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The Monarch importer takes two CSV files from Monarch Money — your transactions and your account balances — and builds a new budget from them.
This import creates a brand-new budget. It never overwrites or merges into a budget you already have.

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Export from Monarch

In Monarch, go to Settings, then Data, and download both files:
  • Transactions — your transaction history.
  • Account balances — your accounts and their current balances.
Save both CSV files where you can find them. You need both.

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Import into Budget Bandit

1

Open the Monarch importer

Go to Import, then Import from Monarch Money.
2

Upload the transactions CSV

Select Upload Transactions CSV and choose the transactions file.
3

Upload the account balances CSV

Select Upload Account Balances CSV and choose the balances file. Both files are parsed in your browser — nothing is sent until you import.
4

Review the preview

You see counts for accounts, categories, and transactions.
5

Import everything

Choose Import Everything. Budget Bandit creates the new budget and loads your data.

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What comes across

  • Accounts — taken from the balances file, with the most recent balance for each. Accounts that appear only in your transactions are created too, starting at a zero balance.
  • Categories — every category used in your transactions.
  • Transactions — with merchant, category, account, the original bank statement text, notes, and tags where present.
Monarch does not export the way you assigned money each month, so the new budget arrives with your transactions and structure but without prior monthly assignments. You assign going forward from the budget.

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After importing

Review categorization in To Review and start assigning on the budget. Rules keep future transactions categorized automatically.

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If something looks off

If a CSV will not parse, confirm you downloaded the file straight from Monarch without editing it in a spreadsheet first. See Why rows did not import.

Import overview

All five importers and the new-budget rule.

Set a target

Recreate your goals after the move.