Banking technology has automated the bookkeeping process in a lot of ways, but anyone who works with financial records understands that automation isn’t perfect. Clients continue to send statements in PDF format, feeds from banks aren’t working as they should, and historical transactions may not be available. When that happens, somebody must transform a document designed for reading into data that accounting software could actually utilize.
Converting bank statements can help you save time by automatizing the process. Docubrew converts bank statement information into spreadsheet-ready data instead of manually entering the date, description withdrawals, and deposits row by line.
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When a PDF Becomes the Missing Piece
Imagine a bookkeeper who is creating the year-end reconciling for the first customer. The accounting platform has recent transactions, but several older months are missing. Luckily, the client downloaded the original PDF account statement.
It was once a process of hours of tedious copying into an Excel spreadsheet. A PDF bank statement that is converted to Excel workflow is a more efficient alternative. Docubrew can extract transaction information from digital PDFs and scan bank statements made of paper.
Reducing manual transcription is also a great way to reduce the risk of errors in typing for professionals who must transfer bank statements into Excel frequently.
Be sure to keep the pages that matter
Bank statements don’t consist entirely of transactions. A 12-page statement could include the cover page, account summary, disclosures or other notices as well as several pages of actual bank activity.
Docubrew lets users to look at a document before they choose relevant pages to convert. This allows users to convert bank statement data to Excel without having to import unrelated statement data into the working dataset.
Once the file is processed and opened, it is able to be opened using Excel or used with accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks etc.
CSV offers a flexible accounting workflow
CSV is still useful since it is extensively supported by spreadsheets, databases, and accounting software. If you need a bank statement to CSV, Docubrew produces structured output based on the transaction table found within the report.
The same workflow can help firms convert bank statement to CSV when reconstructing historical books, handling a new-client cleanup project, investigating missing transactions, or preparing data for reconciliation.
Accounting firms that must deal with many clients or statements can find batch processing particularly useful.
Financial Documents need to be considered for privacy safeguards
When it comes to processing financial records, it isn’t the only factor to consider. Accounting and bookkeeping professionals may be concerned about the location of processing because bank statements contain sensitive customer information.
Docubrew comes with two ways to process data. Windows desktop application converts files locally, running on the user’s PC. If you prefer to work with browsers can choose the encrypted cloud version which allows uploaded files to be instantly deleted within 24 hours.
The choice of this platform is different from the bank statement Excel software, which is based solely on remote processing.
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 reconciled or sorted. Also, they aren’t able to be used to import, filter, or re-organize and so on. Scanned files create an additional problem, since the transaction information is often only available in images.
Docubrew is a powerful software that combines OCR and statement parsing to transform the documents that were scanned into useful financial information. This provides accountants, bookkeepers, and business owners a way to transform archival financial records into useful transactional data.
This simple method can improve an inefficient workflow by preserving the original bank statement while changing its transaction table into the information you need to use.