If you look through a long statement, you’ll typically find many more details than the transaction ledger. Account summaries, explanations, notices and disclosures can be found in the information an accountant needs.

Processing all data is not essential if the project is to move transactions to an accounting software or spreadsheet. Before creating the output, consider the most valuable pages.

Image credit: docubrew.com

More pages don’t automatically mean More Useful Data

Imagine a company reviewing the banking activity of several months. The monthly PDFs could contain 10 or more pages, but only a small portion of the document will contain the necessary transaction tables to record the financial transactions.

The manual copying of tables can provide a solution however, it’s slow and susceptible to mistakes. Businesses can convert bank statement data into Excel but only on the relevant pages.

Docubrew has a page preview which allows users to look over the PDF and select which documents are processed. Disclosures, cover sheets and other pages that aren’t required are able to be removed.

Gain More Control by Previewing first

Automated systems are the most efficient when they are monitored by the user.

Instead of blindly processing an entire document, Docubrew lets users preview statements prior to completing the conversion. It utilizes the original statement to extract figures instead of trying to estimate financial values.

The preview is a fantastic way to ensure that all pages are properly selected and to look over the information extracted before you download the final result.

It’s a straightforward checkpoint but it’s a crucial one if financial records are involved.

The destination should determine the Export

Next, you will be asked about the plans you have to conduct with your transactions.

Excel is useful when a bookkeeper wants to sort data, inspect rows, or modify the data. CSV is the best option in the event that the data is going into 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 is compatible with accounting software, such as QuickBooks®, Xero®, and FreshBooksas well as spreadsheet-based workflows.

Scanned paper statements can be used to be used in the same workflow

PDFs that are digitally created aren’t the only documents that can be converted.

Sometimes, older statements are only accessible as scans of paper. Docubrew allows OCR for scanning statements in PDF format, so that these documents can be processed well.

This is useful for historical bookkeeping where the most recent reports were converted to digital format, while older documents were scanned from paper. The documents can be converted with similar methods before being reviewed prior to exporting.

Process locally or utilize the Cloud

How financial documents are handled can be as crucial as the output.

Docubrew’s Windows desktop application processes conversions locally and keeps client files on the computer. If you’re a fan of browsing-based processing, the cloud option encrypts uploaded documents and, as per Docubrew will automatically delete the files that have been uploaded and transformed within 24 hours.

The bottom line is that converting a bank statement to Excel should not mean loading every page of a PDF into an Excel spreadsheet and hoping that the output will be helpful.

Begin by looking through the pages that contain the information you require. Check out what’s being taken away. Select the appropriate format for the accounting task to follow.

A more efficient workflow for financial transactions can begin with less processing rather, by purposefully taking care to process less.