Data RiverWhat Is a Bank Statement?
By Sandra Vu
A bank statement is an official document issued by a bank that lists all transactions in a bank account over a specific period, including deposits, withdrawals, fees, and balances. It is commonly used for personal finance tracking, accounting, tax filing, audits, and loan applications.
Key Facts About Bank Statements
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Issued by: Banks and financial institutions
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Time period: Monthly (most common), weekly, or custom
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Format: PDF, paper, or online statement
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Contains: Transactions, balances, account details
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Legal status: Official financial record
What Information Does a Bank Statement Include?
A standard bank statement typically includes:
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Account holder name
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Bank name and branch
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Statement period
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Opening and closing balances
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List of transactions (date, description, amount)
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Fees, interest, and adjustments
Each transaction shows when money moved, how much, and why.
Why Are Bank Statements Important?
Bank statements are used to:
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Track income and spending
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Reconcile accounts in bookkeeping — see how to reconcile bank statements in Excel
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Prepare tax filings
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Verify income for loans or visas — see how to convert bank statements for loan applications
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Support audits and compliance checks — see how to prepare bank statements for audit
They act as a verifiable financial history.
Bank Statement Formats Explained
For a comprehensive guide, see Bank Statement Formats Explained (PDF, CSV, OFX, QBO).
PDF Bank Statements
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Most common format
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Easy to view and download
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Difficult to edit or analyze manually — learn why bank statement PDFs are hard to work with
CSV or Excel Bank Statements
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Structured and editable
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Used for accounting and analysis
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Often generated by converting PDFs
How Often Are Bank Statements Issued?
Most banks issue statements:
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Monthly (default)
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On-demand via online banking
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After account closure (final statement)
Some business accounts offer weekly or daily statements.
Is a Bank Statement the Same as a Transaction History?
No.
A bank statement is an official, fixed document covering a set period. A transaction history is a live, continuously updated list inside online banking.
Statements are used when official records are required.
Common Uses of Bank Statements
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Personal budgeting
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Business bookkeeping
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Accounting software uploads
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Tax audits
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Financial due diligence
Can Bank Statements Be Converted to Excel or CSV?
Yes. Bank statements—especially PDFs—can be converted into Excel or CSV files using bank statement converter tools, allowing transactions to be sorted, filtered, and analyzed.
Step-by-step guides:
- How to convert bank statements to Excel
- How to convert bank statements to Google Sheets
- Convert PDF bank statements to CSV online
Limitations of Bank Statements
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PDF statements are not analysis-friendly — see why bank statement PDFs are hard to work with
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Scanned statements may be hard to process — learn how to convert scanned bank statements to CSV
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Formatting varies between banks — see common errors in bank statement conversion
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Manual data entry is time-consuming — compare bank statement converter vs manual data entry
Summary
A bank statement is an official record of all transactions in a bank account over a defined period. It is essential for financial tracking, accounting, and verification—and often needs to be converted into structured formats for deeper analysis.
Related Guides
Understanding Bank Statements
- Bank statement formats explained (PDF, CSV, OFX, QBO)
- What is bank statement parsing?
- What is OCR for bank statements?
- What is transaction categorization?
Converting Bank Statements
- Bank statement converter: PDF to Excel
- How to convert PDF bank statement to Excel
- How to extract transactions from bank statements
- How to handle multi-page bank statements
Bank-Specific Guides
- How to convert Chase bank statement to Excel — or use the Chase Statement Converter →
- How to convert Bank of America statement to CSV — or use the Bank of America Converter →
- How to convert Wells Fargo statement to Excel — or use the Wells Fargo Converter →
- How to convert Navy Federal Credit Union statement to Excel — or use the Navy Federal Converter →
For Professionals
About Sandra Vu
Sandra Vu is the founder of Data River and a financial software engineer with experience building document processing systems for accounting platforms. After spending years helping accountants and bookkeepers at enterprise fintech companies, she built Data River to solve the recurring problem of converting bank statement PDFs to usable data—a task she saw teams struggle with monthly.
Sandra's background in financial software engineering gives her deep insight into how bank statements are structured, why they're difficult to parse programmatically, and what accuracy really means for financial reconciliation. She's particularly focused on the unique challenges of processing statements from different banks, each with their own formatting quirks and layouts.
At Data River, Sandra leads the technical development of AI-powered document processing specifically optimized for financial documents. Her experience spans building parsers for thousands of bank formats, working directly with accounting teams to understand their workflows, and designing systems that prioritize accuracy and data security in financial automation.