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A junior accountant tries to import a bank statement into TallyPrime and it fails, often because the file is a PDF or was converted from one.
TallyPrime accepts only CSV or Excel statements downloaded from supported bank portals. Import also needs statement dates after the Reconciliation Beginning Date, a closed file and write permission.
Original CSV or Excel download from net banking, bank listed as supported, statement period checked against the ledger's beginning date, file saved locally and closed.
The statement imports cleanly and the accountant can reconcile it, or knows the bank cannot be imported and plans another route.
TallyPrime’s help says it imports bank statements as CSV or Excel files downloaded from the bank’s portal, for supported banks. PDF files are not accepted, and nor are CSV or Excel files made by converting a PDF. Most failed imports come down to one of these two rules, or to the statement period falling before the ledger’s Reconciliation Beginning Date.
What are the likely causes?
| Cause | Quick check | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Bank not supported for import | Look up your bank in Tally’s list of supported banks | Contact Tally support, or use manual reconciliation |
| File is a PDF | Check the file extension | Download the CSV or Excel version from net banking |
| File converted from PDF | Did you or a tool turn a PDF into Excel? | Use the bank’s own CSV or Excel download instead |
| Statement dated before the Reconciliation Beginning Date | Compare the first statement date with the ledger setting | Download only the period after the beginning date, or review the date |
| File already open | Is it open in Excel? | Close it and try again |
| No write permission to the folder | Is the file on a shared or protected drive? | Copy it to a local folder you can write to |
| Edited file | Did someone delete rows or rename columns? | Download a fresh copy and do not edit it |
Tally’s help lists these as prerequisites: the bank is supported, the statement date is after the Reconciliation Beginning Date, the file is not open, it is in a supported format and you have write permission.
My bank only gives PDF statements. What are my options?
- Look again in net banking. Most Indian banks offer statement download in more than one format. The Excel or CSV option is often under the same menu as the PDF, sometimes called “detailed statement” or “account statement download”.
- Ask your relationship manager. For current accounts, branches can often email a statement in Excel.
- Use manual reconciliation. Tally’s manual mode needs no import. You type the Bank Date for each entry from the PDF. This is slow but works for any bank. See what the Bank Date is.
- Use a statement parser. A tool that reads PDF statements can produce a clean data file, but Tally will still not accept a converted file for its own import, so the matching would happen outside Tally.
Other software differs here. Zoho Books, for example, lists PDF among its accepted import formats.
A worked example
A trader on a cooperative bank account downloads the April statement as a PDF: 64 lines, closing balance ₹3,18,400. Import fails. Net banking offers no Excel option and the bank is not on Tally’s list. The accountant switches to manual mode: she opens the April reconciliation screen, enters Bank Dates for the 58 lines she can find in the books, and books vouchers for the other 6 (charges and interest). The summary Difference reads nil against the ₹3,18,400 statement balance. The arithmetic she checked first: opening balance ₹2,75,900, plus 22 credits totalling ₹4,86,300, less 42 debits totalling ₹4,43,800, gives ₹3,18,400, the closing balance on the PDF. The 6 vouchers she booked were four charge lines totalling ₹1,770 (₹1,500 of charges plus ₹270 GST at 18%) and two interest credits totalling ₹1,240. It took an afternoon; with a supported bank and a CSV file it would have taken minutes.
I imported the wrong month. How do I reset it?
Tally’s help says that if you import a statement for the wrong period, or reconcile entries by mistake, you can reset the bank statement data. The detailed steps are in Tally’s Connected Banking and Get Statement help topics. Before you reset, note which entries were already reconciled, because a reset can affect them. Then import the correct period.
Where does manual import stop working?
If your bank cannot give a machine-readable file, every month will need manual entry or a separate parsing step. The guide on PDF versus machine-readable statements explains the trade-offs, and MT940 statements covers the bank format used by larger companies.
What to read next
- Next step: TallyPrime auto or manual bank reconciliation: which should you use?
- Bank statement OCR: PDF vs machine-readable
- MT940 bank statement reconciliation
- Tally bank reconciliation
TransactIG matches bank statement lines to your Tally books and puts the unmatched lines into an exception queue, with audit-ready exports.