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Wave says "Wave is having difficulty reading the amounts of your transactions"

In short: Wave's help lists "Wave is having difficulty reading the amounts of your transactions" as a CSV upload error and gives three reasons: amounts written in words, incorrect punctuation, and symbols other than the currency symbol or a currency symbol after the amount. A Venmo statement writes amounts like "+ $25.00", with a plus sign in front of the dollar sign. The converter reads amounts like that and writes each one as a plain signed number in an OFX file, a format Wave calls easier to import than a CSV.

Fix the file

Bank CSV to OFX

A CSV with a date column and an amount (or debit and credit) column

Your file stays on this device

It is read and converted by this page, inside your browser. Nothing from the file is uploaded, and the converter keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

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The data in the sample is invented. It is converted on this device, the same way your own file would be.

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What you see

You upload a CSV in Wave under Accounting, Transactions, More, Upload transactions, and see "Wave is having difficulty reading the amounts of your transactions".

Why it happens

Wave's help page gives three reasons: "Amounts are written in words instead of numerical values", "There is incorrect punctuation." and "There are symbols other than the currency symbol, or the currency symbol is after the amount".

The same page says to "Use spaces, commas, apostrophes, or decimals to indicate number values" and to "Use brackets or the minus sign to indicate negative amounts." So by Wave's own rule, a negative written as (12.50) or a thousands comma as in 1,000.00 is allowed. Look for the three reasons above instead.

A Venmo statement CSV writes amounts like "+ $25.00" and "- $1,000.00": a sign, a space and then the dollar sign. The plus sign is a symbol other than the currency symbol, which fits Wave's third reason; this was not tested in Wave. An export that writes 25,00 € puts the currency symbol after the amount, which Wave names directly.

How to fix it

  1. Download the statement CSV. For Venmo: Statements, pick the month, then Download CSV.
  2. Drop the file into the converter above. It is set up for a bank CSV; a Venmo statement or another supported app's export is recognised and the source switches to it. It reads amounts such as "+ $25.00", "-$5.00", "(12.34)", "1.234,56" and "10.00 USD", and the preview shows each one as a plain number before you download.
  3. Choose the account type, Bank (checking), Bank (savings) or Credit card, and download the OFX file. Each amount in it is a plain signed number such as 25.00 or -1000.00, with no currency symbol and no thousands separator.
  4. In Wave go to Accounting, Transactions, click More, then Upload transactions. Choose the file, pick the payment account and click Upload.
  5. Check the amounts and their signs on the Transactions page.

What this does not fix

  • A row whose amount the converter cannot read at all, such as an amount written in words, is skipped and listed in the notes. Fix that row in the export and convert again.
  • Wave's help says: "The currency symbol in your file does not determine transaction currency. The currency will match the payment account chosen when uploading your file." Pick a payment account in the same currency as the export.
  • If Wave shows "Wave needs you to make a small change to your file so we can read it", Wave's help says to change the ENCODING line in a text editor; files from this converter say ENCODING:USASCII, which Wave's steps change to UTF-8.
  • No import was run in Wave: the converter has not been tested by uploading into Wave, so check the first upload before you rely on it.

Before and after

Before: the bank CSV as downloaded

Account Name:,Sample Business Checking
Account Number:,XXXX0000
Statement Period:,01/03/2025 - 31/03/2025

Date,Description,Debit,Credit,Balance
03/03/2025,OPENING DEPOSIT,,"2,500.00","2,500.00"
14/03/2025,"OFFICE SUPPLIES, INV 77",125.40,,"2,374.60"
15/03/2025,CLIENT PAYMENT - ACME SAMPLE LLC,,800.00,"3,174.60"
28/03/2025,MONTHLY SERVICE FEE,5.00,,"3,169.60"

After: what Xero, Wave, GnuCash, Moneydance, MS Money and others receives

...
<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>CREDIT</TRNTYPE>
<DTPOSTED>20250303120000</DTPOSTED>
<TRNAMT>2500.00</TRNAMT>
<FITID>D8E3A092ED5DD995</FITID>
<NAME>OPENING DEPOSIT</NAME>
</STMTTRN>
<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT</TRNTYPE>
<DTPOSTED>20250314120000</DTPOSTED>
<TRNAMT>-125.40</TRNAMT>
<FITID>8B3BD6B1A545D171</FITID>
<NAME>OFFICE SUPPLIES, INV 77</NAME>
</STMTTRN>
...

Synthetic sample data that follows the real export layout, not a real account. The "after" output was produced from it by the same converter this page runs.

Import the fixed file into Xero, Wave, GnuCash, Moneydance, MS Money and others

  1. In your accounting software open the bank account and choose Import statement (or File > Import > OFX).
  2. Choose this .ofx file.
  3. Review and confirm the transactions.

Questions

Does Wave accept negative amounts in brackets?
Wave's help says: "Use brackets or the minus sign to indicate negative amounts." So brackets alone are not a reason Wave gives for this message; look for words, other symbols, or a currency symbol after the number.
Can I fix the amounts in a spreadsheet instead?
You can. Wave's help ends with: "If you continue to see this error, format the amount column as currency. Then, re-upload the file." The converter writes plain amounts instead, without editing the file by hand.
Can I upload a CSV to Wave instead of OFX?
For a bank account, yes: under To, the QuickBooks Online (CSV) option writes Date, Description and Amount, with plain signed amounts, and its Date format setting offers YYYY-MM-DD. For a credit card account Wave wants purchases positive and payments negative, so use the OFX file there.

Converters for this file

Related import problems

Sources

The rules on this page come from these help pages, checked 2026-11-14. Software changes; if your screen says something different, the help page is the authority.