Transaction Dates with No Year, Across December and January
Many statements print transaction dates as 12/28 or Jan 3 and leave the year to the header. That’s fine within one year, but a statement running from mid-December to mid-January has dates from two different years with nothing on the line to tell them apart.
Your file is never uploaded. RowSmith reads text-based PDF statements in your browser. Scanned PDFs aren't supported yet. Always review the rows before you use them.
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How the converter picks the year
RowSmith looks for the statement period, for example a line like “Dec 15, 2025 through Jan 14, 2026” (example dates) or full dates printed elsewhere on the page.
- Period inside one year: every short date gets that year.
- Period crossing New Year: a month on or after the start month gets the start year, and earlier months get the end year. With the example period, 12/28 becomes 2025-12-28 and 01/03 becomes 2026-01-03.
- No period found: the converter falls back to the current year, which can be wrong for older statements. Check the dates if your statement doesn't print its period clearly.
Dates are written as year-month-day, and rows are sorted by date, so December rows should come before January rows.
Checking the result
- Note the statement period printed on the PDF.
- In the preview, look at the first and last dates. They should fall inside that period.
- Scroll to where December changes to January and check the year changes there too.
- If January rows show up first, or all rows share one year, the period probably wasn't found. Fix the year in the spreadsheet, for example with find and replace on the year part.
Treat the dates as an estimate and still review the rows before you use them.
Good to know
Day-first dates
If some leading dates have a first number above 12, the converter reads the file as day-first, as long as none of the second numbers is above 12. A short statement with only low numbers can be ambiguous, so see the guide on fixing dates below.
Combining a year of statements
When you join several months into one sheet, check the December and January files most closely, since that's where a wrong year shows up.
Questions
Why do my January rows show last year?
The statement period may not have been found, or it was printed in a form the converter didn’t read. Check the period on the PDF and correct the year.
What if the statement has no period at all?
The converter falls back to the current year. For an older statement that will usually be wrong, so set the year yourself.
Are two-digit years handled?
Yes, a year like 26 is read as 2026. Still review the dates before you use them.
This guide was written with AI assistance and reviewed against the converter's behaviour. Always review your output before using it.
RowSmith is an independent tool and is not affiliated with any bank or software company.
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