Convert from PDF guide
Convert a Bank Statement PDF to Excel
Updated
Short answer: Unlock the statement if it's password-protected, convert it with PDF to Excel, then check the sheet's totals against the statement before using it.
Banks usually give you PDFs, but budgeting, bookkeeping and tax returns happen in spreadsheets. Retyping transactions is slow and error-prone; extracting them takes a minute if you know the few things that can go wrong.
Step by step
Step 1: Download the statement as a PDF from online banking. If your bank also offers a CSV or Excel export, use that instead: it's the cleanest data you'll get.
Step 2: If the statement asks for a password when opened, remove it using the password you already have.
Open Unlock PDF(runs on our server)Step 3: Drop the statement into PDF to Excel and download the XLSX.
Open PDF to Excel(runs on our server)Step 4: Each page with data arrives on its own sheet. Copy the transaction rows onto one sheet for a single list.
Step 5: Total the money in and money out columns and compare them with the statement's totals or the change in balance.
Why this works, and what to watch for
PDF to Excel looks for tables on every page. Where a statement has ruled lines, the cells follow them. Many statements don't, so it falls back to reading column positions from the spacing of the text, which suits the date, description and amount layout most banks use. Currency symbols and thousands separators are stripped, so $1,234.56 arrives as the number 1234.56 and SUM works straight away.
Watch the signs. Banks show money out in different ways: a separate debit column, a leading or trailing minus, or CR and DR labels. Check a few rows to see how yours came through before totalling. Dates arrive in your bank's format; if Excel treats them as text, Data → Text to Columns or DATEVALUE converts them.
Descriptions that wrap onto a second line in the PDF can become their own row with no date or amount. Sorting by the amount column gathers these orphan lines together so you can merge or delete them quickly. Page headers, opening balances and running-balance columns may also need tidying.
Scanned or photographed statements contain no text, so there is nothing to extract until OCR has recognised them. Run OCR PDF (a Pro feature) first, then convert, and check figures carefully: a misread 8 for a 3 matters more in money than in prose.
Statements are sensitive. The file is processed on our servers over an encrypted connection and returned straight away; nothing is kept afterwards, and the file isn't used for anything except producing your spreadsheet.