General Ledger + Converter in one subscription.
See pricingBY ISSUER · AMERICAN EXPRESS
To convert an American Express statement to Excel, download the PDF from Statements & Activity at americanexpress.com, upload it to the ZeraBooks bank statement converter and download Excel or CSV. ZeraBooks puts each charge under its card member and proves previous balance plus charges minus payments equals the new balance Amex printed.
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STEP 1 · DOWNLOAD
The full walk-through is in Download your American Express statements.
Saving several months is quicker on a computer than in the app.
It is in the main menu.
Amex shows recent statements online; for older months, use its statement archive or ask Amex.
One statement covers the main card and every employee card on the account, so there is no separate file per person.
Try it on your own documents. One-week free trial, both apps included.
HOW AMEX LAYS IT OUT
An Amex statement typically opens with the account summary and payment details, then lists activity by card member. What makes it hard in a spreadsheet is everything printed between the charges.
| Part of the statement | What it holds | In the converted file |
|---|---|---|
| Account summary | Previous Balance, Payments/Credits, New Charges, Fees, Interest Charged, New Balance | Used for the proof, not rows |
| Payments and credits | Payments to the card, refunds and statement credits, printed with a minus | Rows, positive: money back to you. Type Payment or Credit |
| New charges, by card member | Each person’s charges under their name and card ending, with their total | Rows, negative, with the Cardholder column |
| Foreign Spend | The amount in the other currency, beside the dollar charge | Not a row; the dollar amount is the charge |
| Travel detail | Ticket number and date of departure under an airline charge | Not separate rows; they belong to the charge above |
| ⧫ mark | Pay Over Time or Cash Advance activity | The charge is a row as usual |
| Fees and interest | Total Fees and Total Interest Charged for this Period | Rows, Type Fee or Interest, negative |
Card products differ, and Amex has changed its layout over the years. ZeraBooks Convert reads the layout from the statement itself, and reads each card member’s printed total from the summary so it can check them one by one.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Lakeview Events is a fictional company with an Amex business card and three card members. The billing period runs 09/15/26 to 10/14/26. Downloaded in the Standard format as one file, so a Cardholder column is added:
| Date | Description | Amount | Cardholder |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09/16/2026 | UNITED AIRLINES | -642.80 | DANA LEE |
| 09/18/2026 | SQ *BLOOM FLORAL | -1,250.00 | SAM ORTIZ |
| 09/22/2026 | AUTOPAY PAYMENT RECEIVED - THANK YOU | 6,240.18 | Account |
| 09/30/2026 | STAPLES | -118.45 | DANA LEE |
| 10/02/2026 | SQ *BLOOM FLORAL CREDIT | 85.00 | SAM ORTIZ |
| 10/03/2026 | HILTON LONDON | -486.20 | RIA PATEL |
| 10/08/2026 | PARTY CITY | -212.37 | SAM ORTIZ |
| Sum of Amount = previous 6,240.18 − new 2,624.82 | 3,615.36 |
The account proof: 6,240.18 − 6,240.18 − 85.00 + 2,709.82 = 2,624.82, the New Balance Amex printed. Then each card member: Dana Lee 761.25, Sam Ortiz 1,462.37 in charges (1,377.37 after the refund; Amex prints it either way and both are accepted), Ria Patel 486.20. The Hilton charge printed a second line with the amount in pounds; it isn’t in the file because it isn’t a second charge. Want each person on their own sheet? Choose One per cardholder in the Download dialog.
WHAT GOES WRONG
Most of the damage comes from lines that look like charges and aren’t.
Airline ticket numbers, departure dates and foreign currency amounts sit on their own lines under the charge. Pasted, each one is a row, and some carry an amount that gets summed.
“Detail Continued” headers repeat at the top of each page, and a card member’s section can start on one page and end on the next. In a paste, nothing says whose charge a row is.
A statement closing on January 14 holds December charges. Dates printed without a full year get the wrong one, and a December close misses half a month.
Both are printed with a minus under payments and credits. For the books, a payment moves money from the bank to the card; a refund reduces an expense. Keep them apart, as the Type column does.
AFTER THE FILE
CATEGORIES
Which account an Amex charge belongs to, and how to handle the annual fee, rewards and personal charges, is on our page about American Express expense categorization. In the ZeraBooks General Ledger, Autopilot does that for you; see AI bookkeeping.
XERO OR QUICKBOOKS
Xero-ready and QuickBooks-ready downloads write charges as negative amounts and payments as positive ones, from a statement already proven. Which sign Xero wants on a card account, and the other Xero routes, are walked through in Amex statements into Xero.
MORE BANKS
Yes. Choose One per cardholder (or Automatic) in the Download dialog, and each card member gets their own tab in Excel, or their own file in a ZIP as CSV. Each one is checked against the total Amex printed for them.
Amex billing periods follow your closing date, so a period from the 15th to the 14th is common. Upload each statement as it is, in order; each one is proven on its own previous and new balance.
For a quick look, it is fine. It usually carries no previous or new balance, so it can’t be proven complete. For books, an expense audit or a tax file, convert the PDF.
Yes. The installment billed this period is one charge on the statement and comes through as one row. The plan’s total, payments to date and remaining amount are not transactions and are left out.
No. ZeraBooks has no bank or card feeds and never asks for your Amex sign-in. You download the PDF and upload it.
Convert comes with the ZeraBooks subscription: 1,000 pages a month for $79 a month billed annually or $149 monthly, after a 7-day trial. An Amex statement with several card members often runs to many pages; every page counts. See ZeraBooks pricing.
ONE-WEEK FREE TRIAL
1,000 pages a month from $79 a month billed annually. More on cards in credit card statement to Excel. Bank statements too: Citi, PNC and Chase.
Last updated November 5, 2026 · Written by Damin Mutti, founder of ZeraBooks