Convert a Commonwealth Bank Statement to Excel

CommBank statement layout, the Australian date and BSB conventions, and verifying your converted file.

Commonwealth Bank statements follow Australian conventions, which resemble the UK more than the US — a single chronological table rather than typed sections.

BSB numbers look like dates

An Australian BSB is a six-digit bank-state-branch code, usually written with a hyphen: 062-000. In transaction descriptions for transfers, BSBs appear regularly.

The hyphenated form is close enough to a date fragment that naive date parsing can latch onto it. Keeping account identifiers out of the description, in their own column, avoids the problem entirely.

Australian date format

Australia uses DD/MM/YYYY. A tool defaulting to US conventions reads 04/07/2026 as 7 April instead of 4 July — and Australian Independence-adjacent dates aside, roughly 40% of any month's rows are ambiguous.

What you get back

In the file	What you get
CommBank's own columns	Every heading as printed, in the same order
Dates	Exactly as printed, DD/MM/YYYY, with nothing reformatted
Descriptions	In full, transfer references and BSBs included. The Excel file stores every cell as text, so a BSB is never read as a date
Debit and Credit	Each figure in the column CommBank 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 — the Australian order, so choose that when Xero asks.

Converting a CommBank statement

Download the PDF from NetBank Statements are available per account and per period, with a proper text layer.
Upload the full statement Including the summary page — those printed totals are what make verification possible.
Check the dates fall inside the period The fastest way to confirm DD/MM was read correctly.
Walk the chain and compare the totals Both are available on an Australian statement.

PayID and Osko transfers

Australia's instant payment rails carry a description the payer types, which is far more useful than a card acquirer descriptor — it is usually a name or an invoice reference.

For a business account, this makes matching credits against invoices practical. It is worth asking customers to include an invoice number when paying by PayID, for exactly this reason.

Verifying a CommBank conversion

CommBank prints opening and closing balances and period totals, so both checks are available.

The chain — each row's balance follows from the previous one
The totals — extracted debits and credits against the printed figures
The period — every date inside the statement period, which catches a DD/MM misreading

NetBank descriptors

CommBank card descriptors carry the merchant, location and sometimes a reference, wrapped across lines. Once merged, the merchant name is the leading segment, which makes it practical to split out for categorisation.

Transfers made through NetBank carry a description the sender typed, which is far more useful — and for a business account, it is where an invoice number will be if you asked for one.

Frequently asked questions

Are other Australian banks supported?

The reader works from the table on the page rather than a list of banks, so a statement from any Australian bank is read the same way. The Completeness sheet tells you whether yours came out right.

Are BSB numbers exported separately?

No. They stay where CommBank prints them, usually inside the description. The Excel file keeps every cell as text, so a BSB there is never misread as a date fragment.

Does it handle CommBank credit card statements?

Yes, with verification against printed totals since cards carry no running balance.

Convert a statement now

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