Skwad’s CSV import now reads two more columns, Tags and Original Description, so the labels and raw bank strings in your file come in with the import. No more re-tagging by hand afterward.
You know the old way. You spent an afternoon tagging last quarter’s expenses in some other tool. Every client, every trip, every “waiting on reimbursement.” Then you import the CSV into a budgeting app and the tags just vanish, and you’re back to clicking through rows one at a time.
That used to be true in Skwad too. CSV import has always been our catch-all way in: grab a statement from pretty much any bank, save it as a CSV, drop it into Skwad, and it comes out categorized. No bank linking, no integration to set up. What it couldn’t carry was the extra context.
So we fixed it. If you’re picky about labels (we are too), you’ll like both new columns.
What’s new: Tags column
Categories answer “what kind of spending was this?” Groceries, Dining, Travel. Tags answer whatever else you need answered. Which project? Which event? Did I file this yet? One transaction can carry as many tags as you like, and you can filter, search, and run reports on them.
People use them in all sorts of ways. A freelancer tags each purchase with the client it belongs to. Someone else flags anything the company owes them back, or anything their accountant will want in April. There’s the “Lisbon 2026” tag for a trip, and the reviewed / submitted / approved trail for an expense workflow.
Until now, all that had to be redone by hand after import. Not anymore. Export a business expense report from another system with a project tag on every row, and the tag rides along into Skwad.
How to include tags in your CSV
Give your file a Tags column. One tag per row is fine; for a purchase that’s both business and reimbursable, wrap the cell in quotes and separate the names with commas:
Date,Payee,Amount,Category,Tags
2026-03-15,Amazon Business,142.50,Office Supplies,"business,reimbursable"
2026-03-16,Uber Eats,28.75,Dining,personal
2026-03-17,United Airlines,489.00,Travel,"business,Q1-conference,reimbursable"If a tag already exists in your Skwad, it gets matched. If it doesn’t, Skwad creates it on the spot. Capitalization doesn’t matter, so “Business” and “business” end up as one tag.
Tag column name variations
Every export tool names this column a little differently. Skwad understands whichever of these yours uses:
TagsTagLabelsLabel
What’s new: Original Description column
Plenty of bank exports carry two descriptions per row. One is the payee name, usually tidied up. The other is whatever the payment processor actually sent.
You know the one. It’s the shouty all-caps line on your statement: “SQ *LOCAL BISTRO 492B NYC,” “AMZN MKTP US*1K9AB203Q,” “POS PURCHASE 031526 CHEVRON #1234.” Ugly? Very. But it usually holds details the tidy name threw away, like a terminal number or a city, and that makes it worth keeping around.
Import it, and Skwad holds on to exactly what your bank recorded, even after you’ve renamed the payee to something human. That pays off in a few places.
Some expense reports and bookkeeping setups want the raw bank description, full stop, and it ties your Skwad transaction back to the bank’s record with no guesswork. It also helps when you’re cleaning up merchant names, since you can see why a payee ended up named the way it did, and whether your rename is actually right.
We index original descriptions for search, too. That reference number or store code that only ever appeared in the raw string? Search for it and the transaction turns up. Our automation engine can use the original description as a condition as well, which is great for rules built on processor codes or location IDs that show up reliably in the raw data and never in the clean payee.
How to include original description in your CSV
Same trick as tags, one more header. Call it Original Description (or any alias further down) and paste the bank’s gibberish in as-is:
Date,Payee,Amount,Category,Original Description
2026-03-15,Amazon,142.50,Shopping,AMZN MKTP US*1K9AB203Q
2026-03-16,Local Coffee,4.75,Dining,SQ *LOCAL COFFEE 492BNYC
2026-03-17,Chevron,52.30,Gas & Fuel,POS PURCHASE 031726 CHEVRON #1234 PORTLAND ORSkwad stores the two separately. Your transaction list shows the clean payee. Open a transaction and the original description is right there in the detail view.
Original Description column name variations
Your bank might label it differently. Skwad recognizes all four:
Original DescriptionOriginal PayeeBank DescriptionRaw Description
Who benefits most from these new columns
Business expense tracking
Run business spending through a personal account? This one’s for you. Your accounting or expense tool has probably already stamped each transaction with a project code, a client, or an expense type. Export from there, import here, and those tags stay put. Personal and business spending in one view, and none of that sorting work thrown away.
Users migrating from other budgeting apps
Lots of budgeting apps will export your full history as a CSV, tags and labels included. Since import now reads those tags, switching to Skwad doesn’t mean starting your organization from scratch. Export, import, done, tags and all. Coming from Mint? Our migration guide walks you through it.
Users downloading bank statements directly
Some of you would rather download statements yourself than connect through Plaid or SimpleFin. Bank CSVs usually include both the cleaned description and the raw one. Bring both in and you have everything your bank wrote down.
Tax and accounting workflows
Tracking transactions for tax season? With the original description imported, your Skwad records carry the same identifiers printed on your bank statements. If you’re ever asked to back up a deduction, matching one to the other takes seconds.
Teams managing shared finances
Sharing a Skwad with a partner or roommates? Tags turn into little notes to each other. Mark the Costco trip “groceries run,” the swim lessons “kids activities,” the paint “home improvement,” and after import nobody has to ask what that $212 was.
Combining Tags with automations
Once tagged transactions are in, Skwad’s automation engine can act on them. A rule can:
- Add more tags based on category or payee
- Change the category for transactions carrying certain tags
- Kick off categorization workflows based on imported tags
Say your business transactions come in tagged with a client’s name. You could write a rule that also slaps a “Q1-expenses” tag on anything already carrying that client tag. The tag from your old system turns into a trigger in the new one.
The complete CSV import column reference
| Column | Variations | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Date, Transaction Date | Transaction date |
| Payee | Payee, Merchant, Description | Payee or merchant name |
| Amount | Amount, Debit/Credit | Transaction amount |
| Category | Category, Type | Budget category |
| Account | Account | Destination account |
| Memo | Memo, Notes, Note | Free-text note |
| Tags | Tags, Tag, Labels, Label | Comma-separated tags |
| Original Description | Original Description, Original Payee, Bank Description, Raw Description | Raw bank description |
You don’t need all of them. Date and Amount are the only two a valid import needs. We’d still include Payee and Category, since without them you’ve got a list of numbers and not much else.
Importing your first CSV with tags
Nothing new to learn here. It’s the same six steps:
- Open Accounts, or whichever screen you normally import from
- Hit Import CSV
- Choose your file
- Look over the preview, where Skwad shows which header went to which field
- Make sure Tags and Original Description matched up
- Confirm, and you’re in
Used an unusual header and Skwad didn’t pick up your Tags or Original Description column? Map it yourself in the import screen.
Stuck on formatting or an import that won’t go through? The CSV import documentation covers it. For more ways to put tags to work, there’s the tags guide.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between tags and categories in Skwad?
A category says what kind of spending it was: Groceries, Dining, Travel. A tag says anything else you care about, like which project it belongs to, which trip, or whether you’ve filed it yet. One transaction can carry several tags, and you can filter, search, and report on them.
Are imported tag names case-sensitive?
No. “Business” and “business” land on the same tag. If a tag already exists, Skwad matches it. If it doesn’t, Skwad creates it during the import.
Which columns are required for a CSV import?
Just Date and Amount. Payee and Category are optional, though without them you’ll have a pile of numbers and not much else, so we’d include them.
What is the Original Description column for?
It keeps the raw bank string (something like “AMZN MKTP US*1K9AB203Q”) next to the tidy payee name. Handy for audit trails, for search, and for automation rules that trigger on processor codes that only show up in the raw version.
Tags and Original Description are live for every Skwad user today. Keep your data the way you already like it, and let Skwad take it from there.
