From your bank to Luma in five minutes

The hardest part of getting started with budgeting is usually not the idea. It's getting your data in. If you wait until you've "done it perfectly", you'll wait forever.

The good news: importing transactions from your bank to Luma doesn't take five hours. It takes five minutes. Even the first time.

Here's the whole process, step by step.

Checklist before you start

Before you begin, check that you have:

• An account at a Norwegian bank (DNB, Nordea, SpareBank 1, or similar)
• Access to your online banking
• A user account in Luma (or you can sign up at luma.no)
• A computer or web browser (not mobile for the first time)
• 5 minutes

If you have all of this, you can continue.

Step 1: Export CSV from your online banking

Log in to your online banking. Find the account you want to import from, and look for a button that says "Download", "Export", or "To file".

Select these settings:

• Format: CSV (or OFX, but CSV is simpler)
• Date range: Start with the last 30 days (don't try the whole year on your first attempt)
• Account: The one account you want to import from right now

Click "Download" or "Export". You'll get a file called something like transactions.csv or account_statement_2025-08.csv. Save it to your desktop or Downloads folder so you can find it again.

Time: 1 minute

Step 2: Open Luma and find the import function

Go to luma.no or open the Luma app. You should see somewhere that says "Import transactions" or "Add transactions" on the start page or in the menu. Click there.

You'll come to a screen that says "Choose file" or "Drag and drop CSV here". This is where you'll use the CSV file you just downloaded.

Time: 30 seconds

Last verified: August 2025. If the buttons say something different, look for "import" or "transactions" in the menu.

Step 3: Select your CSV file

Click on "Choose file" (or drag and drop the file directly on the page). Find transactions.csv on your computer and open it.

Luma reads the file and shows you a preview of the transactions on the way in. You see the date, amount, and description from the bank.

Time: 1 minute (or 5 seconds if you drag and drop)

Step 4: Approve the import session

Luma will suggest categories for some of the transactions based on the description. You can approve them or change them now, or you can do it later. Most people choose to do it later.

Click "Import" or "Approve" (or whichever button is shown). Your transactions are added to your budget.

Time: 2 minutes (or 30 seconds if you just approve everything)

Example: what the CSV file looks like when it arrives

If you are curious about what's actually sent from your bank, it looks like this. Here is a small part of a CSV from DNB:

Date	Description	Amount
2025-07-31	COOP SUPER STAVANGER	-487.50
2025-07-31	Netflix SUBSCRIPTION	-199.00
2025-07-30	Salary July	48,500.00
2025-07-28	Rema 1000 Oslo	-340.25
2025-07-27	Power bill (Tibber)	-1,250.00

When Luma reads this file, it knows that "Salary July" should be income (a positive number), "NETFLIX" should be categorized as entertainment, and "Power" is an expense. It does this because it has read thousands of such transactions before.

You don't need to edit the CSV file before uploading it. Luma does all the work.

Three things that can go "wrong" (and how to fix them)

Duplicates. If you import the same period twice, you will see the same transactions twice. Solution: delete the duplicate transaction afterwards, or never import the same period twice. Once you know this, you won't forget it.

Wrong category. Luma guesses at the categories, so some get it wrong. "Shell Gas Station" might become "Groceries" instead of "Transport". That's not a problem. You change it once, and next time Luma sees Shell, it remembers that it's transport.

Transactions that don't match. Rarely, but your bank sometimes sends the same transaction twice (technical error). If you see a transaction that doesn't match your account statement, you can delete it. It won't affect the rest of your budget.

After the import

You now have transactions in Luma. The next steps are usually:

1. Go through the categories. If you spend five minutes categorizing your largest expenses, the rest will become more accurate automatically.
2. Import once a week. Don't import the whole year at once. Import the last seven days every Friday or Monday. That keeps the overview fresh.
3. Use the budgets. Once the transactions are there, set up one budget per category. Luma automatically shows you where you stand against the plan.

That's the whole story. From empty transactions to a working budget is five minutes and four simple steps. The rest is routine.