CSV Import Now Supports Tags and Descriptions

CSV import has always been one of Skwad’s most flexible ways to get data in. Download a statement from virtually any financial institution, format it as a CSV, and import it into Skwad — no bank linking required, no integration setup. Just data in, organized and categorized on the other side.

We’ve expanded CSV import with two new supported columns: Tags and Original Description. These additions make import significantly more powerful for users who need precise control over how imported transactions are organized and labeled.

What’s new: Tags column

Tags in Skwad are a flexible organizational layer on top of categories. While categories represent the type of spending (Groceries, Dining, Travel), tags represent whatever classification you want — a project, an event, a purpose, a status. You can apply multiple tags to a single transaction, and tags are filterable, searchable, and available in reports.

Common tag use cases:

• Business expenses: Tag work-related transactions with a project code or client name
• Reimbursable: Tag expenses you expect to be reimbursed
• Tax-deductible: Tag transactions relevant to your tax situation
• Event-based: Tag expenses for a specific trip or occasion
• Status tracking: Tag transactions as “reviewed,” “submitted,” or “approved” for workflow management

With CSV import now supporting the Tags column, you can bring all this organizational context in with the import. If you export a business expenses report from another system and it already has a project tag attached to each row, that tag comes into Skwad directly — no need to apply it manually to each transaction afterward.

How to include tags in your CSV

The Tags column accepts comma-separated tag names. Apply multiple tags to a single transaction by listing them separated by commas within the cell:

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"

Tags that don’t already exist in your Skwad account are created automatically during import. Tags that do exist are matched and applied. Tag names are case-insensitive — “Business” and “business” are treated as the same tag.

Tag column name variations

Skwad’s CSV import accepts several variations of the Tags column name to maximize compatibility with different export formats:

• Tags
• Tag
• Labels
• Label

What’s new: Original Description column

Bank and financial institution export files often include two description fields: the payee name (often cleaned up or normalized) and the raw original description that came from the payment processor.

The raw original description is that long, cryptic string — “SQ *LOCAL BISTRO 492B NYC” or “AMZN MKTP US*1K9AB203Q” or “POS PURCHASE 031526 CHEVRON #1234” — that contains the unprocessed transaction data. It’s not pretty, but it’s often more unique and more complete than the cleaned-up payee name.

Importing the original description into Skwad gives you a preserved record of exactly what appeared in your bank’s transaction data, even after you’ve cleaned up the payee name. This serves several purposes:

Audit trail: For financial record-keeping or expense reporting, having the original bank description is sometimes required. The original description provides an unambiguous link between your Skwad transaction and the underlying bank record.

Payee cleanup reference: When you’re cleaning up merchant names in Skwad, having the original description available helps you identify why a payee was named what it was and whether your cleaned-up name is accurate.

Search and matching: Original descriptions are included in Skwad’s search index. If you ever need to find a transaction by searching for a reference number or location code that appeared in the original description, you can.

Automation rules: Skwad’s automation engine can use the original description as a condition. This is useful for creating rules based on payment processor codes or location-specific identifiers that appear consistently in the original description but not the cleaned-up payee name.

How to include original description in your CSV

Add an Original Description column (or one of its accepted variants) to your CSV file:

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 OR

The clean payee name and the raw original description are stored separately in Skwad. When you view the transaction, you see the clean payee name. The original description is preserved in the transaction data and accessible in the detail view.

Original Description column name variations

Accepted column name variations:

• Original Description
• Original Payee
• Bank Description
• Raw Description

Who benefits most from these new columns

Business expense tracking

If you manage business expenses through a personal account, the Tags column is particularly valuable. Your accounting or expense management tool might already tag transactions with project codes, client names, or expense categories. Exporting from that tool and importing into Skwad now preserves those tags, giving you a unified view of personal and business finances without losing the business categorization you’ve already done.

Users migrating from other budgeting apps

Many budgeting apps support CSV export of your full transaction history, including any tags or labels you’ve applied. With Tags support in CSV import, you can migrate to Skwad without losing your existing organizational structure. Export from your old app, import to Skwad, and your tags come with you. If you’re coming from Mint, see our migration guide.

Users downloading bank statements directly

Some users prefer to download statements directly from their bank and import via CSV rather than connecting through Plaid or SimpleFin. Banks typically include both a cleaned description and a raw original description in their CSV exports. Importing both columns into Skwad gives you the complete picture that your bank recorded.

Tax and accounting workflows

For anyone tracking transactions for tax purposes, having the original description as an importable field means your Skwad records contain the same transaction identifiers that appear on your bank statements. This makes reconciliation straightforward if you’re ever asked to substantiate a deduction.

Teams managing shared finances

In a Skwad team managing shared finances, tags can communicate transactional context between team members. One person tags purchases as “groceries run,” “kids activities,” or “home improvement,” and those tags come in with the import for everyone in the team to see.

Combining Tags with automations

Once transactions are imported with tags, Skwad’s automation engine can work with them. You can create automation rules that:

• Apply additional tags based on category or payee
• Change category for transactions with specific tags
• Trigger categorization workflows based on imported tags

For example, if you import business transactions tagged with a client name, you could create an automation rule that also applies a “Q1-expenses” tag to any imported transaction already tagged with that client name. The imported tag becomes a trigger for additional automated processing.

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

Not all columns are required. The minimum required columns for a valid import are Date and Amount. Payee and Category are strongly recommended for useful data but aren’t technically required.

Importing your first CSV with tags

If you have a CSV file ready, the import flow is the same as before:

1. Navigate to Accounts or the import section in Skwad
2. Select Import CSV
3. Upload your file
4. Skwad will detect the column names and show you a preview of the mapping
5. Verify that Tags and Original Description are mapped correctly
6. Complete the import

If Skwad doesn’t automatically detect your Tags or Original Description column (perhaps because you used a non-standard column name), you can manually map the column in the import interface.

For help formatting your CSV or troubleshooting import issues, see the CSV import documentation. For more on using tags to organize your transactions, visit the tags guide.

More control over your imported data means more accurate, better-organized financial records from day one. The Tags and Original Description columns in CSV import are available to all Skwad users now.