Working With Scanned Bank Statements: What Accountants Should Know About OCR

The technology of banking has automated many bookkeeping tasks however anyone working with financial records understands that automation isn’t perfect. The feeds for banks aren’t functioning properly, and the historical transactions might be unavailable and customers may be unable to send documents in PDF format. A person must convert a document that was designed to be read into information that accounting software actually works with.

Bank statement converters can help you save time by making the process easier. Docubrew automates the conversion of information from your bank statements into structured spreadsheet information.

Image credit: docubrew.com

A PDF can be the missing part

Imagine a bookkeeper preparing an annual reconciliation for a client. The accounting software shows the most the most recent transactions, however some months from the past have been left out. Fortunately, the client has downloaded the original PDF reports.

Traditionally, rebuilding the previous months can take hours of copying figures into a spreadsheet. A PDF bank account statement to Excel workflow provides a more suitable alternative. Docubrew can extract information about transactions from digital PDFs, as well as scan paper bank statements.

Reducing manual transcription is also a great method to cut down the risk of errors in typing for professionals who need to transfer bank balances to Excel frequently.

Keep the Pages That Matter

Bank statements do not consist only of transactions. A 12-page report could include a summary of the account information, disclosures and notifications as well as a number of pages detailing the actual bank activities.

Docubrew allows users to view the document and choose the appropriate pages prior to conversion. It makes it much easier to convert bank statements into Excel without having to import unrelated statement data into the working dataset.

After the file has been processed, it can be opened using Excel or integrated into accounting platforms such as QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks and many more.

CSV Provides Flexible Accounting Workflow

CSV remains popular since spreadsheets as well as databases and accounting software can use CSV because they are compatible with spreadsheets, databases and accounting software. If you need a bank statement to CSV, Docubrew produces structured output based on the transaction table contained in the statement.

The same workflow can be used to transform bank statements to CSV files for various reasons, such as reconstructing the past, starting an undertaking to cleanse clients’ data that has not been used, researching missing transactions or preparing the data for reconciliation.

Accounting firms that need to manage multiple accounts or clients simultaneously may benefit by batch processing.

Financial Documents deserve thought-out privacy restrictions

Processing financial records isn’t only about convenience. Bookkeepers and accountants could be concerned about the place they work from to handle financial records.

Docubrew has two ways to do this. Its Windows desktop application handles files locally on the user’s computer, so the statements aren’t being uploaded to convert them. Users who prefer working with a browser opt for the encrypted cloud version that allows for uploading files to be immediately deleted after 24 hours.

This choice differentiates the platform from the bank statement Excel software, which relies exclusively on remote processing.

Turning Document Archives Back Into Working Data

PDF statements are great documents, but they’re not the most convenient when transactions have to be reconciled, sorted out, filtered, or imported elsewhere. Scanned documents add an extra complication, as the information about transactions is usually only accessible in images.

Docubrew is a solution that combines statement parsing and OCR for scanned documents. It provides accountants, bookkeepers, and businesspeople easy way to convert archival financial documentation into actionable transaction information.

This simple remedy can help speed up a tedious workflow by retaining the original bank statement, while changing its transaction table into information that you can utilize.

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