in again, then click again
• "We couldn't reach ClearStatement": check your internet connection

Your keyword matches and manual changes are never lost when this happens.

Export to Excel downloads a workbook with every categorised transaction, a summary with category totals and monthly averages, and the legal notices.

Print / PDF opens a print-ready summary. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print window to keep a copy.

Always check the export before attaching it to an application. ClearStatement is a productivity tool and doesn't replace your own professional judgement.

Your browser may be blocking downloads or pop-ups for app.clearstatement.co.uk. Look for a blocked-pop-up icon in the address bar, allow it for this site, and try again.

Yes. Click Save case to save your work to a file on your computer, then use Resume a saved case to pick it up again. Both buttons, with Export to Excel, Print / PDF and Start new case, are in the bar along the top of the page. The file is encrypted and only opens when you're logged in to the same account. We never see or store it.

Click Forgot password? on the login screen and enter the email you subscribed with. The reset link lasts one hour. Check your junk folder if it doesn't arrive within a few minutes.

Account admins can add or remove colleagues from Manage team in the app. Each person gets their own email invitation and logs in with their own password. Please don't share logins.

ClearStatement is priced per seat: £30 a month for each of the first 5 seats and £25 a month for seats 6 to 10, plus VAT. You choose how many seats you need at checkout, and every subscription starts with a 7-day free trial. Your card is collected at signup but not charged until the trial ends. Need more than 10 seats? Contact us.

Change your card, download invoices or cancel any time from the billing portal. If you cancel, access continues to the end of the period you've paid for.

No. Statement files are read in your browser and never uploaded or stored by us. If you use AI categorisation, only the description, amount and direction of the transactions it sorts pass through our service, and nothing is kept. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

Please don't. We never need a statement to help. The Help button in the app sends us technical details about what went wrong without any client data, and you can see exactly what's included before you send it. If a statement is emailed to us, we delete it without opening it.

Click Help at the top of the app (or Get help on the login screen) and tell us what happened. Or email help@clearstatement.co.uk.

We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday.