Most Australian banking apps let you save or share a PDF statement, but reserve CSV export for their desktop internet banking site. That leaves a gap when you want to bring transactions into Financio from your phone.
The Financio iPhone app closes it. It can read a PDF statement, or screenshots of your banking app's transaction list, and turn them into transactions ready to review and import. All of the reading happens on your iPhone using Apple Intelligence, so your statement never leaves the device.
iPhone Only
PDF and screenshot import is available in the Financio iPhone app. On the web, import a CSV or QIF file instead. See Importing Transactions.
What You Need
This feature relies on Apple Intelligence, which is available on iPhone 15 Pro and later.
To check that it's turned on, open the iPhone Settings app, go to Apple Intelligence & Siri, and make sure Apple Intelligence is enabled. The first time you turn it on, iOS downloads its model in the background: if Financio says the model isn't ready yet, wait a little and try again.
If your iPhone doesn't support Apple Intelligence, the Photos button disappears and screenshots can't be read. You can still pick a PDF from Files: statements whose table Financio can read directly (and whose rows match the statement's printed totals exactly) import without Apple Intelligence, and Financio tells you if a particular PDF does need it. CSV and QIF imports, and the web app, work as always.
Importing a PDF Statement
Getting the PDF from your bank
In your banking app, look for a statement, transaction report, or export option, then save or share the file to your iPhone. Most banking apps offer either Save to Files or a share sheet you can use to send it to Financio.
Sharing it straight into Financio
The quickest route skips Financio's file picker entirely. From your banking app or Files, tap Share on the statement, then choose Import to Financio in the row of app icons. Financio saves the statement and tells you it's ready; open Financio and it asks which account the statement belongs to, then starts reading it.
You can also scroll to the lower list of actions and choose Copy to Financio, which opens Financio straight away.
If your accounts have a BSB and account number saved, Financio reads the ones printed on the statement and pre-selects the matching account, marked Matched at the top of the list. You can always pick a different one. See BSB and Account Number for how to record them.
Shared Statements Aren't Kept
A statement you share in is held only until the import finishes, then deleted. Nothing is uploaded. See Your Privacy below.
Importing it from inside the app
You can also start from the account, which suits a file already saved on your phone:
- Open Financio and go to the account you want to import into.
- Tap + in the top right to open Add Transaction, then tap Import Transactions.
- Tap Files in the upload area and choose your PDF.
Import one statement at a time. If you have several months to bring in, run the import once per statement, duplicate detection will catch anything the statements overlap on.
Financio reads the statement page by page and shows its progress as it goes. A two-month statement typically takes a minute or two. When it finishes, you go straight to the review step: there's no column mapping to do, because the statement's own layout tells Financio which amounts are withdrawals and which are deposits.
Some banks build their PDFs in a way that makes the text unusable when read directly, words and figures come apart in the wrong places. Financio spots this and reads the pages visually instead. It's slower, and you'll see it working through the pages one by one, but the result is the same.
Longer Statements
A statement covering several months works fine, but imports are still limited to a 12-month span. Reading also takes longer the more pages there are, so a shorter date range is quicker if your bank lets you choose one.
Importing from Screenshots
Screenshots suit catching up on the last few days, when opening a statement is more effort than it's worth.
- In your banking app, screenshot the transaction list. Take several if you need to scroll, overlapping shots are fine.
- In Financio, go to the account, tap + in the top right to open Add Transaction, then tap Import Transactions.
- Tap Photos in the upload area and select your screenshots: up to 10, read together as one list.
Financio reads the text from each image, works out the dates from the day headings your banking app shows (like "Today", "Yesterday", or a weekday), and builds the transaction list.
If your screenshots are already saved in the Files app rather than your photo library, tap Files instead and select them there: up to 10 images at once, exactly as the Photos button handles them.
Overlapping Screenshots
You don't need to line your screenshots up perfectly. Any transaction captured twice is spotted by duplicate detection and deselected for you, so it's better to overlap than to risk missing a row.
Reviewing What Was Read
The review step works exactly as it does for a CSV import: you choose which transactions to import, and duplicates are flagged and deselected automatically. See Importing Transactions for how review, duplicate detection, and the opening balance date work.
Two things are specific to PDF and screenshot imports.
A notice about how the transactions were read. If Financio read the statement's own table and the rows matched its printed totals exactly, it says so, no AI was involved. Otherwise it tells you the rows were read with on-device AI and asks you to check them. Amounts are checked against the original document before they reach this screen, but the review step is still where you confirm the result looks right. Give the list a scan before importing.
Warnings, when something doesn't add up. Financio cross-checks its own reading against the statement, and tells you when they disagree:
| Warning | What it means |
|---|---|
| Money in or money out doesn't match the statement total | A row may have been missed or misread. Compare the list against your statement before importing. |
| Some rows may be missing | A section of the statement didn't read cleanly. |
| Rows couldn't be verified | A transaction was read in a way that didn't match the source document, so it was left out rather than imported with a wrong figure. |
| Reading took too long, so part of the statement wasn't read | Financio stops rather than reading indefinitely, and tells you which parts it didn't get to. Import what's there, then run the rest as a second import, duplicate detection will handle the overlap. |
If you see a warning, the safest move is to cancel, then try again: reading is not perfectly repeatable, and a second attempt often succeeds where the first didn't. If it keeps failing on the same statement, import a CSV from your bank's website instead.
Always Review Before Importing
Reading a document is not as exact as reading a CSV file. Financio verifies every amount against the original and warns you when the totals don't reconcile, but the review step is your check, and it's worth taking.
Rules, Categories and Everything After
Once you import, everything downstream behaves the same as any other import: your automation rules run, transfers between your accounts are detected, AI category suggestions are offered, and the undo option is available immediately afterwards.
Your Privacy
Reading a PDF or screenshot happens entirely on your iPhone. The document is not uploaded to Financio's servers or to any AI provider, and it isn't stored anywhere after the import, only the transactions you choose to import are saved.
Category suggestions after the import are a separate feature that does use Financio's servers. See AI & Privacy for how that works and how to turn it off.
Troubleshooting
Financio isn't in the share sheet
Import to Financio appears in the row of app icons along the top; Copy to Financio is in the lower list of actions. If neither shows, tap Edit Actions to pin them near the top. Financio only handles PDFs, CSV files and images, so it won't appear when sharing other kinds of files.
The wrong account was pre-selected, or none was
Matching relies on the account number saved against your account, so check it matches the one printed on the statement. See BSB and Account Number. Financio deliberately pre-selects nothing when two accounts share an account number, or when the statement's number doesn't agree with the BSB you've saved. Pre-selection is only ever a shortcut; picking the account yourself always works.
The Photos button isn't showing
Your iPhone either doesn't support Apple Intelligence or has it turned off. Check Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri. The import screen explains which of the two applies. You can still pick a PDF from Files. See What You Need above.
"That PDF has no readable text"
Financio couldn't get any text off the pages, even by reading them visually. That usually means a photo of a printed statement taken at an angle or in poor light, or a file that's password-protected: remove the password and try again, or download the statement directly from your banking app, which produces a cleaner file.
A scan on its own isn't a problem: Financio falls back to reading the pages as images, so scanned statements generally do import.
"Pick one statement file at a time"
You selected more than one file and they weren't all images. Statement files are read one at a time, so choose a single CSV, QIF or PDF and repeat the import for the others. Selecting several files at once only works when every one of them is a screenshot or image.
Transactions came through with the wrong dates
Screenshots rely on the day headings in your banking app to work out dates. If your screenshots start mid-list, without a heading above the first transaction, those dates can't be determined. Include the heading in the shot, or scroll so one is visible.
Amounts are the wrong way around
Tell us. This shouldn't happen. Financio takes the direction of each amount from the statement's own withdrawal and deposit columns, or from the minus sign shown in your banking app, rather than guessing from the wording. If a transaction imports with the wrong sign, you can correct it by editing the transaction.
It's taking a long time
Reading is slower on longer statements, and slower again if your iPhone is busy or low on battery. The progress text shows which section is being read. If it seems stuck, cancel and try a shorter date range.