Import an Erste George PDF Statement into Budgie

George keeps every statement of your Erste Bank account as a PDF. Budgie reads that PDF on your phone and turns it into an account with every booking, its date and amount, so your household book stays complete without typing a single line. Below is the whole route: downloading the statement in George, importing it into Budgie, and adding newer statements later.

This is an import from a file, not a live connection to the bank. When you want newer bookings, download the next statement and import it the same way: anything already in Budgie is skipped. The feature itself is described on the Erste Bank PDF import page.

What you need

• A euro current account at Erste Bank in Austria, with access to George in the browser or the app.
• Budgie on your phone. You do not need a Budgie account, and Budgie never asks for your George login.

Step 1. Download the statement from George as a PDF

1. Sign in to George and open the account you want to bring into Budgie.
2. Open its statements. In George in the browser, the account has a Kontoauszüge (statements) button; in the George app, tap Funktionen (functions) and then Kontoauszüge.
3. Pick a statement from the list and download it as a PDF. If George offers several layouts, take the regular A4 statement.
4. Save the file to your phone. If you downloaded it on a computer, send it to your phone and save it to your files.

Each statement covers the period since the previous one, so one file rarely holds your whole history. For the first import, take the oldest statements you need as well: Budgie builds the account balance from the bookings it imports, so missing periods leave a balance that does not match the bank. According to George's own help, past statements can be downloaded for up to three years back. Overlapping files are fine, because Budgie skips bookings it already has.

Step 2. Import the PDF into Budgie

1. In Budgie, tap the + button in the tab bar and choose Account.
2. Under Account Sync, choose Erste Bank. Budgie shows the same George steps as a short reminder.
3. Tap Select File and pick the PDF statement you saved.
4. Budgie lists the account it found in the file, with its IBAN. Switch it on, or tap Select all.
5. Tap Start Sync. Budgie creates an account called Erste EUR, fills it with the bookings and takes you back to the home screen.

If you already keep an account in Budgie with the same IBAN, the bookings go into that account instead of a new one. The PDF is read on your phone: the statement is not uploaded anywhere, and the bookings are stored only on your device.

What Budgie takes from the statement

• Date: one date per booking, as printed on the statement. The PDF carries no time of day.
• Booking text, which becomes the transaction title.
• Amount, recorded as an expense or as income depending on its sign, always in euros.
• Place: for card payments, the city and country from the booking text are kept as a note.
• IBAN: stored on the account, so the next statement lands in the same place.
• Cash withdrawals: ATM withdrawals are recognized as such. If you keep exactly one cash account in euros, Budgie records them as transfers into it; otherwise they wait together in the Categorize inbox.

The statement carries no categories, so the other bookings arrive uncategorized. Your own categorization rules run on them, and whatever is left waits in the Categorize inbox, grouped by merchant. If you also hold money in other currencies, keep it in separate accounts: multi-currency tracking brings everything together in your main currency.

Adding new statements later

Once the account is in Budgie, you do not need to repeat the setup. Download the next statement from George, then long-press the Erste account card on Budgie's home screen. The file picker opens straight away: pick the new PDF and Budgie imports it in the background.

When it finishes, Budgie shows how many bookings were new, how many were already imported and how many it checked. Nothing is doubled, so you can import the same statement twice without harm.

If the import does not work

• Budgie reports an invalid file. Make sure the PDF is an account statement from Erste Bank in Austria, downloaded from George, and not a statement from another bank.
• The balance differs from the bank. Some statements are probably missing. Import the earlier ones as well; bookings you already have are skipped.
• The long-press reports no matching accounts. The file belongs to an account you have not added yet. Add it once through Step 2.
• A statement from another bank. Use CSV import, where you match the file's columns to Budgie fields yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions