Wave + Charities & Non-Profits: Faster Bank Import
Charities need accurate financial records for trustees, donors, and the Charity Commission — but often rely on volunteers without accounting expertise. If you use Wave for your accounting, you need a fast way to get bank statement data into the system.
BankScan AI for Charities & Non-Profits Using Wave
BankScan AI converts any bank statement PDF to CSV formatted for direct import into Wave. Make bank statement reconciliation simple for volunteer treasurers. Upload statements, get clean spreadsheets for your financial reports.
The Charities & Non-Profits + Wave Workflow
Charity treasurers collect bank statements monthly, reconcile them against donation records and grant income, allocate expenditure to restricted and unrestricted funds, and prepare reports for trustee meetings. Annual accounts must be filed with the Charity Commission, requiring a full year of reconciled bank data.
Key terms you'll encounter: restricted funds, unrestricted funds, fund accounting, Charity SORP.
How It Works
Upload any bank statement PDF
Supports all major banks. Saves volunteer treasurers 2-3 hours per month on bank reconciliation, reducing reliance on accounting expertise that small charities often lack
AI formats for Wave
Output as CSV with Date, Description, Amount — Wave supports both single amount column and separate Income/Expense columns — dates in YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY.
Import and reconcile
In Wave, go to Banking > Connected Accounts > Upload a bank statement (CSV). Select the file, map columns to Date, Description, and Amount, then import. Wave's invoicing is tightly coupled with bank imports — when you import a bank deposit, Wave suggests matching it to outstanding invoices automatically.
Supported Banks
BankScan AI works with all major UK and US banks, including:
Wave Features for Charities & Non-Profits
- Wave ready — Output formatted as CSV matching Wave's expected column structure
- Smart integration — Wave's invoicing is tightly coupled with bank imports — when you import a bank deposit, Wave suggests matching it to outstanding invoices automatically.
- Built for Charities & Non-Profits — Saves volunteer treasurers 2-3 hours per month on bank reconciliation, reducing reliance on accounting expertise that small charities often lack
- Software compatible — Output works directly with Xero, QuickBooks, LibreOffice Calc
Import Steps for Charities & Non-Profits Using Wave
As charity, here's how to get bank data into Wave:
- In Wave, go to Banking > Connected Accounts > Upload a bank statement (CSV)
- Select the file, map columns to Date, Description, and Amount, then import
Common Import Issues
Wave's free tier has occasional processing delays on large files. Also, Wave uses MM/DD/YYYY by default which conflicts with UK DD/MM/YYYY — select the correct format during import.
Wave Import — Built for Charities & Non-Profits
Completely free with no paid tier for accounting features (monetised through payment processing). Popular with budget-conscious startups and side-hustlers.
Try Free — Wave + Charities & Non-Profits