How to Track Multiple Bank Accounts in Different Currencies (EU Guide)

If you have bank accounts in more than one European country, understanding your total financial picture requires effort that most people simply stop putting in. You log into three different banking apps, note down balances in three currencies, open a currency converter, do the math, and write a number in a spreadsheet that will be wrong by tomorrow morning because exchange rates moved. It is not a good system, but for a long time it was the only system available.

This guide walks through a practical approach for tracking multiple EU bank accounts across different currencies, getting your spending categorized automatically, and building a net worth view that updates whenever you import new transactions. No broken bank connections. No manual currency conversion. No spreadsheet formulas that break when you add a new account.

Step 1: Choose a Base Currency

Before you set anything up, decide which currency you want to see all your numbers in. This is your reporting currency, and it does not have to be the currency you earn in or spend the most in. It just needs to be the one that feels most intuitive when you are making financial decisions.

For most European expats, this is EUR. If you are a UK national living in Germany, you might choose GBP because that is still how you think about money. Either works. The point is to pick one and stick with it so that every chart and every total in your dashboard means the same thing every time you look at it.

Cashboard lets you set a base currency during account setup and then converts all other account balances and transactions automatically using daily ECB exchange rates. When the ECB rate changes, your dashboard reflects it without any action on your part.

Step 2: Add Each Account

Start by listing every financial account you want to track: checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, crypto holdings, and any cash account worth tracking. For each one, note the account name, the type, and the currency.

In Cashboard, you add each account with a name, type (checking, savings, credit card, investment, crypto, or cash), and currency. The starting balance you enter becomes the baseline. From that point forward, imported transactions update the balance automatically for accounts where you import CSV files. For accounts like investment portfolios where you do not import transactions, you can manually update the balance whenever you check it.

The free Starter plan supports up to three accounts. If you have more than three accounts across multiple countries, the Pro plan at €9 per month removes that limit. This is typically where expats hit the upgrade gate, and it is a natural one: the moment you add your third country's bank account is exactly when the multi-currency aggregation becomes most useful.

Step 3: Export and Import Your Transaction History

Every EU bank lets you export transaction history as a CSV file. The process varies by bank, but it is almost always in the same place: somewhere in your account settings or transaction history view, there is a download or export button.

Here is how to find it for common EU banks:

N26: Go to your account in the web app, click on the account, and find the export option in the account settings. Choose CSV format and select a date range.

ING (Netherlands/Germany): Log in to the web portal, navigate to your account transactions, and look for a download button. ING exports in semicolon-delimited CSV format.

Revolut: In the app, go to your account, tap the three dots in the corner, and select Statement. Choose CSV as the format. Revolut also supports PDF exports.

Monzo: From the app, go to your account, scroll down to export, and choose the date range. Monzo exports a clean CSV.

Most other EU banks: The export is usually under Account Details, Transactions, or Settings. Look for words like Export, Download, or Statement.

Once you have the CSV file, drag it into Cashboard. The parser handles both comma-delimited and semicolon-delimited formats, European number formatting (1.234,56), and various date formats. Parsed transactions appear within a few seconds.

For your first import, bring in as much history as possible. Cashboard supports bulk imports of 12 or more months of history in a single file. The more history you import, the more useful the spending trend charts become.

Step 4: Review and Correct the Automatic Categorization

Cashboard's AI reads merchant names and transaction descriptions and assigns categories automatically. On a first import, it correctly categorizes at least 70% of transactions. The remaining 30% will either be miscategorized or left as uncategorized.

Go through those transactions and fix the categories. Each correction takes one click. More importantly, after each correction the app asks whether to always categorize that merchant the same way. Say yes, and that rule applies to every future import from that merchant. This is where the app compounds over time: after two or three months of imports, new transaction files come in nearly fully categorized because the merchant memory rules handle everything the AI did not catch on day one.

For cross-border spending, this is particularly useful. A German supermarket chain that appears in your transactions every week will be reliably categorized as Groceries after you correct it once, regardless of how the merchant name is spelled in different transaction files.

Step 5: Set Budget Rules Per Category

With your transaction history imported and categorized, you now have real data to set budgets against. Go to the budget section and create a monthly limit for each spending category that matters to you.

A reasonable starting set for most people includes Groceries, Dining Out, Transport, Subscriptions, and one or two categories specific to your own spending patterns. Cashboard pre-suggests categories with average EU spending amounts as a starting point, which you can accept or overwrite.

Once budgets are set, the dashboard shows a progress bar for each one. The bar reflects your spending since the first of the current month, converts all transactions to your base currency, and turns yellow at 80% and red at 100%. When you import next month's transactions, the bars reset automatically.

The free plan includes up to five budget rules. The Pro plan has no limit.

Step 6: Read the Net Worth Dashboard

After completing the steps above, your Cashboard dashboard shows:

Total net worth across all accounts, converted to your base currency
Monthly income and expenses for the current month
A six-month trend chart showing income versus expenses over time
Top spending categories as a bar chart for the current month
Each account with its current balance and the converted value

The net worth number at the top is the one most expats have never had a clean way to calculate. It includes your EUR checking account, your GBP savings account, your CHF investment portfolio, your credit card balance as a negative, and anything else you have added. All in one number, in the currency you chose as your base.

This is the view that makes the manual spreadsheet approach feel genuinely obsolete. Not because it is more convenient, but because it is more accurate. Exchange rates update daily. Account balances update every time you import. The number means something.

A Note on Import Frequency

Because Cashboard uses CSV import rather than live bank connections, your dashboard is only as current as your last import. Most people find that importing once a week or once a month is enough for their needs. If you import at the start of each month, you have an accurate picture of the previous month within a few minutes.

For people coming from spreadsheets, this cadence feels familiar. For people expecting real-time sync, it requires a small mindset shift. The upside is that it works with every EU bank without exception and never breaks because an API changed.

Getting Started

The setup described above takes about 20 to 30 minutes for someone with three or four accounts. Most of that time is downloading CSV files from each bank. The import and categorization itself is fast.

Start with the free Starter plan at Cashboard. Add your accounts, import your transaction history, and see your net worth in a single view. If you have more than three accounts or more than 200 transactions, the Pro plan at €9 per month removes those limits. There is no commitment required to try the free tier.

Frequently Asked Questions

What file formats do EU banks export? Most EU banks export CSV files, either comma-delimited or semicolon-delimited. Some banks also export PDF statements. Cashboard handles both formats. The Pro plan adds PDF bank statement import.

How often do I need to import transactions? As often as you want. Most users import weekly or monthly. There is no requirement to import on a fixed schedule.

Does the multi-currency conversion use live rates? Cashboard uses daily ECB reference rates. These update each business day. If the rate fetch fails, the dashboard uses the most recent cached rate and shows when rates were last updated.

What if my bank's CSV format is unusual? Cashboard supports comma and semicolon delimiters, European number formats, and multiple date formats including DD.MM.YYYY and YYYY-MM-DD. If a file has a formatting error, the app shows a specific error message with the line number and expected format so you can identify and fix the issue.

Can I track investment accounts I do not import transactions for? Yes. For investment accounts, crypto wallets, or any account where you do not import transactions, you can add the account with a starting balance and update it manually whenever you check. The balance feeds into your net worth calculation the same as any other account.