Convert an AIB or Bank of Ireland Statement to Excel

Irish bank statement conversion, the euro formatting conventions, and SEPA descriptor handling.

Irish bank statements sit between UK and continental European conventions, which produces a specific ambiguity worth understanding.

Euro amounts, English formatting

Ireland uses the euro but writes numbers the English way: 1,234.56 rather than 1.234,56. That is unlike most other eurozone countries, and it means a converter that infers the decimal convention from the currency will get Irish statements wrong.

Currency is not a reliable signal for number formatting. The reliable approach is to test both interpretations against the printed closing balance and keep whichever reconciles.

SEPA descriptors

Irish statements carry full SEPA descriptors for euro transfers, with the same structured fields as German and Dutch statements — counterparty, IBAN, BIC, mandate reference, and a purpose field carrying the payment reference.

Unpacking these gives you a reference column you can match invoices against, rather than one long description string.

Verifying

Convert the statement AIB and Bank of Ireland layouts are detected individually.
Check the decimal reading If amounts look 100x out, the convention was read wrongly — compare one row against the PDF.
Walk the chain and compare the totals Both are available on Irish statements.

What the export contains

In the file	What you get
The bank's own columns	Every heading as AIB or Bank of Ireland prints it, in the same order
Dates	Exactly as printed, with nothing reformatted
Descriptions	The full SEPA descriptor, counterparty, IBAN and reference included, with wrapped lines joined into one cell
Amounts	Exactly as printed, decimal point and all, each in the column the bank printed it in
A Completeness sheet	Every row checked against the printed running balance, and the statement's own totals where it prints them

For Xero, the Xero CSV download writes one signed Amount per transaction with dates as dd/mm/yyyy, which is what Xero's import maps without any column juggling.

Direct debit mandates on an Irish account

Irish direct debits carry a SEPA mandate reference and a creditor identifier, the same as elsewhere in the eurozone. Grouping by creditor ID gives the complete list of organisations authorised to collect from the account.

That list is worth reviewing periodically. Mandates persist until revoked, and a subscription cancelled by email does not necessarily mean the mandate was removed.

Verifying an Irish statement

Convert the statement AIB and Bank of Ireland layouts are detected individually.
Spot-check one amount against the PDF Confirming the decimal convention was read correctly.
Walk the chain From opening to closing balance.
Compare the totals Debits and credits separately against the printed figures.

Why the decimal check matters despite the euro

Irish statements use the decimal point, unlike most of the eurozone. A converter that infers the convention from the currency will read them wrongly — and the error is a factor of one hundred, which is large enough to matter and plausible enough to miss.

Testing both interpretations against the printed closing balance settles it from the document rather than from an assumption about the country.

Frequently asked questions

Are Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank supported?

Yes. Irish bank layouts are detected per file.

How do I check what can take money from my account?

Group the direct debit rows by creditor ID. Each distinct value is an organisation holding an active mandate.

Which decimal convention do Irish statements use?

The decimal point, like the UK, despite being in the eurozone. Nothing in the converted file depends on guessing it: every amount is kept exactly as printed.

Convert a statement now

Bank Statement PDF to Excel, or see every format. More in the guides.