How do I build a probate accounting from bank statements?

Set the date-of-death account balance as the starting assets, then record and categorize every receipt and disbursement after it into income, expenses, and distributions. Convert the statements to a CSV so you can total each category and reconcile to the ending balance.

What balance do I start the accounting from?

The account's balance on the date of death, which is the value reported on the estate inventory filed with the court. Every transaction after that date is recorded from this starting point to build the accounting forward.

How do bank statements support the accounting?

They are the primary documentation for every entry, and the court and beneficiaries may check the accounting against them. Keeping the converted transaction list with the statements records exactly how each figure was derived, which protects the executor.

Do I account for activity after the date of death?

Yes. The executor records all income received and expenses paid, plus any assets sold or acquired, from the date of the beginning inventory through the final distribution. The bank statements from that period are the source for those entries.

Is the decedent's data stored?

No. Statements are processed to build the CSV and then deleted automatically, so a decedent's banking history is not retained on a server after conversion, which respects the confidentiality an executor owes the estate and its beneficiaries.

Bank Statement Conversion for Estate Accounting

TL;DR - Quick Summary

An executor's probate accounting starts from the decedent's bank balance at the date of death and records every receipt and disbursement after it. Convert the estate's bank statements to a CSV, then categorize the transactions into income, expenses, and distributions to build the court accounting.

The probate accounting starts at the date of death

A probate accounting has a clear anchor: the value of the estate's assets at the date of death, which for a bank account is that day's balance. That figure goes on the inventory the executor files with the court, and everything after it, every deposit and every payment, must be recorded from that starting point forward. Pulling those numbers off a stack of PDF statements by hand is slow and error-prone, especially across several months of administration. Converting the statements to a CSV gives you the date-of-death balance and each subsequent transaction as sortable rows, so the accounting is built on data you can total rather than figures transcribed from pages.

Categorizing receipts and disbursements for the court

Courts expect the accounting grouped into set categories rather than a flat list: assets at death, income received, expenses broken into subcategories, distributions to beneficiaries, and the remaining assets. A converted CSV is what makes that grouping practical. Tag each deposit as income, interest, a refund, or proceeds from an asset sale, and each payment as a debt, a tax, an administration expense, or a distribution, then total by category with a pivot. Working from structured data means the categories tie out to the penny and the executor is not hand-adding columns of figures read off a statement, which is exactly where accounting errors creep in.

Reconciling to the ending balance

The accounting has to prove itself: the date-of-death balance, plus all receipts, minus all disbursements and distributions, must equal the remaining balance in the account. That is the check a court and the beneficiaries look for. With the transactions in a CSV, running that reconciliation is a single formula rather than a manual tally, and any gap points straight to a missed transaction or a mis-typed amount. Reconciling each account to its closing statement balance is what turns a pile of receipts and payments into a defensible final accounting that shows what came in, what went out, and what is left to distribute.

Supporting the accounting for the court and beneficiaries

Bank statements are the primary documentation behind an estate accounting, and both the court and the beneficiaries may review the entries against them. Keeping the converted transaction list alongside the original statements gives you a clean record of how every figure in the accounting was derived, which matters because an executor has a duty to account accurately and can be challenged. A sortable CSV lets you answer a beneficiary's question about a specific payment by filtering to it in seconds, rather than searching through months of PDF pages, which keeps the administration transparent and the executor protected.

Handling a decedent's records privately

An estate's financial records are sensitive, and the executor holds them on behalf of the beneficiaries and the court. Statements are processed to build the CSV and then deleted automatically, with nothing retained on a server afterward, so a decedent's banking history is not left sitting in a third-party tool. For an estate with several accounts, or an executor working with an attorney or accountant, bulk conversion turns the full set of statements into categorizable data in one pass, so assembling the accounting is quick without compromising the confidentiality the role demands.

How it works

Convert the statements: Convert the estate account statements from the date of death forward into a sortable CSV.
Set the opening balance: Record the date-of-death account balance as the starting assets for the accounting.
Categorize transactions: Tag each receipt and disbursement into income, expenses, and distributions, then total by category.
Reconcile: Confirm starting balance plus receipts minus disbursements equals the ending balance.

Comparison

Accounting element	On the bank statement	Court category	How a CSV helps
Starting assets	Date-of-death balance	Assets at death	Anchors the opening figure
Money in	Deposits and interest	Income / receipts	Sum receipts by type
Money out	Payments and fees	Expenses	Group by subcategory
Distributions	Transfers to heirs	Distributions	Isolate and total

A full estate account history converts to a categorizable CSV in about 2 minutes. Convert your statements now.

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