How to convert a scanned bank statement to Excel
Reconciling accounts from a paper statement, or a PDF the bank only offers as a scan, usually means typing every line into a spreadsheet. With two tools you can get the dates, descriptions and amounts into Excel and spend your time checking rather than typing.
Open PDF to ExcelPull tables and figures out of PDFs into an editable spreadsheet.
First: is your statement a scan?
Statements downloaded from online banking are usually real PDFs with text in them; those can go straight into PDF to Excel. Paper statements you scanned, photos of statements, and some archived statements are images. If you cannot select the text, or PDF to Excel says the file has no selectable text, it is a scan and needs text recognition first.
Convert a scanned statement step by step
- If the statement is on paper, photograph or scan the pages, and turn them into one PDF with Scan to PDF. Keep the pages straight and evenly lit.
- Open OCR PDF, add the statement and choose its language. Turn on Enhance faint scans for pale print or grey backgrounds.
- Add the searchable PDF from OCR to PDF to Excel and convert.
- Download the .xlsx. Each page becomes its own sheet, with one row per line of the statement.
OCR and PDF to Excel are both part of Papermint Premium.
Tidy and check the spreadsheet
- Amounts come through as numbers, including negatives, so you can total and sort them straight away.
- Descriptions can split across two columns. "Office supplies" may land as "Office" in one cell and "supplies" in the next, because recognised words are spaced like the printed page. Join them with a formula such as =B2&" "&C2, or in Power Query.
- Headers and page footers come along too. Delete rows such as the bank's address or "Page 1 of 3".
- Check the totals. Sum the amounts and compare with the opening and closing balances on the statement. If they match, the figures are right; if not, look for a misread digit.
Several statements at once
To work through a quarter or a year in one go, combine the statements with Merge PDF first, then run OCR and PDF to Excel once. You get one sheet per page in a single workbook.