The method
What happens to your file.
- 01
The file is read in your browser
A byte order mark is stripped, line endings are normalised, and the separator is worked out by finding which character gives the most consistent number of columns. That last part matters: a description full of commas would otherwise beat a genuine semicolon file.
- 02
The header is found, or ruled out
Many Australian exports print account details above the data, and plenty have no header at all. ClearLedger looks through the first fifteen rows for the one that names columns and contains no figures, and treats everything above it as preamble.
- 03
Columns are identified by name, then by content
Header names are the strongest signal. Where there are none, each column is profiled: what fraction of it parses as a date, as an amount, as text. Two numeric columns in a headerless file means amount then running balance, which is the near-universal layout.
- 04
Date order is proven or declared
The whole date column is scanned at once. If any value has a first component above twelve, day-first order is proven. If none does, ClearLedger assumes day-first, the Australian convention, and says on your audit that it assumed it.
- 05
Direction is settled
Negative amounts are money out. Where every amount in a file is positive, the running balance decides: if the balance falls as amounts are applied, they are spending. Where there is no balance column to check, ClearLedger tells you what it assumed and lets you change it.
- 06
Duplicates and transfers are set aside
Overlapping exports are normal, and left alone they double your apparent spending. Money moving between your own accounts is neither income nor spending, so equal and opposite amounts within three days across two accounts are matched and excluded.
- 07
Descriptions become merchants
Card prefixes, terminal numbers, embedded dates and country codes are stripped, leaving a trading name. Around two hundred and fifty Australian merchant rules then assign a category, with a confidence level attached to each match.
- 08
Patterns are found
Three or more charges from one merchant at a consistent interval is a commitment. Income deposits are grouped the same way to find your pay cycle and how much it varies. Both feed straight into what the plan can honestly claim.
The one figure worth understanding
How your spending allowance is built.
Most budgets fail on the bills that are not monthly. Registration, insurance renewals, rates and quarterly power do not arrive often enough to feel like part of normal life, so they get paid from whatever is around, or from a card.
ClearLedger annualises those costs carefully, divides them across your pay cycles, and subtracts them before telling you what is left. The allowance is lower than you expect, and that is the honest number.
An example fortnight
Figures from the sample audit. Every line on your own audit opens to show the transactions behind it.
See it run on a real set of files.
The sample generates two bank exports and reads them through this exact path.