How to Clean Bank Statement Data in Excel Without Breaking Dates

Excel is powerful for cleanup, but it's also famous for "helpfully" converting data in ways that break financial workflows (date flips, leading zeros removed, or large IDs shown in scientific notation). The key is to import and type columns intentionally.

Import CSV the safe way

1. Prefer Excel's import wizard over double-clicking a CSV.
2. Preview delimiter and encoding before loading.
3. Confirm the first row is headers (and that headers didn't become data).

Lock down column types

• Date: choose a single standard and apply it consistently.
• Amount: numeric, with a consistent decimal separator.
• Description: text (avoid trimming meaningful spaces automatically).

Common cleanup steps

• Remove blank rows and repeated header rows mid-file.
• Normalize debit/credit into a single signed Amount column when possible.
• If columns are split or shifted, consider remapping upstream with Column Mapper or reconverting with Statement Converter.

Export without surprises

If your next step is an automated import, CSV is often the easiest output to validate. If you need to preserve types for handoff, export XLSX.

Related reading: PDF to CSV vs PDF to Excel and CSV vs XLSX.