If you look through a long statement, you’ll typically find lots more than the ledger of transactions. Account notes, summaries, explanations and disclosures can be found in the information a bookkeeper will need.
The processing of all data isn’t required if the task is to transfer transactional data into an accounting system or spreadsheet. Before creating the output, consider the most valuable pages.
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More Pages Don’t Automatically Mean More Useful Data
Check out a business that is reviewing its banking activities for several months. The monthly PDFs can contain 10 or more pages, but only a fraction of the file contains the necessary transaction tables to manage the accounting.
The manual copying of tables is an option but it’s a slow process and opens the door to typing mistakes. Businesses can instead convert bank statements to Excel while limiting the conversion to relevant pages.
Docubrew provides a preview page that allows users to preview and choose what pages will be processed. Disclosures, cover sheets and other pages that don’t need to be processed are able to be removed.
Previewing First Gives You More Control
Automation is most beneficial when the person who is using it can inspect what’s happening.
Docubrew lets users preview the pages of the statement prior to completing conversion. Docubrew extracts information from the source statement rather than estimating financial values.
The preview is a great method to check that all the pages are properly selected and to look over the data you’ve extracted prior to download the final result.
The checkpoint is simple, but it’s important when dealing with financial records.
The destination should determine the Export
The next question is what you intend to make of the transactions.
Excel is useful when a bookkeeper wants to sort data, inspect rows, or alter the data. CSV is the better choice for data that is moving into a different system. Docubrew is also able to output QBO.
Someone who needs to convert bank statement to CSV such as, for instance one can create an CSV rather than creating an Excel workbook first and manually changing formats afterward.
Docubrew’s output is optimized to work with accounting software such as QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks in addition to spreadsheet-based workflows.
Scanned Paper Statements Can Join the same Workflow
The conversion can be performed with any PDF file, not just digitally created ones.
Sometimes, companies have statements from the past accessible only in paper scans. Docubrew can process scanned PDF documents, which includes statements.
It can be very helpful for working on accounting historical projects where certain records have been digitally converted while others were directly scanned from paper. Documents can be converted with the same procedure, and then reviewed before exporting.
Processing locally, or using the Cloud
It is important to consider the handling of documents and their output.
Docubrew’s Windows Desktop application converts documents locally to the client’s PC. For users who prefer using a browser cloud, the cloud option secures uploaded files. According to Docubrew, automatically deletes the uploaded and converted files within 24 hours.
In the end, converting a bank statement to Excel should not mean feeding every page of every PDF into an Excel spreadsheet and hoping the output is useful.
Begin by reading those pages that contain the information you need. Find out what is being extracted. Choose the best format to complete the next task in accounting.
It’s possible to create an efficient financial workflow by deliberately processing less instead of processing more.