Convert Wise CSV to Wave

The short answer

The Wise file has 18 columns, dates written as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS and an unsigned amount with a direction column. The CSV written for Wave has the columns Date,Description,Amount. So the date is rewritten as MM/DD/YYYY, the amount is written as one signed number, and the text columns are moved as in the table below.

Paid profile. The free manual column mapper works for any bank, this one included, but the free version writes only the first 25 converted rows of a file. The 9 USD one-time licence adds the ready-made Wise profile (one of the 35 paid profiles) and removes the 25-row limit. The column table on this page is free to read and can be used to fill in the manual mapper.

Open the converter

The converter runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded.

What the Wise CSV looks like

• Country: International.
• Account type: transaction history export.
• Header row: yes, one row before the first transaction.
• Columns: 18, separated by commas.
• Date format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, for example 2024-03-04 09:15:00 (the source writes it as %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S).
• Amounts: an unsigned amount with a direction column. Evidence for the direction: the source says it in words.
• Header text: the source gives column positions and meanings only, not the header names.

Note kept with this layout in the profile data: Eighteen columns. The amount column is unsigned: money in and money out sit in the same column, and the third column gives the direction. The hledger rules file labels the eighteen fields id, status, direction, date_created, date_finished, source_fee_amount, source_fee_currency, target_fee_amount, target_fee_currency, source_name, source_amount_after_fees, source_currency, target_name, target_amount_after_fees, target_currency, exchange_rate, reference, batch (the rule author's labels, not the header text). The converter must read the direction column to set the sign and should show it for confirmation.

What Wave accepts

• File type: CSV.
• Header row: not stated in the excerpts read; the converter writes one.
• Required columns: Date, Description, Amount.
• Amounts: Three or four columns: date, description, and the amount either all in one column or one column each for deposits and withdrawals. For credit card statements, purchases must be positive and payments negative.
• Dates: MM/DD/YYYY.

From a web search excerpt of the vendor's help page (the page itself refuses automated reading; re-check it in a browser): "To import properly, your CSV file must have three or four columns: date, amount of the transaction (all in one column, or one column each for deposits and withdrawals), and description."

Column-by-column mapping

Every column of the Wise file, left to right, and where it ends up in the Wave file.

Pitfalls for Wise to Wave

Dates

• The date must be reordered. The bank file is written year first, then month, then day (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, for example 2024-03-04 09:15:00). The Wave file is written month first, then day, then year (MM/DD/YYYY, for example 03/04/2024).
• The date column also holds a time (2024-03-04 09:15:00). Only the date is kept; the time is dropped.
• Wave on dates: MM/DD/YYYY. As stated by the vendor: the date column must be in MM/DD/YYYY format.

Amounts and their direction

• The amount column is unsigned and another column says whether the row is money in or money out. A row marked as money out becomes a negative Amount.
• Wave's own rule: Three or four columns: date, description, and the amount either all in one column or one column each for deposits and withdrawals. For credit card statements, purchases must be positive and payments negative.
• How sure the direction is: the source says it in words.

Other Wave import rules

• Keep only the date, amount and description columns; delete any other columns.
• The description column can be empty, but if filled it must contain words, not only numbers.
• Remove special characters such as #, &, $ and * from the file.
• Files with more than 100 rows tend not to upload; split them into files of no more than 100 rows each.

Before and after: an invented example

Invented sample data. These four rows were made up for this page. They are not from a real Wise export and hold no real account, name or balance.

The source gives column positions only, so the headings below are the column number and what the column holds, not the bank's header text. The 11 unused columns of the file are left out of the table.

Do it by hand in a spreadsheet, free

These steps need no tool from this site. The cell references follow the column positions of the profile above; if your spreadsheet uses semicolons between formula arguments, replace the commas.

1. Open the Wise CSV in a spreadsheet program through its import dialog. Set the date column (column 4) to Text so the program does not reinterpret it, and leave the amount columns as numbers.
2. Row 1 is the header and the transactions start in row 2.
3. Date: rewrite column D from YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS to MM/DD/YYYY (2024-03-04 09:15:00 becomes 03/04/2024). In a new column, for the first transaction: =MID(D2,6,2)&"/"&MID(D2,9,2)&"/"&MID(D2,1,4) This formula reads the date by character position, so it only works while the dates are text and every date has a two-digit day and month. Fill it down.
4. Amounts: the amount is unsigned and column C gives the direction. Look at which words your file uses there (the public sources do not list them) and adapt the text in the formula. Signed Amount: =IF(C2="OUT",-ABS(N2),ABS(N2))
5. Text columns: fill Description (from column 13 and column 17). Where several bank columns feed one column, join them with a separator such as " - ".
6. Apply Wave's own rules from its help page: Keep only the date, amount and description columns; delete any other columns. The description column can be empty, but if filled it must contain words, not only numbers. Remove special characters such as #, &, $ and * from the file. Files with more than 100 rows tend not to upload; split them into files of no more than 100 rows each.
7. Keep only the new columns, put the header row Date,Description,Amount on top, save the sheet as a comma-separated CSV, and compare the dates, the direction of the amounts and the number of rows with your statement in Wave's import preview.

Or use the converter

Load the file, choose the Wise profile in the bank list and the target Wave, read the preview, then download. The conversion runs locally in your browser: the file is not uploaded, and only the licence key is sent for unlocking.

Paid profile. The free manual column mapper works for any bank, this one included, but the free version writes only the first 25 converted rows of a file. The 9 USD one-time licence adds the ready-made Wise profile (one of the 35 paid profiles) and removes the 25-row limit. The column table on this page is free to read and can be used to fill in the manual mapper.

Open the converter Licence terms

Where this layout comes from

No bank supplied or approved this layout. It was copied on 5 October 2026 from a public open-source importer file kept by volunteers: bank2ynab/bank2ynab, file bank2ynab/data/bank2ynab.conf

Also read: simonmichael/hledger, file examples/csv/other/Wise.rules

The lines used from the source: [Wise] Source Filename Pattern = transaction-history ; Header Rows = 1 ; Input Columns = skip,skip,skip,Date,skip,skip,skip,skip,skip,skip,skip,skip,Payee,Outflow,skip,skip,skip,skip ; comment: "Inflow and Outflow are in the same column"

The Wave rules come from the vendor's own help pages: support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208621626-Upload-a-bank-or-credit-card-statement-in-csv-format (named as text, not linked), support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622596 (named as text, not linked). The official page refuses automated fetches (HTTP 403 or a script-only page), so the rules were read from web search excerpts of that same official URL on the checked date. Re-check in a browser before relying on a detail.

Bank formats change. Banks alter their CSV exports without notice and vendors change their import rules, so this mapping can be out of date. If the preview looks wrong, use the manual column mapper.

Related pages

Wise to other apps

The Wise guides for YNAB, QuickBooks Online and Xero, in the bank list

Other international exports to Wave

• PayPal

All banks and apps