--- name: "books_import_bank" area: "books" title: "Import a bank statement" price: "free" method: "POST" url: "https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/books_import_bank" mcp_server: "https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/books" auth: "Authorization: Bearer " docs_url: "https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_import_bank" --- # Import a bank statement (`books_import_bank`) Reads a bank statement from the file store (CSV, CAMT.053 or OFX) onto a bank account, skipping lines imported before. Read a bank statement from the file store onto a bank account (default the bank account): CSV as the bank exports it, CAMT.053 (.052, .054) or OFX/QFX. CSV columns are found by their headers in several languages; when they aren't, name them with columns. Lines imported before are skipped, so overlapping statements are fine. Each line then waits in books_bank_lines to be matched. Charged per line added. Price: Free. A call that fails costs nothing. ## Use it when A new statement arrived; its lines then wait in books_bank_lines to be matched. ## Say this to your agent > Here's this month's bank statement as a CSV. Load it into the books. ## Inputs | Name | Type | Required | Description | Allowed values | Default | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | `file_id` | string | yes | A file_id from the file store. Exactly 36 characters. | | | | `account` | string | no | An account code from the chart, e.g. "6600". 1 to 20 characters. | | | | `columns` | object | no | CSV header names, e.g. {"date": "Buchungstag", "amount": "Betrag", "description": "Verwendungszweck"}. money_in and money_out are for files with two amount columns; direction for a debit/credit marker column. | | | | `columns.date` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.amount` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.money_in` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.money_out` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.description` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.counterparty` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.reference` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.currency` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.balance` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.direction` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `columns.bank_id` | string | no | Up to 100 characters. | | | | `date_format` | string | no | | `"YYYY-MM-DD"`, `"DD.MM.YYYY"`, `"DD.MM.YY"`, `"DD/MM/YYYY"`, `"MM/DD/YYYY"`, `"DD/MM/YY"`, `"MM/DD/YY"`, `"DD-MM-YYYY"`, `"MM-DD-YYYY"`, `"YYYY/MM/DD"`, `"YYYY.MM.DD"`, `"YYYYMMDD"`, `"DD MMM YYYY"`, `"DD-MMM-YYYY"`, `"MMM DD, YYYY"`, `"DD MMMM YYYY"` | | | `decimal` | string | no | The CSV's decimal mark. | `","`, `"."` | | | `currency` | string | no | The statement's currency when the file doesn't say. Default the base currency. Matches ^[A-Za-z]{3}$. | | | | `max_lines` | integer | no | The most lines this call may add (and hold the price for). 1 to 5,000. | | `500` | ## Example Written for Hansen & Voss, a restaurant-equipment wholesaler in Hamburg with 60 staff. MCP: call `books_import_bank` on the MCP server `https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/books` with these arguments: ```json { "file_id": "6b2d9f41-7c3e-4a8b-9d0f-1e2a3b4c5d6e", "date_format": "DD.MM.YYYY", "decimal": "," } ``` REST: ```bash curl https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/books_import_bank \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONECTO_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"file_id": "6b2d9f41-7c3e-4a8b-9d0f-1e2a3b4c5d6e", "date_format": "DD.MM.YYYY", "decimal": ","}' ``` ## Response ```json { "call_id": "5f0c8a2e-3b7d-4c1e-9a64-2d8e1f7b0c93", "tool": "books_import_bank", "status": "succeeded", "replayed": false, "cost_usd": "$0.00", "balance_usd": "$19.75", "result": { "account": "1010", "format": "csv", "statement_account": null, "added": 3, "already_imported": 0, "before_start_date": 0, "from": "2026-10-05", "to": "2026-10-08", "closing_balance": { "date": "2026-10-08", "amount": "14312.75" }, "skipped_rows": 1, "next": "books_bank_lines lists the new lines with what each probably was." } } ``` `result`: The account and the file's format, how many lines were added, already imported or before the start date, the dates covered, skipped rows, and next. ## Errors | Code | Status | When | Fix | |---|---|---|---| | `no_books` | 409 | The business keeps no books yet. | Set them up with books_setup (base currency, start date). | | `not_found` | 404 | No account, tax, entry or file of the books has that code, name or id. | Check the codes with books_list_accounts and the taxes with books_get. | | `archived` | 409 | The account or tax is archived. | Use another one, or un-archive it with books_save_accounts. | | `invalid_statement` | 400 | The file is not a statement that can be read: an amount, a date or a currency is unreadable. | Pass decimal "," for comma decimals, or check the file. | | `columns_needed` | 400 | No header row with a date and an amount was found. | Name the columns with columns, like {"date": "Buchungstag", "amount": "Betrag"}. | | `date_format_needed` | 400 | The dates are in no known format, or could be several. | Pass date_format, like "DD.MM.YYYY". | | `too_many_lines` | 413 | The statement has more lines than max_lines. | Pass a higher max_lines (up to 5,000). | | `too_large` | 413 | The statement is over 10 MB. | Split it by month. | | `invalid_input` | 400 | The account is not a bank, card or cash account, or a setting is not valid. | Import onto a bank account. | The refusals every tool can give (401 key, 402 balance, 429 limits) are on the errors page: https://conecto.chat/docs/errors.md ## Related - [books_setup](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_setup.md): Starts the business's double-entry books (currency, start date, chart of accounts) or changes their settings. $0.001 a call. - [books_get](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_get.md): The books' settings: currency, start date, fiscal year, locked period, roles, payment accounts, taxes, and what is waiting. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_list_accounts](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_accounts.md): Every account with its code, type, role and balance on a day. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_save_accounts](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_accounts.md): Adds accounts or changes them, matched by code: name, type, description, code, role or archived. $0.001 a call. - [books_save_tax](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_tax.md): Adds or changes a tax rate the books use (VAT, GST, sales tax), matched by name. $0.001 a call. - [books_record_expense](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_record_expense.md): Books a cost the business paid, with its tax split off and the receipt attached. $0.01 a call. - [books_record_entry](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_record_entry.md): Books a journal entry of two or more balancing lines, for whatever the other tools do not cover. $0.01 a call. - [books_attach_receipt](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_attach_receipt.md): Attaches a receipt from the file store to an entry that has none. $0.01 a call. - [books_reverse_entry](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_reverse_entry.md): Undoes an entry by booking its mirror image; entries are never edited or deleted. $0.01 a call. - [books_list_entries](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_entries.md): Entries, newest first, with their lines, by dates, account, source or text. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_bank_lines](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_bank_lines.md): Imported bank lines (by default the ones still to match), each with up to three suggestions of what it was. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_match_bank_lines](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_match_bank_lines.md): Says what bank lines were: entries already booked, invoices or bills they pay, an account to book them to, or nothing to book. $0.02 per bank line matched. - [books_save_bank_rule](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_bank_rule.md): Saves a bank rule, like Xero's: which new bank lines it matches and how they are booked, to one account or split by percent, each part with its own tax. $0.001 a call. - [books_list_bank_rules](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_bank_rules.md): Lists the bank rules in the order they are tried, with where they book and how often they were used. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_apply_bank_rules](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_apply_bank_rules.md): Books every new bank line a rule matches, each by the first rule that matches. $0.02 per bank line booked. - [books_delete_bank_rule](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_delete_bank_rule.md): Deletes a bank rule; what it booked stays booked. Free. - [books_report](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_report.md): A report: profit and loss, balance sheet, trial balance, ledger, tax, the VAT or OSS return, the cash flow ahead or a snapshot of the business. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_save_tracking](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_tracking.md): Saves a tracking category with its options, like Xero's: a department, a region or a project line that any line of the books can carry. $0.001 a call. - [books_list_tracking](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_tracking.md): Lists the tracking categories and their options. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_save_budget](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_budget.md): Saves a budget per income and expense account and month, like Xero's budget manager: amounts, monthly or yearly. $0.001 a call. - [books_list_budgets](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_budgets.md): Lists the budgets with every line's monthly amounts and total. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_delete_budget](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_delete_budget.md): Deletes a budget; the books don't change. Free. - [books_repay_claims](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_repay_claims.md): Pays someone back for costs they paid with their own money (expense claims), like Xero's, with a SEPA file when asked. $0.01 a call. - [books_list_claims](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_claims.md): Lists expense claims: what people paid for the business privately, and what each is owed. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_save_asset](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_save_asset.md): Registers a fixed asset (a van, a machine) and how it depreciates, like Xero's: straight line, declining balance, at once or not at all. $0.001 a call. - [books_list_assets](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_list_assets.md): The fixed asset register: each asset's cost, accumulated depreciation and book value, what a run would book now, and the register held against the books. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month. - [books_depreciate](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_depreciate.md): Books the depreciation of every registered asset through a month's end, one entry a month, like Xero's run depreciation; or undoes it after a date. $0.01 a call. - [books_dispose_asset](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_dispose_asset.md): Sells or writes off a fixed asset, like Xero's dispose: depreciation to the day it goes, then its cost, the price and the gain or loss. $0.01 a call. - [books_delete_asset](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_delete_asset.md): Takes an asset registered by mistake out of the register; the books don't change. Free. - [books_lock](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_lock.md): Locks the books through a date, so nothing new is booked on or before it; null unlocks. $0.001 a call. - [books_close_year](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_close_year.md): Closes a fiscal year for good: nothing is booked on or before its last day again, and it can't be undone. $0.001 a call. - [books_export](https://conecto.chat/tools/books/books_export.md): A CSV of the journal or the accounts, a DATEV Buchungsstapel for a German tax adviser or a French FEC, with a download link. $0.001 a call.