Regional CSV Issue

I think you are right — this is a delimiter and regional settings issue, which is very common when working with CSV files between countries that use different list separators (commas vs semicolons).

In South Africa, your regional settings likely default to using a semicolon (;) as the list separator.

However, in the UK, and in most CSV files created for software like Xero, the standard delimiter is a comma (,).

Option 1: Change List Separator (Recommended for Ongoing Work)

Go to:

Windows Control Panel → Clock and Region → Region → Click "Additional settings…"

In the "List separator" field:

Change from ; to ,

Click OK, then Apply and OK again.

This tells Excel to use commas in CSV files, ensuring compatibility with UK-based tools like Xero.

After changing this, you can open, edit, and save CSVs normally in Excel, and they’ll use commas as expected.

Option 2: Use a Text Editor Instead of Excel to Avoid Misinterpretation

Excel tries to interpret CSVs based on your regional settings, which can break them. If you just want to ensure clean formatting:

Open the CSV in Notepad or Notepad++ (or any plain text editor).

Manually verify that the data is comma-separated.

Edit/save if needed, then import into Xero.

This avoids Excel changing anything behind your back.

What Not to Rely On

• Using “Text to Columns” in Excel can temporarily fix visual issues but doesn’t fix the underlying delimiter used when saving.
• Changing your Excel language/locale doesn’t change the delimiter — that’s tied to Windows system settings, not Excel alone.

Tips for Finance Workflows

• Save a clean CSV export from Excel by choosing "Save As" → "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)"
• Use Power Query if you’re importing data regularly — it can be configured to handle delimiters precisely
• If collaboration across regions is frequent, consider standardizing all team members on comma delimiters for CSV work. The steps were processed with the help of AI.

My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!

Hope this will help you.