The technology of banking has automated the bookkeeping process in a lot of ways However, anyone who has to work with financial records knows that automation isn’t 100% perfect. Clients are still sending statements in PDF format, feeds from banks may not work or historical transactions aren’t accessible. A person must convert the document meant to be read by the data that accounting software actually works with.
A converter for bank statements will remove a lot of the repetitive work required in this process. Instead of manually entering dates, descriptions, withdrawals, and deposits row by row Docubrew converts statements into structured spreadsheet-ready information.
Image credit: docubrew.com
When a PDF Becomes the Missing Piece
Imagine that a bookkeeper preparing an annual reconciliation for clients. The accounting system shows the most the most recent transactions, however some of the older years were left out. The client downloaded the Original statements as PDF.
It used to take hours of tedious copying into an Excel spread sheet. A PDF bank account statement to Excel workflow is a practical alternative. Docubrew can extract transaction information from digital PDFs, as well as scan bank statements printed on paper.
Manual transcription can be an excellent way to decrease the chance of typing mistakes for professionals who need to transfer bank statements into Excel regularly.
Make sure you keep the pages that matter
Statements from banks don’t contain only transactions. A 12-page account statement may contain an account cover page, a cover page overview, disclosures, or notices and a few pages of transactions in the bank.
Docubrew lets users look at the document before they open it, and then select the appropriate pages before conversion. That makes it easier to convert bank statements to Excel without bringing unrelated statement content into the working dataset.
Once the file is processed the file can then be opened in Excel or utilized in accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks and more.
CSV Allows for Flexible Accounting Workflow
CSV remains valuable because it is widely supported by databases, spreadsheets, and accounting software. If you need the bank statement in CSV, Docubrew produces structured output based on the transactions table contained in the statement.
The same workflow can be used to transform bank statements into CSV to serve a variety of uses, including the reconstruction of the past, starting projects to clear the client database that is not being used, analyzing missing transactions, or even preparing the data for reconciliation.
Processing in batches can be especially advantageous for accounting firms working through multiple statements or clients simultaneously.
Financial Documents – Financial Records – Should be Considering Privacy Controls
It’s not the only thing to think about when processing financial records. Bank statements may contain sensitive client information Bookkeepers and accountants might also be concerned about the place where they process.
Docubrew offers two alternatives. Its Windows desktop software processes files locally on the computer of the user and therefore the data isn’t transferred to the cloud for conversion. The cloud version that is encrypted is available to those who prefer working with a browser. Files uploaded to the cloud are erased automatically within 24 hours.
This choice is what separates Excel software, which relies entirely on remote processing from the platform for bank statements.
Turning Document Archives Back Into Working Data
PDF statements make excellent records, but they’re inconvenient when transactions must be reconciled, sorted, filtered, or imported elsewhere. Scanned files can pose problematic because the information about transactions might only exist as an image.
Docubrew is an effective tool that combines OCR and statement parsing in order to convert the documents that were scanned into useful financial information. This gives accountants, bookkeepers, and business owners a way to convert financial records that are archival into usable transactional data.
The result is a change in a workflow that was previously arduous The bank statement is still used as the original financial record and its transaction table turns into information you can use.