PDF In, Accounting Data Out: Building a More Useful Statement Archive

PDF In, Accounting Data Out: Building a More Useful Statement Archive

If you go through a lengthy statement, you’ll typically find plenty more than the ledger of transactions. Account summaries, notices, explanatory texts, disclosures, and other pages that provide data a bookkeeper needs to have.

If the primary goal is to integrate transaction data into an accounting or spreadsheet system It may not be required to handle everything. Before creating the output, you must determine the most valuable pages.

Image credit: docubrew.com

It Doesn’t Mean More Data.

Take a look at a business that is reviewing a few months of bank activities. Although each month’s PDF may have ten pages or more but only a tiny portion of it will contain the accounting tables that are required.

A solution is to copy the tables, however this could be a slow process and could result in typing mistakes. Businesses can convert bank statement data into Excel but only the pages that are relevant.

Docubrew has a page preview that allows users to review the PDF and select which pages are processed. You can also remove cover sheets, disclosures, or any other pages you don’t need.

You’re in more control when you preview first

Automation is useful only if you are able to see the process it’s performing.

Docubrew allows users to preview the statements prior to finalizing the conversion. It extracts figures from the original document instead of estimating the financial values.

When converting a PDF bank statement into Excel it gives the user an opportunity to ensure the right pages are selected, and then examine the downloaded data prior to downloading the final result.

This is an easy but crucial checkpoint when it pertains to financial documents.

The destination should shape the Export

The next question is what you plan to accomplish with the transactions.

Excel is a great tool when bookkeepers need to sort data, inspect rows, or alter the data. CSV may be a better choice if you are transferring the data from one system to another. Docubrew supports QBO output.

Someone who needs to convert bank statement to CSV, for example, can generate a CSV rather than creating an Excel workbook first and manually changing formats afterward.

Docubrew output can be utilised to work with accounting platforms such as QuickBooks, Xero and FreshBooks as well as spreadsheets.

Paper statements from the scanner can be incorporated into the workflow.

PDFs that are digitally created aren’t the only document that can be converted.

Certain businesses have only paper copies of older statements. Docubrew can scan PDF documents, including statements.

This is useful to keep a historical record of bookkeeping in which the most recent statements were digitalized while older statements were scanned off paper. The documents could be converted by similar methods before being reviewed prior to exporting.

Process Locally or Use the Cloud

How documents related to finances are handled matters as much as the final product.

Docubrew’s Windows Desktop application can convert documents locally on the client’s computer. The cloud option is designed for users who want to process documents through a browser. Docubrew claims that the cloud option automatically deletes documents that have been converted and uploaded within 24 hour.

Ultimately, converting a bank statement into Excel shouldn’t mean feeding every page of a document into an Excel tool and hoping that the output will be beneficial.

Begin by reading the pages with the information you require. Check out what’s being taken away. Then choose the format that fits the next accounting task.

A better financial workflow may begin with less processing instead, but by taking care to process less.