# Bank statements

Six months, from the bank, every account the business uses — the four rules, how to get them out of your bank on a phone, and what gets a file sent back.

Updated: 2026-09-12

---

This is the one document nothing happens without. An underwriter reads the statements; everything
else on the application is context around them.

## The four rules

The upload panel states them, and they are worth reading before you start downloading. Your
statements have to:

1. **Cover the last six months.** Ending with the most recent full statement your bank has
   produced.
2. **Have no gaps longer than 14 days.** A missing month, or a period the bank did not produce a
   statement for, has to be explained or filled.
3. **Include at least one transaction in the last 14 days.** A file whose most recent activity is
   three weeks old reads as a business that has stopped trading. This is the rule that most often
   sends a file back, and it is the reason a statement you downloaded a month ago is not good
   enough today.
4. **Cover every account the business uses.** Not just the busiest one. If the deposits land in
   one account and the bills leave another, send both — a file where half the money is invisible
   reads as a business with half the revenue.

And they have to be the bank's own documents, not pictures of a banking app.

## Why the bank's own PDF

A statement downloaded from the bank carries the bank's formatting, the account and the period,
and every line in order. A screenshot of a banking app, or a spreadsheet you exported yourself,
is a different artefact: it cannot be checked, and an underwriter will ask for the real one — so
sending it costs you a day rather than saving you five minutes.

The web upload box asks for PDFs on the statements step for that reason. In the app you can also
send a photograph of a **paper** statement the bank posted you, which is a real document; a
photograph of a screen is not.

<Note title="If your bank makes it hard">
Some banks only show ninety days online, or bury statements two menus deep, or charge for older
ones. That is worth a phone call rather than an evening: a specialist can walk you through it for
your particular bank, or take the statements by email. The number and the hours are on the
[support page](/support).
</Note>

## Getting them out of your bank

**On a computer.** Sign in to business banking, find Statements or Documents (usually under the
account rather than under Settings), and download each month as a PDF. Most banks produce one
file per month per account — so six months of one account is six files, and that is normal.

**On a phone.** Open your bank's app, find the statement, and use its share or download action to
save it into **Files** (iCloud Drive or On My iPhone are both fine). Then come back to Spark and
pick it up from there. Do not screenshot the screen — see above.

## On the web

The statements step offers two routes side by side: upload them yourself, or get someone to help.
Uploading opens a drawer, because the requirements matter more than the file picker and deserve
the room.

<Shot src="step-statements-empty" alt="The bank statements step offering two cards: upload your statements, marked recommended, and get someone to help with a phone number." />

Drag the files in or click to choose. Several at once is normal and expected.

<Shot src="step-statements-drawer" alt="The upload drawer for bank statements, with a dashed drop zone reading drag files here or click to choose, PDF only, the statement straight from your bank." />

Once they are attached they are listed by filename, and the step lets you past. Until then the
Next button stays where it is and goes grey — statements are one of the three steps the wizard
will not let you walk past.

<Shot src="step-statements" alt="The statements step with three PDFs attached and listed by name, and the Next button now active." />

You can also send them outside the wizard, from **Send documents** in the sidebar. That screen
files what you send against your most relevant open application and tells you which one at the
top of the box — it does not ask you to choose.

<Shot src="portal-documents" alt="The Send documents screen, showing the application the files will be filed against, a what-is-it selector set to bank statements, a drop zone, and a list of three statements already sent with dates." />

## In the app

The **Documents** tab does the same job with one thing the website does not have: you choose
which application the file belongs to, including **Not sure yet** if you have not started one.

<Shot src="ios-documents" phone alt="The Documents tab in the Spark app: a what is it picker set to bank statements, a which application picker set to not sure yet, a choose a file button and a photo button, and a list of statements already sent." />

**Choose a file** opens Files. The button beside it opens your **photo library** — so if you are
photographing a paper statement, take the picture in the Camera app first and then pick it here.

Inside an application, the statements step has the same two buttons under **Add your statements**,
and lists what it already has.

<Note title="Why an underwriter cares">
This page is the mechanics. What a lender actually reads in six months of statements — the deposits, the balance, the returned payments — is the guide [six months of statements](/guides/six-months-of-statements).
</Note>

## Common refusals

- **The file is not a PDF on the statements step.** The web box only offers PDFs there. Download
  the statement from the bank rather than sending an image of it.
- **Too large.** Ten megabytes per file. A six-month bundle scanned at full resolution can exceed
  it — send the months as separate files, which is how the bank produces them anyway.
- **Sent, but sent back.** Almost always rule 2 or rule 3: a gap in the middle, or nothing recent
  enough. Check the dates before you upload rather than after.