How to import bank transactions to Freenance — MT940 and CSV guide

Why import transactions from bank?

Manually entering every expense is a road to nowhere. If you want to truly control your finances, you need the full picture — and that starts with automatic import of transactions from your bank account.

Freenance allows you to import transaction history from any Polish bank that provides export in CSV or MT940 format. Thanks to this, in a few minutes you have complete history of expenses, income and transfers — ready for analysis.

What formats does Freenance support?

CSV (Comma-Separated Values)

This is the most popular export format from Polish banks. Each row is one transaction, and columns contain date, amount, operation description and other details.

Banks offering CSV export:

• mBank
• ING Bank Śląski
• PKO BP (iPKO)
• Santander
• Millennium
• Pekao SA

MT940 (SWIFT)

MT940 is an international bank statement standard used in SWIFT systems. It's more structured than CSV and contains precise balance information.

When to choose MT940:

• When bank offers both formats — MT940 is more reliable
• When importing data for accounting purposes
• When you want opening and closing balance information

Step-by-step import instructions

Step 1: Export transactions from bank

Log into online banking and find the Transaction history or Statements section. Most banks allow you to select:

• Date range — we recommend export for last 3–12 months
• File format — choose CSV or MT940
• Account — if you have multiple accounts, export each separately

Detailed instructions for specific banks can be found in our integration guides:

• Import from mBank
• Import from ING
• Import from PKO BP

Step 2: Import file to Freenance

1. Log into Freenance at freenance.io
2. Go to Expenses → Import section
3. Select your bank from list or General CSV/MT940 option
4. Drag file or click Choose file
5. Freenance automatically recognizes format and columns

Step 3: Verify and confirm

After uploading the file, you'll see transaction preview. Check if:

• Dates are correct
• Amounts match
• Operation descriptions were read correctly

Click Confirm import — done!

Step 4: Automatic categorization

Freenance automatically categorizes most transactions based on:

• Operation description — recognizes store names, service providers, platforms
• Patterns — if you previously categorized similar transaction, new ones will be assigned automatically
• Amounts and frequency — fixed charges (rent, subscriptions) are detected as recurring transactions

Transactions that Freenance cannot automatically categorize will be marked for manual assignment.

How often to import transactions?

We recommend import at least once a month. Thanks to this:

• You have current financial picture
• Easier to remember what individual transactions were
• Quicker to notice irregularities

Freenance automatically detects duplicates — if you import the same file twice, transactions won't be doubled.

Most common problems and solutions

File is not recognized

Make sure that:

• File has .csv or .mt940 / .sta extension
• Encoding is UTF-8 (some banks export in Windows-1250)
• File is not empty or corrupted

Amounts are incorrect

Check decimal separator — Polish banks use comma (5,000.00), and some formats require dot (5000.00). Freenance supports both variants, but worth verifying.

Some transactions are missing

Check export date range. Some banks default to exporting only last 30 days.

Data security

Your bank data is secure:

• Local processing — files are analyzed in browser before anything reaches server
• No login data — we never ask for bank login and password
• Encryption — all data transmitted via HTTPS
• Data minimalism — we store only transactions, not full statements

Start tracking your finances with Freenance

Transaction import is the first step to full financial control. With Freenance you can not only categorize expenses, but also track your net worth, calculate savings rate and plan your path to financial independence.

👉 Create free account at freenance.io and import your first transactions today.