Filter a Transactions CSV by Payment Method

Reconcile card payments against the processor payout. equals Credit Card on the method column gives the exact slice. If your export uses brand names instead, see the contains example below.

Input (accounting export):
Date,Description,Payment Method,Amount
2026-06-01,Order 1001,Credit Card,42.00
2026-06-01,Order 1002,PayPal,18.50
2026-06-02,Order 1003,Credit Card,99.00
2026-06-02,Order 1004,Bank Transfer,200.00

Config: column = Payment Method, operator = equals, value = Credit Card

Output (.filtered.csv):
Date,Description,Payment Method,Amount
2026-06-01,Order 1001,Credit Card,42.00
2026-06-02,Order 1003,Credit Card,99.00

Rows matched: 2  ·  Rows filtered out: 2

Stripe and Square often store the brand with a masked number (Visa •••• 4242). equals won't match the whole descriptor, but contains Visa catches every Visa regardless of the last four digits.

Input:
id,Card Brand,Amount
t1,Visa •••• 4242,42.00
t2,Mastercard •••• 5100,18.50
t3,Visa •••• 0019,99.00
t4,Amex •••• 1009,12.00

Config: column = Card Brand, operator = contains, value = Visa

Output:
id,Card Brand,Amount
t1,Visa •••• 4242,42.00
t3,Visa •••• 0019,99.00

Rows matched: 2

For a separate reconciliation of alternative payments, keep everything that isn't a card. not_contains Card drops Credit Card and Debit Card, leaving PayPal, bank transfer, and the rest.

Input:
Description,Payment Method
Order A,Credit Card
Order B,PayPal
Order C,Debit Card
Order D,Bank Transfer

Config: column = Payment Method, operator = not_contains, value = Card

Output:
Description,Payment Method
Order B,PayPal
Order D,Bank Transfer

Rows matched: 2  ·  Rows filtered out: 2

Manual or mixed-source data produces PayPal, paypal, and PAYPAL. The default case-insensitive match catches all three, so you don't have to normalise the column before reconciling.

Input:
id,Payment Method
m1,PayPal
m2,paypal
m3,PAYPAL
m4,Credit Card

Config: column = Payment Method, operator = equals, value = paypal
  (Case-sensitive checkbox OFF)

Output:
id,Payment Method
m1,PayPal
m2,paypal
m3,PAYPAL

Rows matched: 3

There's no multi-method box. contains Credit Card, Debit Card matches the literal substring (no cell holds it), returning zero. Use the splitter, or a single contains Card if both are card types.

Goal: keep {Credit Card, Debit Card}.

Clean trick (both are cards):
  contains 'Card' → keeps Credit Card AND Debit Card in one pass.

General case (unrelated methods, e.g. PayPal + Bank Transfer):
  /tool/csv-column-value-splitter on Payment Method →
    txns.PayPal.csv
    txns.Bank Transfer.csv
    txns.Credit Card.csv ...
  Keep the files you need, recombine with /tool/csv-merger.

Wrong: contains 'Credit Card, Debit Card' → 0 rows.

There's no multi-value field. contains A, B matches the literal substring A, B, not method A OR B. For several unrelated methods use CSV Column Value Splitter (one file per method), or use a shared contains substring (Card for all card types) or not_contains to drop a family.

Stripe/Square store Visa •••• 4242, so equals Visa matches nothing — the cell isn't exactly Visa. Use contains Visa (or starts_with Visa) to catch every Visa regardless of the last four. Matching is literal, so the •••• bullets need no escaping.

greater_than / less_than use parseFloat. parseFloat('£42.00') is NaN (starts with a symbol) and never matches; parseFloat('1,200.00') is 1 (stops at the comma). Strip currency symbols and thousands commas with CSV Find & Replace before filtering amounts.

Matching is case-insensitive unless you tick Case-sensitive, so PayPal, paypal, and PAYPAL all match paypal. No need to run CSV Case Converter first, though normalising makes the reconciled file tidier.

is_empty keeps rows where the method cell is literally blank — useful for catching unclassified transactions before reconciliation. It doesn't trim, so a cell with only a space passes is_not_empty; run CSV Whitespace Trimmer first if your export pads blanks.

Many exports include refunds, chargebacks, and fees as rows with their own Type. Those may carry a payment method too, so a method filter keeps them. Chain a second pass on the Type column (e.g. not_contains Refund) if you want only the original captures. The header survives both passes.

There's no exclude toggle. not_equals Bank Transfer keeps every method except bank transfers; not_contains Card drops all card types. The negative operators do the exclusion.

Free accounts cap at 2 MB and 500 data rows. A busy month of transactions usually exceeds both. Pro raises the limit to 100 MB and 100,000 rows. Slice with CSV Row Limiter to work within free limits, or upgrade.