The banking technology has greatly automatized bookkeeping. However anyone who handles financial records knows that the automation process doesn’t always work. Customers still send PDF statements, bank feeds may not work or historical transactions aren’t accessible. It is then necessary to convert a PDF file intended to be read by a reader into something accounting software will actually use.
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A converter for bank statements can eliminate much of the repetitive work involved in that process. Instead of entering manually dates or descriptions, withdrawals and deposits row-by-row, Docubrew converts statements into structured spreadsheet-ready information.
When a PDF is deemed to be the missing piece
Imagine a bookkeeper making the year-end reconcile for an incoming client. The accounting system shows the most recent transactions, but some months from the past are missing. Fortunately that the client downloaded the original PDF statements.
The past was when creating these months could take many hours of copying and pasting numbers into a spreadsheet. A PDF bank statement that is converted to Excel workflow provides a feasible alternative. Docubrew accepts electronic PDFs as well scanned paper statements and then extracts the information about transactions for use in spreadsheets.
Reduced manual transcription is a great way to reduce the chance of errors for those who have to transfer bank statements into Excel frequently.
Save the Pages that Actually Are Important
Bank statements don’t consist exclusively of transactions. A 12-page statement could include an introduction page, a account summary and disclosures or notices as well as a variety of pages of banking activity.
Docubrew lets users view the document and pick the relevant pages prior to conversion. It makes it much easier to convert bank statement data to Excel without having to import unrelated statement information into the work dataset.
After processing, the document can be opened using Excel or re-formatted to work with accounting software platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks.
CSV can be used to create a more flexible accounting workflow
CSV is popular because spreadsheets, databases and accounting software allow CSV because they are compatible with spreadsheets, databases and accounting software. If you require an account statement converted to CSV, Docubrew produces structured output based upon the transaction table found in the statement.
This same process is used by firms to convert bank statements into CSV, regardless of whether they are recovering historical records, managing a cleanup project for new clients, investigating the missing transaction, or even preparing records for reconciliation.
Accounting firms that need to handle clients with multiple statements may use batch processing to their advantage.
Financial Documents should be analyzed for privacy controls
When processing financial records efficiency is not the only factor to be considered. Accounting and bookkeeping professionals may be concerned about the processing location since bank statements contain sensitive client data.
Docubrew gives two methods. Windows desktop software is used to process files stored on the computer of the user. These statements do not need to be uploaded in order to be transformed. Users who prefer to work with browsers can choose the encrypted cloud version, where uploaded files are immediately deleted after 24 hours.
That choice distinguishes the platform from bank statement to Excel software that depends exclusively on remote processing.
Turning Document Archives Back Into Working Data
While PDF statements can be excellent documents, they’re not ideal to utilize when transactions have to be reconciled or sorted. They are also not able to be used to import, filter, or re-organize and so on. Scanned files add a new complication because the transaction information can only be present in the form of an image.
Docubrew is a powerful application which combines OCR and statement parsing to turn document scans into usable financial information. This offers accountants, bookkeepers and business owners the opportunity to convert archival financial documents into usable transactional data.
The result is an easy improvement to an otherwise monotonous routine: preserve the bank statement as the original financial record while turning the transaction table into information you can actually use.