Carried-forward bank balances: keep them out of transaction rows

A page-end balance or brought-forward amount is not automatically a transaction. Classify these lines before summing movements, and retain their location as review evidence. Removing every line containing ‘balance’ is also unsafe: a genuine description can include that word.

Balance, subtotal or payment: a classification matrix

The labels below are examples, not guaranteed wording used by every bank. Read the amount’s column, neighbouring lines and account context together.

Candidate line	Evidence to look for	Treatment after confirmation
Opening balance	Period start; balance heading	Opening control, outside movements
Carried forward / brought forward	Linked page boundary; same account and currency	Page-transition control, no new movement
Total debits for the page	Summary label and matching debit scope	Subtotal control, not another debit
Balance adjustment with a debit amount	Distinct transaction fields and source context	Keep the confirmed transaction
Isolated number at the page top	No reliable heading or matching context	Leave unresolved; do not silently discard

The purpose is to explain the exclusion, not to minimise the number of rows. “Contains balance” is a useful search aid for finding candidates, but cannot decide the row type. The same principle applies to translated labels and abbreviations.

Practical method

1. Read the labels above and below the page break. Check whether the figure is in a balance column or represents a debit or credit.

2. Add a row-type field: transaction, page balance, heading or unresolved. Keep page balances in a separate control table rather than silently deleting them.

3. Sum only confirmed transactions. If filtering in Power Query, use the reviewed row type as the condition, not a keyword alone.

Fictional example

A fictional page ends at balance 870.00. The next starts with Brought forward 870.00, followed by a debit of 25.00 and closing balance 845.00. The brought-forward figure adds zero new movement. Including it as a credit would inflate the calculated closing balance to 1,715.00. Keep both page-balance locations to show why the line was excluded.

Keep a page-transition record

For each proposed carry-forward exclusion, record the preceding page, following page, printed label, amount, account context and currency. In the fictional example, the record is “page 1 closing 870.00; page 2 brought forward 870.00; same account and currency; no new debit or credit”. This explains the decision to someone who did not perform the extraction. A repeated amount alone is not enough: two accounts can coincidentally have the same balance.

Keep the row-type column next to the original text. A genuine transaction described as “balance adjustment” with a debit of 25.00 still changes the account and must not disappear because a keyword filter matches it. A page subtotal, running balance and account closing balance are also different objects; name the control field precisely rather than calling every number “balance”.

What to do when the two figures differ

Suppose, in another fictional case, one page ends at 870.00 but the next begins at 865.00. Record the 5.00 difference and inspect the original pages in sequence. Check that no page was omitted or selected from another statement, and compare the printed labels before concluding that the figures should match. Do not add a 5.00 fee or delete an operation to repair the difference.

Filter on the reviewed row type; the condition selects rows but cannot establish their meaning. Keep unresolved rows visible in the control sheet and disclose that the transaction total is provisional. Filtering excludes a row from a calculation; it should not erase the reason for doing so.

Review a complete page boundary, including wrapped descriptions

Keep the last confirmed transaction on the preceding page and the first on the following page in the review view. Then inspect the lines between them in the PDF. A description can continue after a page heading without representing another payment. Conversely, a real debit can sit immediately below a brought-forward balance. The page break alone neither joins nor separates a transaction.

Give each printed line a source location and each confirmed transaction its own identifier. Link continuation lines to that transaction without assigning the carried balance to its amount. Your review workbook can hold three related tables: original lines, classified movements and balance controls. This arrangement lets a reviewer explain why an amount was excluded while preserving the wording that supported the decision. If the boundary is unreadable, keep the exception visible rather than filling the gap from a matching final balance.

Verify the filter and retain a count of excluded rows

After classification, a filter can select confirmed transactions, for example Table.SelectRows(Reviewed, each [RowType] = "transaction") when those are your actual query and field names. Filter on the reviewed row type; the condition selects rows but cannot establish their meaning. Count the rows before and after filtering and examine the excluded set separately. The counts should explain every input row, including unresolved ones.

In the invented 870.00-to-845.00 example, the movement is −25.00; the two appearances of 870.00 are linked control observations. Do not export either as +870.00 or −870.00. If the receiving accounting system asks for an opening-balance entry, that is a separate setup procedure under its own specification. It does not turn every page carry-forward into a bank payment. Before delivery, confirm that the final transaction table contains the debit once and the control sheet still contains both balance locations.

Checks and limits

Compare the last balance of one page with the first of the next when both are supplied. A discrepancy may mean a missing page, a different account or a different type of subtotal; do not force equality. If the document prints a real transfer near the carry-forward line, preserve it separately.

Keep the original file unchanged and record any unresolved item before using the table.

Related checks

Separate carried balances from the signed movements used in the balance check. Debit and credit columns to one signed amount: a bank CSV method · Check a bank statement balance without hiding extraction errors.

BankStatementScan is in preparation. The site offers an access request and a fictional example; it does not currently convert your bank files. See the planned service.

Sources consulted on 16 October 2026

• Banca d’Italia — Estratto.
• W3C — Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web.