Tide is the UK's leading business banking platform, with over 500,000 small business customers. Unlike traditional banks, Tide was built purely for business — which means its statements include features like auto-categorisation and transaction tags that personal bank statements don't have.
Tide Statement Format
Tide statements are designed for business use and include:
- Date: DD/MM/YYYY
- Description: Merchant or payee name
- Amount: Single column with +/- values
- Transaction tags: User-applied tags (e.g., "Marketing", "Office Supplies")
- Auto-categorisation: Tide automatically categorises transactions (e.g., "Software", "Travel")
- Invoice references: If using Tide's invoicing feature, payments are linked to invoice numbers
Common Tide Conversion Issues
1. Transaction Tags vs Categories
Tide has two layers of transaction metadata: automatic categories AND user-applied tags. When converting to Excel, both appear in the description or as separate columns. For clean bookkeeping imports, you'll want to preserve these categorisations — they're useful for your accounting software.
2. Invoice Payment Matching
Tide's invoicing feature links incoming payments to specific invoices. This is useful for reconciliation but adds reference numbers that can clutter your spreadsheet if you're not expecting them.
3. Multi-User Account Activity
Tide business accounts support multiple users with different permissions. Transactions may include user attribution — who made the payment or initiated the transfer. This metadata is useful for internal controls but needs to be handled correctly during conversion.
Bookkeeper's advantage: Tide's auto-categorisation and tags are a timesaver — when you convert Tide statements, preserve these in your Excel output. You can use them to automatically map transactions to Xero or QuickBooks chart of accounts codes during import.
Conversion Methods
Tide offers CSV and PDF exports through the app and web dashboard. CSV exports include all tags and categories in separate columns. BankScan AI handles Tide's format natively, preserving transaction metadata in structured Excel columns — Date, Description, Amount, Category, Tags — ready for bookkeeping import.
Convert Tide Statements, Preserve the Tags
Upload a Tide PDF or CSV, get a clean Excel with categories and tags preserved for easier reconciliation.
Try Free Now →Last updated: 8 May 2026. Tide is a trademark of Tide Platform Limited.