First Direct Statements + Contractors & Freelancers Workflow
As contractor, you regularly handle First Direct bank statements. Contractors and freelancers juggling personal and business accounts need to separate expenses for tax purposes.
BankScan AI: First Direct to Excel for Contractors & Freelancers
BankScan AI converts First Direct statements to Excel automatically — handling DD MMM YYYY and minimalist single-column layout with transaction type codes and running balance, similar to HSBC but with simplified headers. Upload your bank statements and get organised spreadsheets that make expense categorisation and self-assessment tax returns straightforward.
About First Direct Statement Format
First Direct statements follow an HSBC-family format but with a distinct minimalist layout. BankScan AI detects the variant automatically.
First Direct Statement Quirks
First Direct uses DD MMM YYYY with minimalist single-column layout with transaction type codes and running balance, similar to HSBC but with simplified headers. Common issues: The minimalist layout omits some metadata present in standard HSBC statements, telephone banking transaction references use abbreviated codes, and the PDF uses a clean sans-serif font that differs from HSBC's standard. BankScan AI handles all of these automatically.
How Contractors & Freelancers Handle First Direct Statements
When working with First Direct statements, contractors & freelancers need to Contractors download bank statements from both personal and business accounts, separate allowable business expenses from personal spending, categorise expenses by type for self-assessment, and either
Key terms you'll encounter: IR35, director's loan account, allowable expenses, flat rate VAT, deemed employment.
How It Works
Upload First Direct statement
Drag and drop your First Direct PDF. Supports PDF. Our AI handles DD MMM YYYY automatically.
AI parses the statement
Our AI understands First Direct's minimalist single-column layout with transaction type codes and running balance, similar to HSBC but with simplified headers and extracts every transaction with 99%+ accuracy.
Use in your contractors & freelancers workflow
Download Excel ready for FreeAgent, Xero or direct analysis.
First Direct + Contractors & Freelancers Features
- Minimalist header design — distinct from parent HSBC despite sharing underlying transaction codes
- Regular Saver account — transactions appear alongside current account entries
- Built for Contractors & Freelancers — Saves 1-2 hours per month on expense tracking and categorisation, plus 3-4 hours at year-end when preparing records for self-assessment
- Software compatible — Output works directly with FreeAgent, Xero, QuickBooks Self-Employed
Convert First Direct Statements — Built for Contractors & Freelancers
Handles DD MMM YYYY dates, minimalist single-column layout with transaction type codes and running balance, similar to HSBC but with simplified headers, and PDF formats automatically.
Convert First Direct Statements Free