The default “Starling” csv account statement import function uses field 2 for the transaction reference.
The reference in the “Starling” csv account statement is in field 3.
Hi @jstar
While the reference itself is column 3, we use column 2 as this is more meaningful for many users as it’s the name of the counterparty.
We can only use one of the fields to use.
Ideally, the QuickFile reference should be a concatenation of Field 2 + " " + Field 3.
This would be of the format: “Counterparty Reference”
We make payments through service providers, such as PayPal, so having hundreds of entries with a reference of “PayPal” is not useful.
The actual counterparty is declared in the transaction reference.
This isn’t something we’re able to do with the importer as it works with just one column. But you can certainly do this in Excel or similar before importing the data.
The other alternative is to look at the Starling bank feed which imports the transactions for you automatically.
You can open the CSV in spreadsheet software (Excel, Openoffice Calc etc) and merge the fields yourself.
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How does the Starling Bank feed create the QuickFile reference?
Does it also select a single field, or is the concatenated “Counterparty Reference” compound created automatically?
The bank feed uses a different data source sent to us directly by Starling. The import tool is a more generic importer for multiple banks from CSV files, whereas the feed was built specifically to work with Starling.
Okay, so what is the format of references created from the feed?
As an example, I’ve taken a transaction from a test account we have set up.
In the Starling app, this shows as: TranferWise, and has a payment reference similar to P12345678.
This appears in the bank account on QuickFile as the two merged together:
TransferWise P12345678
Card transactions would typically show the merchant name and the raw bank entry (seen at the bottom of the transaction view in the Starling app).
Some such as Stripe however, just show up as Stripe Payments UK Ltd STRIPE, as that’s all the information that’s provided. Even in this case, it still matches what’s shown in the app.
Hope that helps!
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