Check a long bank statement and you’ll usually find many more pages than a transaction ledger. You’ll find account summary and notices as also explanatory texts, disclosures and other pages that contain the data needed by the bookkeeper.
If the objective is to convert transaction data into a spreadsheet or accounting system, processing everything can be unneeded. Before creating the output, you must determine which pages are most useful.
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More Pages Don’t Automatically Mean More Useful Data
Take a look at the company that is looking over its banking activities over several months. Each PDF for the month could have several pages, yet only part of the document has transactions tables that are required for financial work.
The manual copying of tables can be a solution, but is slow and is prone to errors. Businesses could also transform their bank statements in Excel and then only include the relevant pages.
Docubrew’s page preview allows the user review and decide what information to take into consideration. You can eliminate cover sheets, disclosures, or other pages you don’t need.
Previewing First Gives You More Control
Automation is only useful when you can observe what it’s doing.
Docubrew allows users to preview the statements before the conversion. The software extracts the figures directly from the statement source rather than estimating financial values.
When converting a PDF bank statement to Excel it gives the user the opportunity to confirm that the right pages are selected and examine the extracted data prior to downloading the final result.
It’s an easy checkpoint however, it’s an essential one when financial records are involved.
The destination should shape the Export
The next thing to consider is what you intend to do with the transaction.
Excel can be useful if an accountant needs to sort information, check rows, or alter the data. CSV could be a better alternative if you’re planning to transfer the data to another system. Docubrew can also output QBO.
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 is compatible with accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero and FreshBooks as well as spreadsheets.
Scanned papers can be able to be included in the same workflow
Selective conversion isn’t limited to PDFs that are digitally created.
Sometimes, companies have statements from the past which are available only in paper scans. Docubrew allows OCR for the PDF format of scanned statements and these documents can be processed as well.
It is a great option for working on accounting historical projects where certain records have been digitally converted while others were printed directly on paper. Instead of having two distinct workflows, documents could be processed using the same process of conversion and then analyzed prior to export.
Process locally or use the Cloud
How financial documents are handled is as important as the result.
Docubrew’s Windows desktop software can convert files locally and saves client files to your computer. Cloud processing is available to users who prefer processes that are based on browsers. Docubrew says that uploaded documents are secure and uploaded documents and converted documents will be deleted automatically within 24 hours.
The last step in converting the bank statement as PDF to Excel is not to load every page into the tool, hoping for a useful output.
Begin with pages that have the information you require. Examine what’s being extracted. Choose the format for the next accounting task.
It’s possible to create more efficient financial workflow by consciously processing less rather than processing more.