About

BB&T Online Banking exports transactions in a CSV layout that YNAB cannot interpret correctly. When imported directly, YNAB reads only the Date and Amount columns. Every amount appears as inflow regardless of sign. The Payee field is blank. This tool parses the BB&T export, splits each Amount into distinct Outflow and Inflow columns, maps the Description field to Payee, and outputs a file conforming to YNAB's documented CSV specification. The conversion runs entirely in your browser. No data leaves your machine.

Incorrect inflow/outflow mapping leads to doubled balances and phantom income in your budget. A single misclassified $500 outflow appearing as inflow creates a $1000 discrepancy. This tool eliminates that risk. Note: the converter assumes standard BB&T export format with columns Date, Transaction Type, Check Number, Description, Amount. Custom or modified exports may require manual column adjustment.

Formulas

The conversion applies a deterministic mapping from the BB&T 5-column schema to the YNAB 6-column schema. The critical transformation is the sign-based split of the Amount field:

{

Outflow = |Amount|, Inflow = 0 if Amount < 0Outflow = 0, Inflow = Amount if Amount ≥ 0

Where Amount is the raw numeric value from BB&T column index 4, parsed as a floating-point number after stripping currency symbols ($) and commas. The Payee field is derived from BB&T's Description column (index 3). The Memo field is constructed by concatenating Transaction Type (index 1) and Check Number (index 2) when present.

CSV parsing follows RFC 4180: fields enclosed in double quotes may contain commas and newlines. Escaped quotes within quoted fields appear as "" and are collapsed to a single quote.

Reference Data

BB&T Column	Index	YNAB Mapping	Transformation
Date	0	Date	Passed through as MM/DD/YYYY
Transaction Type	1	Memo (appended)	Prefixed to memo if non-empty
Check Number	2	Memo (appended)	Appended as "Check #N" if present
Description	3	Payee	Trimmed, quotes stripped
Amount	4	Outflow / Inflow	Negative → Outflow (absolute), Positive → Inflow
-	-	Category	Left blank (assigned in YNAB)

YNAB Column	Required	Format	Notes
Date	Yes	MM/DD/YYYY	Must match YNAB date setting
Payee	No	Text	Auto-matched to existing payees
Category	No	Text	Ignored on import if blank
Memo	No	Text	Max 200 chars recommended
Outflow	Conditional	Decimal	Positive number, no sign
Inflow	Conditional	Decimal	Positive number, no sign

Common BB&T Transaction Types	Code	Typical Direction
POS Purchase	POS	Outflow
ACH Debit	ACH	Outflow
ACH Credit	ACH	Inflow
Check Paid	CHK	Outflow
ATM Withdrawal	ATM	Outflow
Wire Transfer In	WIR	Inflow
Wire Transfer Out	WIR	Outflow
Direct Deposit	ACH	Inflow
Online Transfer	XFR	Either
Service Fee	FEE	Outflow
Interest Credit	INT	Inflow
Refund / Credit	CRD	Inflow

Frequently Asked Questions

The converter expects the standard BB&T export order: Date, Transaction Type, Check Number, Description, Amount. If your bank changed the export format or you have a modified file, the mapping will produce incorrect results. Verify your CSV opens with a date in the first column and a numeric amount in the fifth column before converting.

A transaction with an Amount of exactly 0.00 is classified as Inflow with a value of 0. These rows are preserved in the output because they may represent authorization holds, reversed fees, or placeholder entries that YNAB should still record for reconciliation.

No. BB&T exports dates in MM/DD/YYYY format, which matches the default YNAB date setting for US-based accounts. If your YNAB is configured for DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD, you must change your YNAB date format setting before import, or the dates will be misread.

Yes. If your CSV file contains multiple months of transactions in a single export, the converter processes all rows sequentially. However, YNAB deduplicates by date, amount, and payee. If you import overlapping date ranges from separate files, duplicate transactions may appear and require manual deletion in YNAB.

BB&T sometimes places the transaction type code at the beginning of the Description field. The converter maps the raw Description to Payee without further parsing. You can rename payees in YNAB after import, and YNAB will remember the rename rule for future imports.

The converter processes files up to 10 MB in the browser. A typical BB&T monthly export with 200 transactions is approximately 15-30 KB. A 10 MB limit accommodates roughly 5-10 years of daily transactions. Files exceeding this limit are rejected to prevent browser memory issues.

No. The entire conversion runs client-side in your browser using the File API and Blob API. No network requests are made. Your CSV data never leaves your device. You can verify this by disconnecting from the internet before converting.