A savings account statement goes to Excel the same way as a checking statement, and it is often free. Savings accounts have few transactions, so many monthly statements are 2 pages or fewer, which fits a free preview in full. Once the rows are in Excel, keep the interest lines and build one yearly summary sheet from the months.
Why does a savings account statement often convert free?
A savings account statement often converts free because it is short. An account that takes one transfer in and pays interest once a month may print only a handful of rows, and the whole statement fits on 1 or 2 pages. CheapBankConvert previews the first 2 pages of any statement, so a statement that short is converted in full.
Page count, not row count, decides the price. A savings statement can still grow past 2 pages for reasons that have nothing to do with you:
- The bank adds a page of rate notices or terms changes.
- The statement combines several savings pockets or goals, each with its own section.
- A busy month, such as one with many transfers out, adds rows.
When a savings statement runs to 3 pages or more, the homepage lists an early price of $2.99 for one up to 10 pages. A whole year of savings statements at 3 to 10 pages would follow the same bundle arithmetic as any other account, but most quiet savings accounts never get there. Open each PDF and check the page count first.
Savings interest rows to keep in the spreadsheet
The interest row is the line on a savings statement that matters most once it is in Excel. It is income, it is usually small, and it is easy to lose among transfers. Keep every interest credit as its own row with its date and amount, and do not merge it into a monthly total.
A converted savings statement usually holds four kinds of rows:
- Interest credited, often one line at the end of the month.
- Deposits and transfers in, from your checking account or elsewhere.
- Withdrawals and transfers out.
- Fees, such as a monthly maintenance charge or a fee for too many withdrawals, if your bank charges one.
Add a column called Type and mark each row with one of those four words. A filter on Type then gives you the interest for the year in one click, and the SUMIF formula =SUMIF(D:D,"Interest",C:C) totals it, with Type in column D and amount in column C.
That yearly interest figure is also what a bank reports for tax. Under the IRS instructions for Form 1099-INT, a payer files the form for interest of at least $10. Your own sheet lets you check that figure, and it shows the interest from small accounts that fall under the threshold.
Transfers between savings and checking: counting them once
A transfer from checking to savings appears twice: once as money out on the checking statement and once as money in on the savings statement. If you put both accounts in one sheet and sum everything, the transfer inflates both your income and your spending. Mark these rows as transfers and leave them out of totals.
The easy way is to give transfers their own Type, such as Transfer, and exclude it from any income or spending sum. Match pairs by date and amount: a $200 transfer out of checking on the 3rd should have a $200 transfer into savings on the same day or the next business day.
The same pairing applies to other accounts you move money between. A reloadable card is a common one. The guide to converting a prepaid card statement to Excel covers loads and reloads, which are transfers from your point of view.
Paying a credit card from savings is a transfer too, not spending. The spending is on the card statement. Converting a credit card statement to Excel explains how charges and payments are signed on that side.
A yearly savings summary sheet built from 12 statements
A yearly savings summary is one row per month with five numbers: opening balance, money in, money out, interest and closing balance. You can fill it from the converted statements in a few minutes, and a one-line formula checks that each month adds up.
Here is an example with made-up figures for the first four months:
| Month | Opening | Deposits in | Withdrawals out | Interest | Closing | Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 5,000.00 | 200.00 | 0.00 | 14.60 | 5,214.60 | 0.00 |
| Feb | 5,214.60 | 200.00 | 150.00 | 13.70 | 5,278.30 | 0.00 |
| Mar | 5,278.30 | 200.00 | 0.00 | 15.40 | 5,493.70 | 0.00 |
| Apr | 5,493.70 | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 13.10 | 4,506.80 | 0.00 |
The Check column holds =B2+C2-D2+E2-F2, with opening balance in column B. It should be zero on every row. Anything else means a row was missed in that month. Each opening balance should also equal the closing balance above it.
Fill all twelve rows and you have the year: total deposits, total withdrawals, total interest and the change in balance. That last figure is the number people usually want, since it shows whether you saved or drew down. If the year shows a steady draw-down, a spending audit with three months of statements sorts each checking charge to find what to cut.
When is a savings statement not worth converting?
A savings statement is not worth converting when you only need one number from it. If you want the closing balance for a form, or the interest for the year, the statement summary or the bank's year-end tax form already shows it. Converting is for when you need the rows themselves.
Skip conversion in these cases:
- A balance for an application. Read the closing balance off the last statement.
- Interest for a tax return. Use the bank's tax form if you received one.
- One withdrawal you want to find. Search the PDF for the amount.
Convert when you want a year of rows to sort, filter or join with checking. For a business owner, savings rows are often joined with card spending. Turning a business credit card statement into Excel shows how to split that spending by cardholder in the same workbook.
If a savings statement is longer than 2 pages, CheapBankConvert shows the price before you pay. It is not open yet, and the prices quoted here are early pricing.