Bank Statement Importer & Analyser

No. The file runs entirely in your web browser. Statements are read on your computer and nothing is sent to Fawnly or anyone else. Your settings and rules are saved in this browser only - use Settings › Back up to keep a copy.

CSV exports from most UK banks (Starling, Monzo, TSB, Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest, first direct and more) and PDF statements. PDFs are read line by line, so check the amounts on anything that looks odd. CSV is the most reliable.

So it knows who paid. A payment from a joint account is assumed to be for the household; one from your own account is assumed to be for you - you can change "For" on any row.

There are two ways, and you can mix them.
1. The Child / pet tag (recommended). Add their names in step 1 and keep normal sub-categories (Nursery, Vet bills, Dog food). Each payment then also says who it was for, in the Child / pet column. You can see both what the money went on and who it was for.
2. A sub-category named after them (for example "Biscuit"). Simpler, but everything for them sits in one sub-category, so you can't see what it went on.
Either way, if a sub-category has the same name as a child or pet in step 1, its payments are tagged to them automatically, so the Children & Pets section in step 4 and the totals on your planner's Setup tab count both. Using both is fine - each payment is only counted once.

Money coming back for something you bought - in step 2 set its Type to Refund or credit, Insurance payout or Paid back (a friend or family member paying you back) instead of Income, and give it the sub-category it was spent on (e.g. Vet bills). It's then taken off that spending rather than counted as income, and shows in step 7 under that type. In step 4, the Refunds buttons at the top choose where it counts: When paid back (the month the money arrived - matches your bank balance) or Against the payment (the month of what it refunds - each month's true cost). Refunds are matched automatically when it's clear (same shop and sub-category, within 4 months). For anything else - like an insurance payout covering several vet bills - click Refund for… in step 2, or click it in step 7 (Refunds and Paybacks), and tick the payments it pays back. Your planner always uses the month the money arrived.

In this order: rules you set in Settings; what has been categorised before, including from any planner imports; then built-in rules for common UK shops, bills and services (supermarkets, fuel, energy and water companies, streaming, cafés, holidays). Payments abroad or with a foreign exchange fee are suggested as holiday spending, and council tax is spotted from the council's name and the band amounts. Anything that can't be categorised automatically goes into "To categorise" in step 2.

Tick "Rule" on any row in step 2, or open Settings and Account Details › Your Rules.

If a transaction is uploaded twice in overlapping statements, it is flagged as a duplicate and not imported. Statements uploaded on a later day are checked too, as long as you clicked "Mark as imported" after sending the earlier ones (or loaded your planner in Settings).

When money leaves one of your accounts and the same amount arrives in another within 4 days, they're paired up automatically. The paying side is labelled "Transfer sent" and becomes one Transfer row (Joint top-up, Money to partner, Credit card repayment, Between own accounts or Savings); the other side is labelled "Transfer received" and left out, so it's only logged once. Transfers you've already sent - or that are already in your planner - are remembered, so the other side is still recognised when you import that account another day. Transfers never count as spending.

Tick Bus. on a row, or tick "Business account" for an account in Settings so everything from it counts. In step 4, Options › "Count business costs separately" keeps them out of your household and personal figures and shows them in their own pie chart and box instead.

No statement you've added covers those dates yet. Usually that's a missing statement, but it can also be an account with no payments that month - click the ✗ to mark it as a quiet month.

Payments to the same place at a steady interval (weekly to yearly) are grouped together. If the amount changes and stays changed, it's shown as a price rise or drop. If a payment doesn't arrive when expected, it moves to "Stopped / cancelled / missed". Use ✓, ⊘ and ✕ to correct it - it learns from you.

If you buy from the same place on a fairly regular pattern (e.g. Kindle books), it can look like a subscription. Click ✕ and it moves to "Not regular payments", so it is no longer counted as a regular payment.

It adds up every expense. Transfers between your own accounts and into savings are not counted, and refunds are accounted for.

From your statements: every balance a statement shows is kept in that account's Balance Log, so the history builds up as you add more. If a statement doesn't show a balance (Monzo CSVs don't), add one by hand - it goes in the log too. Homes, vehicles and other things use their value and yearly change; mortgages and loans what is still owed.

A payment seen only once so far that looks like a yearly bill - insurance, a TV licence, a membership. Tick ✓ if it is one, ✕ if not. Once a second year of statements shows it again, the "likely" goes.

Tick any mix of accounts, people and categories - everything in step 4 follows them (the boxes, the graph, the pie charts, Full Breakdown and Spending Patterns). Nothing ticked means all. The category filter narrows spending only; money in still follows the account and person filters.

Repayment mortgage or loan: each payment covers that month's interest and pays off some of what you borrowed, so what you owe falls to £0 by the end of the term.

Interest-only mortgage: the payment is just the interest (borrowed × rate ÷ 12). What you borrowed stays the same and is all due at the end of the term.

Payment / month: leave it blank and it's worked out from Borrowed, Term and Interest %. Type your real payment if it's different (e.g. you overpay).

Still owed (statement): if your rate has changed, you've remortgaged or overpaid, type the balance from your latest statement and its date. It's used from that date on instead of the worked-out figure.

Paid from: the sub-category your payments are logged under (e.g. Mortgage). Paid this year adds up those payments from your statements so you can check them against what's expected.

Equity = what your home is worth now minus what's still owed on mortgages - the part of the home you own.

No - you can use the analyser on its own.