GUIDE · AMEX TO XERO
Connect the Amex card through Xero’s bank feeds for new activity. For past months, download a CSV from American Express (it covers two years) or convert the PDF statements, then use Import a Statement on a Xero credit card account. Charges go in as negative amounts and payments as positive. ZeraBooks makes a Xero-ready CSV from Amex PDFs.
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THREE ROUTES
Which route fits depends on how far back you need to go. Checked on Xero’s and American Express’s own pages, October 22, 2026:
| Route | What it covers | Work involved | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero bank feed | New activity from when the feed starts | Connect once from Xero; lines arrive on their own | Every month from now on |
| Amex CSV download | Two years of transactions | Download, fix the signs if needed, import | Recent months before the feed started |
| Converted PDF statement | Any month you have a statement for | Convert, then import | Older months, archived statements, a catch-up year |
Xero lists American Express among the U.S. banks it supports for feeds. Whatever the route, the lines go into a credit card account in Xero, not a bank account, so the balance shows what you owe. Setting up a feed is covered in Xero bank feed setup.
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WORKED EXAMPLE
Negative. Xero’s CSV rule is one Amount column with money in positive and money out negative, and on a card a charge is money out. Saltmarsh Events is a fictional event planner. Its Amex statement for August 15 to September 14, 2026 opens at 3,118.40 owed. The file column is what Xero should receive, with a plain minus sign and no thousands separator:
| Date | Line | On the Amex statement | In the Xero file |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08/18 | Print shop | 286.50 | −286.50 |
| 08/22 | Payment received, thank you | −3,118.40 | 3118.40 |
| 08/25 | Caterer | 1,940.00 | −1940.00 |
| 08/30 | Refund: print shop | −86.50 | 86.50 |
| 09/03 | Software subscription | 49.00 | −49.00 |
| 09/10 | Fuel | 72.35 | −72.35 |
| Period | Net of the lines | −857.05 | 857.05 |
Proof on the statement: 3,118.40 − 3,118.40 + 2,347.85 in charges − 86.50 refund = 2,261.35 new balance. Proof in Xero: the card account opens at −3,118.40 (owed), the file adds +857.05, and −3,118.40 + 857.05 = −2,261.35, the same 2,261.35 owed. If Xero shows the balance going up after a month of spending, the signs were imported the wrong way round.
FROM AN AMEX CSV
Use this for months inside Amex’s two-year download window that the feed doesn’t cover.
Sign in at americanexpress.com, open the card’s statements and activity, choose the billing period and download CSV. Use statement dates so the file matches a statement you can check.
Find a purchase you remember. If it shows as a positive number, every sign in the file needs flipping before Xero sees it.
Keep Date and Amount, and add Payee and Description from the Amex columns. Delete any balance column, the card number and blank rows. Header row in row 1.
In Xero, open the American Express credit card account, choose Import a Statement, pick the file and assign each column the first time.
The Amex payment appears on the card and on the checking account. Record it once as a transfer between the two, never as an expense.
After reconciling, the card account in Xero should show the new balance printed on the Amex statement.
THE PAYMENT
The 3,118.40 payment shows up twice: money out of checking and money in on the card. It moves debt, not spending. Record it as a transfer between the checking account and the Amex account, then match the line on the other account to that same transfer. Coding it to an expense counts every August charge twice: once as charges and once as the payment.
The annual fee, interest and any rewards credit are different. They are real expenses or income on the card account and go to their own accounts. Which account each kind of Amex charge belongs in is laid out in American Express expense categorization.
FROM AN AMEX PDF
ZeraBooks Convert reads the Amex PDF and writes a file shaped for Xero’s import. It has no Xero connection and no bank feed; the file is the hand-off.
XERO-READY CSV
Convert writes money out as a minus, so charges come out negative and payments and refunds positive, the way Xero wants them on a card account. Dates are MM/DD/YYYY, so confirm month first when Xero asks. Xero’s import screen, column rules and errors are covered in the Xero bank statement import guide.
Choose a download formatCHECKED FIRST
Amex periods don’t start on the 1st, and employee cards print on the main statement. Convert checks previous balance plus charges minus payments against the printed new balance, and each cardholder’s charges against their printed total. A statement that doesn’t tie is flagged with the difference. The All details download keeps the cardholder on every row for your own records.
Download your Amex statements
Xero’s U.S. bank feeds page lists American Express among the banks it supports, checked October 22, 2026. A feed brings in new activity; months before it started still need importing from a CSV or a converted statement.
Xero lists a PDF upload for statements from supported banks without naming them. If it doesn’t accept your Amex PDF, convert the PDF to CSV and use Import a Statement on the card account.
The signs are reversed. Charges must be negative and payments positive in the Amount column. Many card downloads write charges as positive, so flip every sign and import again after removing the wrong lines.
A credit card account. Its balance then shows what you owe, and the monthly payment from checking is a transfer between the two accounts.
Amex lets you view and download two years of transactions as CSV. Older statements can be requested from its archive and appear online within 24 hours, as PDFs you can convert. The general steps for card CSVs are in how to export a credit card statement to CSV.
No. ZeraBooks has no Xero connection. It converts the Amex PDF into a Xero-ready CSV that you import yourself. That is part of the ZeraBooks subscription: 1,000 pages a month from $79 a month billed annually, after a 7-day trial.
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Each billing period is checked against its printed balances first. 1,000 pages a month from $79 a month billed annually; see ZeraBooks pricing.
Last updated October 22, 2026 · Written by Damin Mutti, founder of ZeraBooks