Is it safe to upload a bank statement here?

Your statement is processed in memory and never written to disk, a database, or object storage. There is no copy to delete, no retention window, and no staff access — because the file stops existing the moment your conversion is returned. The one exception is spelled out below: when a scan can't be parsed deterministically, its pages are sent to an extraction model, and you can turn that off before you upload.

What actually happens to your file

  1. 1. Upload. The PDF travels over TLS to a serverless function and exists as an array of bytes in that function's memory.
  2. 2. Text-layer parse. If the PDF carries a text layer — most statements downloaded from a bank do — the transactions are read straight out of it. No model, no network call, nothing leaves the server.
  3. 3. AI extraction, only if needed. Scans and layouts the parser can't read are sent page by page to Anthropic's API, under commercial terms that do not permit training on the content. Tick "don't use AI extraction" and this step never runs.
  4. 4. Reconciliation. Opening balance plus transactions must equal the printed closing balance, and each row must agree with the printed running balance. Rows that break the chain are flagged rather than quietly shipped.
  5. 5. Response. You get the transactions back and the request ends. The bytes are gone. Exports are generated from the data in your browser session, not from a stored copy of the statement.

The short version

In memory, then gone

The uploaded file exists as bytes inside the request that processes it. When the response is sent, the bytes are unreferenced and collected. No temp files, no bucket, no queue holding a copy.

Encrypted in transit

Every request is TLS-encrypted, including the call to the extraction model when AI extraction is used.

You can refuse the AI step

One checkbox keeps a statement inside deterministic text-layer parsing on our own server. Digital PDFs — about three quarters of what people upload — convert fine that way.

CSV never leaves your browser

On the CSV-to-QBO page, delimited files are parsed client-side. The conversion happens on your machine; we don't receive the file.

No third-party analytics on your data

We measure page traffic, not file contents. Transactions, balances and account numbers are never sent to an analytics service.

Honest about what we don't have yet

We are not SOC 2 certified today, and we'd rather say so than imply a badge we haven't earned. If your firm requires a certified processor, that's a legitimate reason to use someone else for now.

Questions people ask

Is it safe to upload bank statements to a converter website?
It depends entirely on whether the site stores the file. Ours doesn't: your statement is held in memory for the seconds it takes to convert, and the response is the last time those bytes exist anywhere. The risk with converter sites is retention — a file sitting in a storage bucket for months is a breach waiting to happen — so the question to ask any tool, including this one, is where the file is written and for how long.
Do you store my statements?
No. Uploads are processed in the memory of the request that handles them and are never written to disk, to a database, or to object storage. There is no delete button because there is nothing to delete.
Does my bank statement get sent to an AI model?
Only when it has to be, and only if you allow it. Most digital PDFs are parsed deterministically from the file's own text layer and never leave our server. When a statement is a scan, or its layout defeats the parser, the pages are sent to Anthropic's API for extraction under commercial terms that do not permit training on the content. You can switch this off with the "don't use AI extraction" checkbox before you upload; with it off, scans won't convert.
Do you use my data to train models?
No. We don't train anything, and the API we use for the AI extraction step does not train on the content sent to it. When categorization ships, it will learn only from corrections you confirm inside your own account — never across accounts.
Do you see my account number?
The extracted result includes whatever the statement prints, typically a masked account number. Nobody at this company reads your statements; support requests are handled from what you tell us, not from a copy of your file, because we don't have one.
I'm an accountant — does this satisfy the FTC Safeguards Rule?
The Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557 make you responsible for the service providers who handle client financial data. What they ask for is a written assessment of the provider's controls: what data it receives, where it's stored, who can access it, and encryption in transit. Our answers are on this page — data is transmitted over TLS, retained for zero seconds beyond the request, and never accessible to staff. Your firm still needs its own written policy naming the tools you use.
Is the CSV converter also processed on your server?
No — CSV and TSV files on the CSV-to-QBO page are parsed by JavaScript in your own browser and never uploaded at all. Excel workbooks (.xlsx) do go to the server, because the workbook parser is too large to run in the browser, and they follow the same in-memory, never-stored path as PDFs.

Questions this page doesn't answer? Email support@banktobooks.org — or read how the converter verifies its own output.