STARLING · SPACES IN AND OUT
starling bank statement example
Starling is an app-based bank whose Spaces feature moves money inside the account without spending it. Getting that distinction right is what separates a useful cash-flow summary from a misleading one. This starling bank statement example follows an invented month in which money moves into a Bills Space and back out again, so the main balance drops and recovers without a penny being spent.
Spaces are internal, not outgoing
A Space holds money set aside inside your Starling account. Moving funds into one reduces the main balance; moving them back increases it. Neither is income or expenditure, and a summary that counts them as such will report spending that never happened and income you never received.
Tag transfers to and from Spaces as internal at the point of extraction. Both directions need it. Doing this retrospectively means matching pairs of equal amounts by hand across the month.
The statement export versus the in-app list
The in-app transaction list is live and unbounded. The statement export covers a defined period and carries the opening and closing balances a reconciliation needs. For your own analysis either may be convenient; for anything sent to a landlord, lender or accountant, only the export is a statement.
Export the period you need rather than assembling screenshots, which cannot be verified and have no closing figure to check against.
UK payment types on the statement
Faster Payments in and out carry a reference set by the sender, Direct Debits recur with variable amounts, Standing Orders recur with fixed ones, and card purchases post on settlement. Four behaviours in one list, and the reference field is frequently the only indication of what a transfer was actually for.
Capture references verbatim. A tidied label belongs in a separate column; the original is what the counterparty and the bank will recognise.
Card settlement at the period edge
A card purchase made in the last days of a period may settle afterwards and appear on the next statement. The amount can also differ slightly from the authorisation where the merchant finalises a different figure, which is normal for fuel and hospitality.
Before treating a transaction as missing, check the following period's export. That resolves most apparent gaps without any investigation.
Reconciling a Starling month
Space transfers net to zero, and what remains has to bridge the opening and closing figures. Note that a failure to tag Space movements does not break the chain; it quietly corrupts every category total instead, so the check that matters here is categorical rather than arithmetical.
Compare the transaction count against the export as well as the totals.
Taking the data further
Dates as dates, amounts as numbers, references as text in their own column, and an internal-transfer flag for Space movements. Then verify the row count and a few large amounts against the export before building on the table.
Keep the exported statement. It is the verifiable document and the one a third party should receive.
Spaces and what this starling bank statement example counts
The Space row is the one that decides whether a cash-flow summary built from this account will be honest.
| Field | Why it matters here |
|---|---|
| Statement period | The closed window the export covers |
| Opening balance | £958.02 carried in on the specimen |
| Space transfers | Internal movement; must be tagged in both directions |
| Faster Payments | With the sender's or recipient's reference |
| Direct Debits and Standing Orders | Recurring, variable and fixed respectively |
| Card settlements | Posted on settlement, not authorisation |
| Closing balance | £1,406.07 on the specimen |
A Starling period is sound when:
- Space transfers are flagged internal in both directions
- References were captured verbatim, with any rewrite in a second column
- An apparently missing card transaction was checked in the next period's export
Accounts without Spaces, for contrast
Comparing an account without a savings-pot feature isolates exactly what Spaces add. Scheme rules for the UK payments named here come from Pay.UK, which operates the UK retail payment systems.
The saved document is what the Excel converter and the CSV converter expect; the extraction guide fills in the detail.
Starling bank statement example: Spaces and Direct Debits
Do transfers to a Space count as spending?
No. The money stays in your account. Tag both directions as internal or your category totals will be wrong even though the balance still reconciles.
Is the in-app list a statement?
No. It is live and unbounded. Only the exported statement has a period and opening and closing balances.
Why did a card amount change after it posted?
Settlement finalised a different figure from the authorisation, which is normal for fuel and hospitality.
Where do I find what a transfer was for?
The reference field, set by whoever initiated the payment. It is often the only description there is.
Do Direct Debits paid from a Space appear on the main statement?
They appear with the Space named, because the Space is part of the same account. Count those as spending, but count the transfer into the Space as internal.