Four formats, one hidden search box
NatWest is generous where it counts: the transaction list exports to CSV, Excel, OFX and QIF, which covers both spreadsheet work and a direct import into QuickBooks, Xero, Sage or Quicken with no conversion step in between.
The catch is that the date range you need is behind a Show search link. Skip it and you export whatever happens to be on screen, which is rarely the period you had in mind.
Export your transactions
- Log in at onlinebanking.natwest.com in a desktop browser.
- Select Statements & transactions from the main menu.
- Under Your transactions, click View transactions.
- Click Show search, choose Search between two dates, and enter your start and end dates.
- Pick the export format and download the file.
For the monthly documents instead, take Statements & transactions, then Statements under Your statements, and select the statement cycle you want — it downloads as a PDF.
History versus export window
These two numbers are very different and it is worth holding both in mind. You can view and search seven years of statements and transactions online, as long as the account was open throughout. But a single export covers a much shorter stretch — around three months in practice — so a year of data means repeating the download three or four times.
If you are exporting for accounting software, OFX is usually the better fit than CSV: the fields are already mapped, so nothing has to be matched up by hand on import. For reading the data yourself, CSV is the friendlier file.
Elsewhere on the high street, Lloyds gives twelve months in one midata file, and Barclays offers the same three formats but hides the button under the table.
Once several months sit in one file, the recurring lines separate themselves from the one-off spending — and that is usually where a forgotten subscription or a quietly repriced service has been sitting for longer than anyone would like.
