The advancement of technology in banking has made a lot of bookkeeping simpler, but people who handle financial records know that it’s not perfect. Clients are still sending statements in PDF format, feeds from banks might not be working and historical transactions aren’t available. This means that someone needs to convert a PDF file intended for reading into something that accounting software actually utilizes.
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A bank statement converter can eliminate much of the repetitive work involved in that process. Instead of entering manually dates, descriptions, withdrawals, and deposits row by row Docubrew transforms the information on a statement into structured spreadsheet-ready information.
When a PDF becomes the missing piece
Imagine a bookkeeper creating the year-end reconcile for an incoming client. The accounting system has recently completed transactions, however some old months are not present. Luckily, the client downloaded the original PDF statement.
It was once a process of long hours of tedious copying a spread sheet. A bank statement PDF to Excel workflow offers a feasible alternative. Docubrew accepts electronic PDFs as well the paper copies and extracts the transaction details for use in spreadsheets.
The reduced amount of manual transcription will also decrease the risk of typing errors, which is a major advantage for those who need regularly transfer bank statements into Excel.
Be sure to keep the pages that matter
Bank statements are not only of transactions. A 12-page statement could include a cover sheet, an account summary, disclosures, notices, and several pages of actual banking activity.
Docubrew allows users to preview the document and choose the relevant pages before conversion. It makes it much easier to convert bank statement data to Excel without introducing unrelated statement information into the work dataset.
Once the file is processed the file can then be opened in Excel or used with accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, etc.
CSV Facilitates Flexible Accounting Workflow
CSV is still in use because it is widely used by databases, spreadsheets and accounting programs. If you require an account statement converted to CSV, Docubrew produces structured output that is based on the transaction table found in the statement.
The same process can help firms convert bank statements to CSV. It is useful whether making historical records from scratch, handling cleaning projects for new clients, researching missing transactions, or compiling information for reconciliation.
Accounting firms that need to process multiple clients or statements simultaneously may benefit from batch processing.
Financial documents should be treated with care and security measures
When processing financial records security isn’t the only factor to be considered. Bookkeepers and accountants may be worried about the location where they process financial records.
Docubrew has two ways to do this. Windows desktop software handles files stored on the personal computer of the user. These statements do not need to be uploaded in order to be converted. If you prefer a browser-based workflow can select the cloud encryption option that allows for uploading files to be completely deleted after 24 hours.
This feature is what differentiates Excel software, which relies entirely on remote processing from the bank statement platform.
Turning Document Archives Back Into Working Data
While PDF statements can be excellent documents, they’re not ideal to use when transactions have to be sorted or reconciled. Also, they aren’t able to be transferred, processed, re-organized, etc. Scanned documents add an extra complexity, since the transaction details are typically only available as images.
Docubrew is a combination of statement parsing and OCR support for documents scanned, giving accountants, bookkeepers and companies a practical route from archived financial paperwork into usable transaction data.
The result is a change of a process that was previously tedious and time-consuming. The bank statement will remain as the original financial record, but its transaction table is now data you can use.