How to convert an RBC bank statement to Excel

This guide covers RBC Royal Bank statements from RBC Online Banking: where to download them, what RBC offers for downloading transactions directly, and how to turn a PDF statement into rows in Excel with Power Query.

Last updated October 12, 2026. Bank menus change. The labels below come from RBC's help pages at the time of writing and may differ on your screen.

First, decide whether you need the PDF

A transaction file downloaded from online banking is usually the simplest way to get recent activity into Excel, because it is already in rows. The PDF statement matters when you need the official monthly document, an older period, or the opening and closing balances an accountant will reconcile against. Many people end up using both: the download for the rows, the PDF to confirm the balances.

Download a statement from RBC Online Banking

RBC's tutorial describes these steps:

  1. Sign in to RBC Online Banking.
  2. On the Accounts Summary page, select Statements/Documents at the top right of the screen.
  3. On the Account Documents page, follow the instructions to view and download statements for bank accounts, credit cards, loans, mortgages or investments.
  4. Use the dropdown menu to choose a different statement period. Tax slips are under the Tax Documents tab.

Save each month as its own file, with the account and period in the name (for example RBC-chequing-2026-03.pdf). If a statement you expect is missing, RBC's page gives a customer service number to call.

Does RBC let you download transactions as CSV?

RBC offers a transaction download, though its current Canadian help pages do not list the formats in one place. RBC's instructions for importing into Simply Accounting tell customers to select the Download Activity button in Online Banking. RBC's tutorial for its Caribbean online banking describes a Download Transactions option: choose the account type, a date range, then the file type. We could not find an RBC Canada page that names the exact formats (CSV, Quicken and so on) on today's screens, so the label you see may differ. Look for a download option near the account's transaction list.

If a CSV option is there, it is often the fastest route for recent activity. Check the date range it covers, and compare its totals with the PDF statement for the same month.

Convert a RBC PDF statement with Excel Power Query (Windows)

Excel on Windows can read tables from a PDF through Power Query. Microsoft lists the path as Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF, and the PDF connector is included in Excel for Microsoft 365 for Windows. These steps work on a typical text-based statement:

  1. Open a blank workbook and go to Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF.
  2. Select the statement file and choose Open. The Navigator window lists what Power Query found: tables (Table001, Table002 and so on) and whole pages (Page001, Page002).
  3. Click each item to preview it. Pick the one where dates, descriptions and amounts sit in separate columns. On a statement of several pages, each page's transactions often show up as a separate table.
  4. Choose Transform Data instead of Load. The Power Query Editor opens.
  5. Remove what is not a transaction: column headers repeated on each page, the opening balance line, page subtotals. Use Home > Remove Rows or filter a column.
  6. If the column names ended up in the first row, choose Use First Row as Headers.
  7. Right-click the date column and choose Change Type > Using Locale. Pick the date type and the locale that matches how the statement writes dates (for Canadian statements, often English (Canada)), so that 03/04 is read with the right day and month.
  8. If the transactions are spread over several tables, import each one and combine them with Home > Append Queries.
  9. Choose Close & Load. The rows land on a worksheet as an Excel table.

If Excel says "This connector requires one or more additional components to be installed before it can be used", the PDF connector is missing a prerequisite. Microsoft states that it needs .NET Framework 4.5 or later.

The query is saved in the workbook. For next month's statement, change the file path in the query's first step (Source) and refresh, rather than repeating every step.

Excel for Mac

Microsoft's table of Power Query data sources for Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac does not list PDF, so the From PDF option is not there. On a Mac you can use the bank's own transaction download if one exists, copy the transaction lines from the PDF into Excel and split them with Data > Text to Columns, or run the Power Query steps on a Windows computer.

Common problems and how to fix them

Descriptions on two or more lines

Some transactions carry a second description line, such as a reference number or a merchant's city. Power Query often turns that line into its own row with an empty date and amount. On a short statement, merge those rows by hand. On a long one, in the Power Query Editor: add an index column (Add Column > Index Column), add a conditional column that copies the index only when the amount is filled in, select that column and use Transform > Fill Down, then Group By it. Joining the description text inside the group needs a small edit in the formula bar with Text.Combine([Description], " ").

Separate debit and credit columns

Bank account statements often show money out and money in in separate columns, and credit card statements may mark payments and refunds differently from purchases. Accounting software usually expects one amount column, negative for money out. Replace empty cells with 0 (Transform > Replace Values, replacing null with 0), then add a custom column such as [Deposits] - [Withdrawals], using the column names your statement has.

Amounts read as text

Dollar signs, thousands separators, a trailing minus sign or a "CR" marker can stop Excel from treating an amount as a number. Remove them with Replace Values before changing the column type to Decimal Number.

Dates without a year

Statements often print only the month and day. Add the year from the statement period, and take care with a statement that runs from December into January.

Scanned statements

If you cannot select the text when the PDF is open in a reader, the file is an image (a scan or a photo). Power Query has no text to read and the Navigator shows nothing useful. A statement downloaded again from online banking normally contains real text, so try that first. Otherwise the file needs OCR (text recognition), and every figure has to be checked by eye.

Check the totals

Before you use the rows, check that the opening balance, plus money in, minus money out, equals the closing balance printed on the statement. If it does not, a row was dropped or duplicated, often at a page break.

Keep your statement private

A bank statement shows your name, address, account number and a record of everyone you paid. Before uploading one to a conversion website, find out who runs it, where the file is processed, how long it is kept and whether it is deleted. If the site does not say, do not upload. Power Query runs on your own computer, and a file downloaded from your bank stays between the bank's site and your device.

PDFtoRows is being built to process statements in memory and delete each file right after conversion. It is not open yet, and our privacy notice will be updated to describe that processing before launch.

If you would rather not repeat the Power Query steps every month, join the PDFtoRows waitlist. We will send one email when it opens.

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