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Importing Data

PocketVault Finance imports from files and messages you already have, with no bank login required. Everything is parsed on your device and shown for review before anything is saved.

SMS Import (India, Android)

Indian banks send transaction alerts via SMS. PocketVault Finance reads these messages with a fixed set of rules, not a language model: first a per-bank template, and if no template matches, a general grammar that looks for the amount, the direction and the account. A message neither can read is put in a review queue for you rather than guessed at.

This matters for a reason beyond privacy. A rule that misreads a message misreads it the same way every time, so it can be found, fixed and tested. The error rates we measure would mean nothing otherwise.

Supported banks

HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Axis, Kotak, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank, IndusInd, and UPI transactions.

Steps

  1. Go to Settings > Import > SMS
  2. Grant SMS read permission (one-time)
  3. PocketVault Finance scans for bank transaction messages in the background
  4. A progress banner shows live parsing status across the app
  5. Review all detected transactions in the pending review screen
  6. Confirm which transactions to import

The import runs in the background, so you can continue using the app while it processes. On Android, a foreground service keeps the import alive.

On iOS, an SMS import shortcut forwards bank messages to PocketVault Finance, since iOS apps can’t read the inbox directly. Setup is guided in the app.

All parsing happens on-device. No SMS data is sent anywhere.

PDF Import

Import transactions directly from a PDF bank statement.

PDF parsing is offered per bank, not per country, and only for banks whose parsers we have reconciled against a real statement. An untested parser can produce wrong transactions without ever looking like it failed.

Validated today: Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Discover and SoFi in the US; Axis, Bank of Baroda, HDFC, ICICI and SBI in India.

Other banks are still recognised for currency and account detection, but are not offered for PDF import until a genuine statement has been through their parser. If yours isn’t listed, use bank SMS or add the transaction by hand.

  1. Go to Import Data > PDF Bank Statement
  2. Select a PDF statement
  3. PocketVault Finance extracts dates, amounts, and descriptions on-device
  4. Review the parsed transactions and confirm

No uploads and no cloud processing; the PDF is parsed entirely on your device.

Add manually

Add a transaction by hand from the (+) button. Manual rows go through the same duplicate check as any import.

CSV import

Download a CSV from any bank, map its columns to dates, payees, amounts, and categories, and bring a whole history in at once. Files up to 10MB and 50,000 rows are supported, and every row goes through the same duplicate check and review queue as any other import.

Coming soon

These import methods are built and rolling out after launch:

  • Receipt capture: snap a receipt and have the merchant, amount and date read off it on the device, with the image never uploaded. Desktop builds can already extract receipt text through a local Tesseract install; the phone path is not finished, which is why the feature is off rather than shipped.