BMO Only Gives You 90 Days of CSV. Here’s How to Get the Rest.

BMO (formerly BMO Harris Bank) is one of the largest banks operating in the United States, with over $87.5 billion in US assets and millions of retail customers spread across a Midwest-focused branch network that reaches from Illinois and Wisconsin to Arizona and Florida. After the 2023 rebrand dropped "Harris" from the name, account holders were left with a mix of old BMO Harris statements and new BMO-branded ones. Worse, BMO's online banking only lets you download CSV transaction data for the last 90 days. Beyond that, you are stuck with PDF statements. If you need six months or a year of transaction history in spreadsheet form, that 90-day cutoff is a real problem. This guide covers every method for getting your BMO data into CSV, Excel, or QBO format, including the workaround for that 90-day wall.

Can You Download CSV Directly from BMO?

Yes, but only partially. BMO's online banking includes a transaction download feature on the Account Activity page. You can choose from CSV, Quicken (QFX), QuickBooks (QBO), and Simply Accounting (CSV variant) as export formats. That sounds generous compared to many banks.

The catch is a hard 90-day limit on all of these exports. Here is what works and what does not:

• CSV download available: BMO does offer a native CSV export from the Account Activity page, which is more than many regional banks provide.
• Multiple format options: In addition to CSV, BMO supports Quicken, QuickBooks, and Simply Accounting download formats for connecting to financial software.
• 90-day limit on all formats: Every structured export (CSV, QFX, QBO, Simply Accounting) is capped at 90 days of transaction history. Need six months for a tax audit? You cannot get it through the download feature.
• Date formatting problems: BMO's CSV export sometimes renders dates as a raw number string (e.g., 20150522 instead of 2022-05-22). Excel may interpret these as integers rather than dates, requiring manual cleanup before you can sort or filter by date.
• Credit cards share the same 90-day wall: BMO credit card accounts (cashback, rewards, and business cards) also cap their downloadable transaction history at 90 days. Older credit card data is only available through PDF statements.

For any data beyond the 90-day window, or when you need correctly formatted dates and complete statement totals, converting the PDF is the most reliable approach.

BMO Statement Formats and Quirks

BMO uses different PDF layouts depending on the account type. After the 2023 rebrand from BMO Harris Bank to just BMO, the statement headers and logos changed, but the underlying transaction layout remained largely the same. Here is what to expect:

Key things to know: BMO checking and savings statements use separate debit and credit columns, which means deposits and withdrawals appear in different columns rather than as positive and negative values in a single field. Credit card statements switch to a single amount column with charges shown as positive numbers and payments as negative. The year is often omitted from credit card transaction dates (showing only MM/DD), which can cause problems when a statement period spans December and January. CapyParse infers the correct year from the statement period header automatically.

Convert BMO Statement to CSV with CapyParse (Step-by-Step)

Here is how to convert any BMO statement PDF into a clean CSV, Excel, or QBO file using CapyParse:

Account Type Details

BMO Smart Advantage Checking

BMO Smart Advantage Checking is the bank's most widely held personal checking account. Statements follow the standard BMO layout with separate debit and credit columns, a daily running balance, and a monthly summary section at the top. The statement also includes a fee summary showing any monthly maintenance charges, overdraft fees, and ATM surcharges. One quirk specific to BMO checking: direct deposits are sometimes grouped into a separate "Electronic Deposits" section rather than appearing inline with other credits. CapyParse captures transactions from all sections and merges them into a single chronological CSV.

BMO Savings and Money Market

BMO savings account statements are simpler than checking statements. They typically show fewer transactions (deposits, withdrawals, and interest credits) with the same debit/credit column layout. The interest summary section at the end of the statement can be useful for tax preparation. Money market accounts follow an identical format. CapyParse extracts both transaction-level data and the interest summary, so you have a complete picture when preparing your 1099-INT reconciliation.

BMO Credit Cards

BMO offers several credit cards including cashback and rewards options. Credit card statements use a different layout than deposit accounts:

• Single amount column with charges as positive and payments/credits as negative
• MM/DD date format only without the year, requiring inference from the statement period
• Interest charges, fees, and rewards listed in separate summary sections at the end of the statement

BMO credit card statements also fall under the 90-day download limit. If you need more than three months of credit card transaction history for expense reporting or bookkeeping, the PDF conversion route is your only option. CapyParse handles the single-column layout and infers the correct year for each transaction date.

Legacy BMO Harris Bank Statements

Before the 2023 rebrand, BMO operated in the US as BMO Harris Bank. The "Harris" name goes back to the Harris Bank of Chicago, which BMO acquired in 1984. If you have PDF statements from the BMO Harris era, you will notice the older branding and slightly different header formatting, but the underlying transaction layout is essentially the same as current BMO statements. CapyParse recognizes both the BMO Harris and BMO logos and headers, so you can upload old and new statements together without any extra steps.

Import Into QuickBooks, Excel, or Google Sheets

QuickBooks

Export your BMO statement as a QBO file from CapyParse and import it directly into QuickBooks via Banking > Upload transactions. While BMO does offer a native QBO download for recent activity, the 90-day limit means you will still need CapyParse for older periods. For a detailed walkthrough, see our guide on importing bank statements into QuickBooks.

Excel and Google Sheets

The CSV export opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets. All transaction fields (date, description, amount, balance) appear in separate columns, ready for sorting, filtering, pivot tables, or custom formulas. Unlike BMO's native CSV, CapyParse dates are properly formatted so Excel recognizes them as dates instead of numbers. The Excel (.xlsx) export is also available if you prefer native spreadsheet formatting. For a step-by-step guide, see importing bank statements into Google Sheets.

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