Uploading Bank Statements

If you have a dedicated business bank account for your rental properties, you can upload bank statements to Provestor. The AI extracts transactions automatically, and you review and categorise them in a single flow.

This is usually faster than manually entering each transaction, especially if you have a high volume of property-related payments.

This guide covers how to upload statements, what happens during AI extraction, and how to review and save imported transactions.

Why upload bank statements?

Speed and accuracy

Uploading statements is faster than manual entry. Provestor extracts transaction details (date, description, amount) automatically, reducing typing errors and saving time.

Complete record keeping

When you upload a full statement, you're less likely to miss transactions. You can see every line from your bank, making it easier to ensure your records are complete.

Account balance reconciliation

Uploading statements helps you verify that your Provestor account balance matches your actual bank balance. This makes it easier to spot missing or duplicate transactions.

Supported file formats

Provestor accepts PDF, PNG, and JPG files for bank statement uploads.

Not supported:

• CSV files
• Excel files (XLS, XLSX)
• OFX or other banking data formats

Most banks provide PDF statements as standard. If your bank only provides CSV or Excel exports, you'll need to manually enter transactions or take a screenshot of your online banking and upload that as an image.

How to upload a bank statement

Step 1: Download your statement

Download a PDF statement from your bank, or take a screenshot of your online banking transaction list.

If taking a screenshot, make sure all transaction details are visible: date, description, and amount for each transaction.

Step 2: Upload to Provestor

1. In your Property Business workspace, select the bank account you want to import transactions into (e.g. Business Bank Account)
2. Choose Upload statement
3. Drag and drop your file, or choose Browse to select it from your device

Provestor begins processing the file immediately.

Step 3: Wait for AI extraction

The AI extracts transaction lines from your statement. This usually takes 10-30 seconds depending on the number of transactions.

You'll see a progress indicator while extraction is running.

How AI extraction works

Provestor's AI attempts to extract and categorise every transaction from your statement.

What the AI does:

1. Extracts transaction details — Date, description, and amount for each line
2. Suggests categories — Looks for similar past transactions you've categorised, or predicts based on the description
3. Creates draft transactions — All imported transactions are marked as drafts until you review and save them

The AI can make mistakes. This is why transactions are imported as drafts — you need to check and confirm everything before they're included in your tax records.

How categorisation works

The AI tries to categorise transactions in two ways:

1. Match against your history

If you've categorised similar transactions before (same description and amount), the AI suggests the same category and property.

2. Predict from description

If there's no match in your history, the AI predicts based on the transaction description. For example, "Halifax Mortgage" might be categorised as "Mortgages and property finance costs."

This prediction isn't always correct — you must review every suggestion.

Review and save imported transactions

Once extraction completes, you'll see an alert:

X transactions imported as drafts. Review and save to finalise them.

Choose Start review to begin checking the imported transactions.

Review workflow

Provestor opens the first imported transaction in the transaction editor.

For each transaction:

1. Check the details — Confirm date, description, and amount are correct
2. Check the category — Verify the AI chose the right category
3. Check the property — Confirm it's linked to the correct property
4. Adjust if needed — Edit any incorrect details, ignore or delete the transaction if it shouldn't be recorded (see How to handle transactions that aren't income or expenses below)
5. Choose Save

When you save, the transaction is no longer a draft and will be included in your quarterly updates.

Provestor automatically moves to the next imported transaction for you to review.

Navigation: Use the arrows at the top of the editor to move between imported transactions if you need to skip ahead or go back.

What to check when reviewing

Check all transactions are present

Count how many transactions were imported and compare against your bank statement. If any are missing, you'll need to add them manually.

Check dates and amounts

Verify that dates and amounts match your statement exactly. The AI sometimes misreads complex layouts.

Check categories

This is the most important check. The AI suggests categories, but these can be wrong — especially for:

• Transfers between your own accounts (often miscategorised as income or expenses)
• Transactions with vague descriptions (e.g. "Payment received")
• First-time transactions the AI hasn't seen before

See Which category should I use? for guidance on categorisation.

Check properties

If you have multiple properties, make sure each transaction is linked to the correct one.

How to handle transactions that aren't income or expenses

Not every transaction on your bank statement belongs on your tax return. Provestor gives you three ways to deal with these: ignore, disallowed, or delete. Which one to use depends on what the transaction is and whether you're tracking account balances.

Ignore

Choose Ignore on the first screen when entering or reviewing a transaction. Ignored transactions are excluded from your tax calculation and aren't assigned to a property. Provestor keeps them in your account so your rolling balance stays accurate, but they have no effect on your quarterly updates or final declaration.

Use Ignore for transactions that have no bearing on your property business at all — for example, a personal purchase made with your business card, or a direct debit for something unrelated to your properties.

This is particularly useful if you have a mixed personal and business bank account and you're importing full statements. You can import everything, ignore the personal items, and still reconcile your balance. If you deleted these instead, your Provestor balance wouldn't match your bank balance, making it harder to spot genuine errors.

Disallowed

On the next screen (after date, description, and amount), you can assign a transaction to the "Disallowed expenses" category. Disallowed transactions stay in your account and are assigned to a property, but they won't go on your tax return.

Use Disallowed for costs that genuinely relate to your property business but can't be claimed for tax purposes. For example, a licensing fine or a penalty — you can't claim these against your rental income, but you might want to track them as a real cost that affects your profitability.

For a full list of disallowed expenses, see Which category should I use?.

Delete

Delete removes the transaction from your account entirely.

Use Delete for genuine errors — for example, a duplicate import, or a transaction that was extracted incorrectly and needs to be re-entered.

Tip

If you use a cash account rather than a bank account, deleting personal transactions is fine — there's no rolling balance to maintain. But you could also ignore them instead, which leaves a record that you've reviewed and dismissed the transaction.

Quick reference

Situation	Recommended action
Personal purchase, nothing to do with properties	Ignore
Mixed bank account, importing full statements	Ignore personal items
Fine, penalty, or other disallowed cost	Disallowed (assign to a property)
Duplicate from a previous import	Delete
AI extracted the wrong amount or date	Delete and re-enter
Transaction on a cash account you don't need	Delete or Ignore

Transfers between your own accounts

If the transaction is a transfer between accounts you control (e.g. moving money from your personal account to your business account), you can either:

• Convert it to a transfer — choose the three-dot menu next to the transaction and choose Convert to transfer (see Transfers)
• Leave it out entirely if you don't need to track internal movements

Transfers don't count as income or expenses for tax purposes.

Handling transfers

Transfers may be miscategorised. Bank descriptions make it hard to reliably distinguish between:

• A transfer to another account you own (not taxable)
• A payment to a supplier like a builder (allowable expense)

If a transaction is wrongly categorised as income or an expense, but it's actually a transfer:

Choose the three-dot menu next to the transaction and choose Convert to transfer. Provestor converts it in place, preserving the date and amount, so you don't need to delete and re-enter it.

See Transfers for detailed guidance on when to use transfers and how to record them.

Use your opening balance to verify accuracy

If you set an opening balance for your bank account when you first configured it in Provestor, you can use this to check your work.

After reviewing and saving all imported transactions, check that the account balance in Provestor matches the closing balance on your bank statement.

If they don't match:

• A transaction might be missing from the import
• You might have a duplicate transaction
• A transaction amount might be incorrect
• You might have deleted something that should be recorded (or vice versa)

This is a quick way to spot errors before moving on.

For guidance on setting opening balances, see How to set up bank accounts.

Best practices for statement uploads

Upload regularly

Upload statements monthly or quarterly rather than waiting until year-end. This keeps your records current and makes reconciliation easier.

Upload complete statements

Upload full statement periods (e.g. 1 month) rather than partial screenshots. This ensures you capture all transactions and makes it easier to reconcile.

Review immediately

Review and save imported transactions as soon as the upload completes. Don't leave drafts sitting in your account — they won't be included in your tax calculations until you save them.

Check your balance

Always verify that your Provestor balance matches your bank statement after processing an upload. This confirms everything is recorded correctly.

For more tips, see Record keeping best practices.

Related guidance

• Adding rental income — How to categorise income transactions
• Capturing expenses — How to categorise expense transactions
• Transfers — When to use transfers and how to record them
• Which category should I use? — Complete guide to categories
• How to set up bank accounts — Setting opening balances
• Record keeping checklist — Your regular workflow for updating records
• Record keeping best practices — Tips for efficient record keeping