Review a lengthy bank statement, and you’ll see many more pages than a transaction ledger. Account summary, explanations, notifications and disclosures may surround the actual information that the bookkeeper requires.
The processing of all data isn’t necessary if the goal of the task is to transfer information from transactions to an accounting software or spreadsheet. To make a more targeted workflow, you must identify the pages that can be useful prior to generating the output.
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The number of pages on a page doesn’t necessarily indicate more information.
Take a look at a business that is reviewing its banking activities for several months. While each monthly PDF may have ten pages or more however, only a small fraction of it contains the tables required for accounting.
Manually copying the tables is an option however, it’s not fast and introduces opportunities for typing mistakes. Businesses can instead convert bank statements to Excel while limiting the conversion to relevant pages.
Docubrew offers a page preview which enables the user to view and select what pages will be processed. You can leave out disclosures, cover sheets as well as other pages.
A Preview First gives You More Control
Automated systems are most effective when they are controlled by the user.
Docubrew’s preview feature allows users to view all the pages of the report prior to converting it. The program extracts the data directly from the original statement, instead of estimating the financial value.
When you convert a bank statement into Excel it gives the user an opportunity for you to verify that the appropriate pages have been chosen and to examine the extracted information before downloading the result.
The checkpoint can be simple, but it’s important when dealing with financial records.
Exports should be shaped by the destination
Next, you will be asked what you intend to conduct with your transactions.
Excel can be practical when a bookkeeper has to inspect the rows, sort data or manipulate the spreadsheet data. CSV might be a better choice if you are transferring the data to another system. Docubrew supports QBO output.
If someone needs to convert a bank statement to CSV format you can make an CSV instead of creating an Excel worksheet and later manually changing the formats.
Docubrew can be used with accounting programs like QuickBooks®, Xero®, and FreshBooksand also spreadsheet-based workflows.
Scanned paper statements are able to be included in the same workflow
PDFs that are digitally created aren’t the only PDFs that can be transformed.
Sometimes, companies have statements from the past that are only available in paper scans. Docubrew comes with OCR for scanned PDF statements, allowing those documents to be processed too.
It can be very helpful for working on accounting historical projects where certain records have been digitized while others were taken directly from paper. Instead of having two different workflows, the files could be processed with the same general conversion process and then reviewed prior to export.
Processing locally, or using the Cloud
The outcome of financial documents is as important as the way they are interpreted.
Docubrew’s Windows desktop software can convert files locally and stores client files on your computer. Cloud processing is accessible to users who prefer browser-based processes. Docubrew says that uploaded files are encrypted and the files uploaded and the documents converted are deleted automatically after 24 hours.
The last step in converting a PDF bank statement to Excel isn’t to put every page of the document into Excel and hope for a beneficial output.
Begin by reviewing the pages with the information that you need. Examine what information is being gathered. Choose the format that fits the next task in accounting.
Sometimes a cleaner financial workflow begins not through processing more however, but rather by choosing to process less.
