Managing Overlaps and Duplicates
Last updated June 26, 2026
When you import transactions, OwnBudget checks each row against what's already in the account and skips any it recognizes as a duplicate — you'll see a count of how many will be skipped before you confirm the import. How reliably it catches duplicates depends on the file format you use and whether your imports overlap in time.
Keeping your data clean comes down to a single habit, explained below.
How dedup works by format
OwnBudget detects duplicates differently depending on the format — and the difference is the whole reason format choice matters (see Choosing Your Import Format).
| Format | How a duplicate is detected |
|---|---|
| CSV (no transaction ID) | Same account, same amount, same description, and dates within two days of each other. |
| OFX / QFX / QBO | The bank's unique transaction ID (FITID) — an exact match that date drift and re-imports can't fool. |
OFX-family files are matched exactly. CSV files are matched on their content, which is reliable when you re-import the same kind of export, but can miss a duplicate if a second file formats the description or amount differently.
The one rule: pick a format and stick with it
Choose one format per account and use it every time. When you always import an account the same way, OwnBudget compares like with like and duplicate detection stays dependable. Nearly every duplicate problem comes from switching — importing CSV one month and OFX the next for the same account — because the two files describe the same transaction differently and the match can fall through.
Overlapping date ranges
Each export covers a date range. If your next import overlaps the previous one — last month's file ended on the 31st, this month's begins on the 28th — the overlapping days appear in both files. That's normal and expected: OwnBudget skips the transactions it already has.
As long as you're using the same format, overlap is safe, so you never have to line up your export ranges perfectly. The only thing to avoid is overlapping date ranges across different formats.
If you already have duplicates
OwnBudget detects duplicates at import time, not afterward — there is no automatic "find and remove duplicates" tool. If duplicates are already in your data, remove them by hand: open the Transactions page, find the repeated rows, and delete them. You can select several rows and delete them together to speed this up.
Then pick a single format for that account going forward, so it doesn't happen again. For help choosing, see Choosing Your Import Format.