Bank Import is the core of ZhanPlan. Every time you import a statement, ZhanPlan reads your transactions, categorizes them using AI, lets you review and edit, and then pushes them to your Spending and Income dashboards.
How to Export Your Statement from Your Bank
Every bank is slightly different, but the general steps are the same: log in, find your account history or statements, and look for a Download or Export option.
Chase
Log in at chase.com → select your checking or savings account → click the Download icon (arrow pointing down) → choose CSV → select your date range → download. Chase exports come as a CSV with Date, Description, Amount, and Balance columns.
Bank of America
Log in at bankofamerica.com → click your account → Download Account Transactions → choose Microsoft Excel format (CSV) → set the date range → download.
Wells Fargo
Log in at wellsfargo.com → click your account → Download Account Activity → select CSV format → choose date range → download.
SoFi
Log in at sofi.com → Checking and Savings → select your account → Activity → click Export → download as CSV. SoFi exports include vault transfer transactions — ZhanPlan automatically detects and excludes these from your spending and income totals.
Ally Bank
Log in at ally.com → click your account → click Export → download CSV. Ally typically includes all transactions for the past 12 months in one export.
USAA / Navy Federal
Log in → Transactions → Export → select CSV. These exports work directly with ZhanPlan without any formatting changes.
Most banks limit CSV exports to 90 days or the current statement period. If you want to import older transactions, download multiple exports covering different date ranges and upload them one at a time. ZhanPlan automatically deduplicates — duplicate transactions on the same date with the same amount will not be saved twice.
How to Import a PDF Statement
If your bank does not offer CSV downloads, or if you only have a PDF statement, ZhanPlan can read that too.
- 1Go to Bank Import in your ZhanPlan sidebar
- 2Click the upload area and select your PDF file
- 3ZhanPlan uploads the PDF to its AI engine
- 4If the PDF has selectable text (most digital bank statements do), ZhanPlan reads the text directly
- 5If the PDF is image-based (scanned), ZhanPlan uses vision AI to read the transactions
- 6The extracted transactions appear in the review table just like a CSV import
PDF extraction works best on statements where transactions are in a clear table format. Statements from Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Discover, and most major banks extract cleanly. Older or heavily formatted PDFs may extract with minor errors — always review the table before saving.
The Review Screen: What You See
After uploading a file, ZhanPlan shows you a table with every extracted transaction:
- Date — the transaction date from your statement
- Merchant — the raw description from your bank, cleaned up where possible
- Amount — positive for credits (income), negative for debits (spending)
- Category — AI-assigned category based on merchant name and amount patterns
- Subcategory — a more specific label (e.g., Gas Station under Transportation)
- Type — Income or Expense
- Excluded — shown in amber if ZhanPlan detected it as an internal transfer
You can edit any cell in this table before saving. Click a category to change it. Click a merchant name to edit it. You can also delete individual rows if a transaction should not be saved.
How Transfer Detection Works
ZhanPlan automatically detects and excludes internal transfers so they do not inflate your income or spending.
Internal transfers include: moving money between your own checking and savings, SoFi Vault to Checking moves, Zelle transfers to yourself, ACH transfers between your own accounts.
These appear in an amber Excluded section at the bottom of the review table. If ZhanPlan incorrectly flagged a transaction as a transfer, you can uncheck the Excluded box to include it.
After You Save
After clicking Save All, your transactions are pushed to:
- Spending — all expense transactions appear here, organized by date and category
- Income — all income transactions appear here, with actual vs planned comparisons
- Budget — actual spending updates against your budget limits in real time
- Cash Flow — monthly income and expense totals update the 6-month trend view
You can import as many statements as you want. Import one month at a time, or import a whole year at once. ZhanPlan handles it all.
What happens if I import the same statement twice?
ZhanPlan checks for duplicate transactions by comparing date, amount, and merchant. If it finds a match, it skips the duplicate. You will see a notice at the top of the review screen showing how many duplicates were detected and skipped.
Can I import from multiple bank accounts?
Yes. Import as many statements as you want from as many bank accounts as you have. All transactions flow into the same Spending and Income dashboards. If you have a checking account and a credit card, import both — ZhanPlan treats each transaction independently.
My bank exports OFX or QFX files, not CSV. Can I use those?
Currently ZhanPlan supports CSV and PDF imports. OFX/QFX support is planned. As a workaround, most banks that offer OFX also offer CSV — look for a different download format option in your bank's export settings.
What if the AI categorized something wrong?
You can edit any category in the review table before saving. After saving, you can also edit categories directly in the Spending page by clicking on any transaction row.