Guides · HSBC
The HSBC export, and the column it does not have.
HSBC is the one major export with no Description field. What most banks put there is split across Payee and Memo instead — which changes where your rules should look.
The file
Date, Payee, Memo, Amount.
There is no Description column
That absence is how an HSBC file is told apart from a Barclays one, which has Description but no Payee. The two formats otherwise look alike enough to confuse each other.
Memo carries the narrative
It is used as the description, falling back to Payee when empty. On card spending the memo is usually the informative half.
Payee is kept in its own right
So a rule can match the counterparty rather than the free text around it — the more durable of the two for a firm-wide rule.
Amount is one signed column
Money out is negative. No Paid In / Paid Out pair, so the sign is the only thing separating a payment from a receipt.
Where to point a rule
Payee or Memo?
Both are searchable, and the choice matters more here than on other formats. A rule matched against Payee survives the narrative changing — a supplier who appears as “SCREWFIX DIRECT 1234” one month and “SCREWFIX 4471” the next still has the same payee. A rule matched against Memo catches the reference detail, which is what you want for anything identified by an invoice number rather than a name. Rules can target one field or search all of them; on HSBC files the field-specific version is usually the one that holds.
FAQ
HSBC exports, in practice.
Why does my HSBC file have no Description column?
Because HSBC does not export one. It splits what other banks call the description across Payee and Memo. Nothing is missing — it is arranged differently, and both fields are imported.
How is money out marked?
By a negative in the Amount column. One signed column, no separate debit and credit columns.
Does the export include a running balance?
HSBC exports generally do not, and nothing here depends on one. Reconciliation runs against the closing balance you enter for the statement.
Will an HSBC file be mistaken for a Barclays one?
No. Barclays exports carry Description and Memo; HSBC carries Payee and Memo with no Description. That difference is exactly what the format detection keys on.
What about HSBC business banking?
Same shape. The business and personal exports use the same column names, so both import identically.
More formats
What the other exports look like.
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