Convert Starling PDF Statements to CSV

Built for Starling Personal and Starling Business

Starling's statement PDF separates Counterparty (the named party on the other side of the transaction), Reference (the payment reference, often containing an invoice number or VAT note), Type (Faster Payment, Direct Debit, Card Purchase, Standing Order, Pot Transfer), and Amount. This converter preserves each as its own column so your accounting workflow can match by Reference, filter by Type, or analyse by Counterparty.

Starling Business statements include the company name and registered office in the header, plus a sort code and account number on every page. These page headers are stripped automatically. Starling's Bills and Salary Pots show as internal transfers tagged 'POT' so you can exclude them from P&L analysis without losing the audit trail of where money moved.

Where Starling users get the most value

Starling Business customers reconciling in FreeAgent use this when the direct integration drops or when migrating historic data from before the integration was active. The Reference column maps cleanly to FreeAgent's transaction explanation field, so VAT-reclaimable expenses are easy to surface.

Sole traders and freelancers with Starling Business accounts use the converter at year-end to produce a full transaction history. The Counterparty column makes it trivial to total income by client and expenses by supplier, ready for the SA103 Self Assessment page.

VAT audits — both routine HMRC reviews and end-of-quarter self-checks — benefit from the Reference column being preserved. When a transaction's reference contains a VAT invoice number, the audit trail is intact in the CSV.

Property and rental businesses use Starling for its multi-account features (Spaces and Pots per property). The converter outputs each Pot transfer as a discrete row tagged 'POT' so per-property income and expenditure can be reconstructed.

Output schema and software compatibility

Columns: Date (DD/MM/YYYY), Counterparty, Reference, Type, Amount (signed), Balance. The CSV imports directly into Xero (Manual Statement Import), QuickBooks Online (Three-column CSV with Reference mapped to Memo), FreeAgent (Banking → Upload Statement), and Sage Business Cloud Accounting.

How it works

1. Upload Starling PDF — Personal or Starling Business
2. Parse Transactions — Counterparty, reference, amount extracted
3. Download CSV — Import to FreeAgent, Xero, or QuickBooks

Key benefits

• Built for Starling Bank statement layout
• Handles Starling Business statements
• Counterparty names preserved cleanly
• Reference field captured for VAT audits
• Pot transfers itemised separately
• Files purged after 1 hour

Common use cases

• Starling Business bookkeeping
• Sole trader Self Assessment prep
• VAT-ready transaction exports

Frequently asked questions

What statement periods can I export from Starling?

Starling's app and web banking provide PDF statements per calendar month or for any custom date range from account opening. Each upload accepts up to 100 pages — covering 12+ months of personal account activity or 4–6 months of a Starling Business Toolkit account.

How are credits and debits represented in the CSV?

Starling PDFs use a single signed Amount column (positive for credits, negative for debits) with Currency and Balance columns alongside. The CSV preserves the signed format and the Type column tags each row as Faster Payment, Direct Debit, Card Purchase, Standing Order, or Pot Transfer for easy filtering.

How do I import the CSV into Xero, FreeAgent, or QuickBooks?

FreeAgent: Banking → Upload Statement, headers auto-detect — Reference maps to the explanation field which is ideal for VAT-reclaimable expenses. Xero: Manual Statement Import → Generic CSV, map Amount as the signed column and Reference → Reference. QuickBooks Online: 'Two-column CSV' with Amount as the signed value.

Does this work with Starling Euro and Dollar account statements?

Yes. Euro and US Dollar account statements use the same layout as the GBP account, with Amount denominated in the account currency. Convert each currency's PDF separately for cleanest accounting-software import.

Are Connected Card and Spaces statements (for kids, carers, savings) supported?

Yes. Connected Card transactions appear as line items on the parent account statement and convert identically. Spaces transfers appear as 'POT' type rows so internal movements stay auditable but can be filtered out of P&L analysis.

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