Importing Transactions: The Complete Walkthrough

If you have transaction history sitting in an export from your bank, broker, or investment platform, there’s no reason to enter it manually. The import wizard takes your CSV, walks you through mapping your columns to the right fields, and handles duplicate detection, type translation, and ACB recalculation automatically.

The Seven-Step Wizard

Step 1: Upload

Drag and drop your CSV onto the upload area, or click to browse. Files must be CSV, under 1MB, and no more than 5,000 rows. Once selected, click Upload & Parse to move forward.

If you have imported before, your past batches appear below the upload area. Any batch that wasn’t completed can be resumed from where you left off.

Step 2: Schema

A schema stores your column and type mappings so you don’t have to redo them every time. On this step you can:

Load one of your saved schemas - if you have imported from this bank, broker, or platform before, pick the schema and the next few steps are pre-filled.
Browse the community marketplace - other users have shared schemas for common banks, brokers, and investment platforms. Search by name, apply one in a single click, and skip the manual mapping entirely.
Start fresh - continue without a schema and map everything manually.

Step 3: Column Mapping

Map each of your CSV columns to the corresponding ACB field. Required fields are: Date, Transaction Type, Shares, and Price. Optional fields like Commission, Currency, Description, and Notes can also be mapped if your export includes them.

Sample values from your file are shown beside each column name so you can confirm you’re mapping the right things.

Step 4: Date Format

The wizard reads sample date values from your file and suggests matching formats. If it finds a clear match, it’s pre-selected. Otherwise, pick from the list.

Step 5: Transaction Type Mapping

Every bank, broker, and investment platform uses its own labels for transaction types. “BOT”, “Purchase”, “DIV” and so on. On this step you’ll see every unique type value from your CSV and map each one to a supported ACB type: Buy, Sell, DRIP, Return of Capital, etc. Any type left unmapped will be skipped during import.

Since there’s no agreed upon standard for transaction exports, not every transaction type will work out of the box. Some may require manually editing your CSV first, for example adding a separate column just for the unit split ratio on a stock split.

At the end of this step you can name and save your schema. Next time you import from the same source, load the schema and steps 3 through 5 are already filled in.

Step 6: Preview

Before anything is committed, you get a full summary of what’s about to be imported:

Valid rows - the transactions that will be created.
Invalid rows - rows with missing or unparseable values, or transaction types you chose not to map. The specific issue is shown for each row.
Duplicate rows - rows that match a transaction already in your portfolio. Duplicates are excluded by default, but you can include them if needed.
ACB warnings - situations where the import would result in a negative share count or other ACB issue.
New tickers - securities that don’t exist in your portfolio yet and will be created. Double check these match any existing securities you already have. If you have XEQT in your portfolio but your CSV has XEQT.TO, the import will create a separate security instead of adding to the existing one.

Review this before continuing.

Step 7: Import

Hit Confirm and the import runs as a background job. Your ACB is recalculated per security once all transactions are committed. You can navigate away and the job keeps running.

Community Schemas

If your bank, broker, or investment platform is already in the marketplace, you can skip the mapping steps entirely.

On the Schema step, search for your bank, broker, or platform. If there’s a community schema available, click Apply and the column mapping, date format, and type mappings are all pre-filled. Step through to confirm everything looks right, then proceed to preview and import.

If yours isn’t in the marketplace yet, you can add it. After saving a schema, a Share button appears on the import page. Sharing submits it for review and once approved it’s available to everyone.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Tax rules can change and individual circumstances vary. Consult a qualified tax professional for advice specific to your situation.