Convert hard copy bank statements to Excel

Recommendation for converting hard copy bank statements to Excel please

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Can anyone recommend software to convert hard copy bank statements to Excel please. ?  This question was asked on this forum back in 2012 and some useful answers then but that was 5 years ago now.  Thanks

Replies (21)

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By JKnight
09th Sep 2017 15:32

AutoEntry will convert PDF bank and credit card statements into a wide range of formats including csv/Excel and produce files formatted for import into a number of different accounting systems.

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By D V Fields
09th Sep 2017 15:45

Adobe Acrobat will convert PDF ( not surprisingly ) to spreadsheets. It can be cumbersome sometimes with merged cells on some rows but not all; depends on the layout of the original. Therefore you may need to create a template to unmingle rows. An option if you have Adobe Acrobat otherwise the cost might be off putting.

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By Mouse house
09th Sep 2017 20:37

Another vote for autoentry

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
09th Sep 2017 21:24

AutoEntry, no-brainer

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David Winch
By David Winch
10th Sep 2017 10:11

Do you want to convert the bank statements to Excel - or do you want to input the bank transactions into accounting software & prepare accounts?
We use OCREX to convert the bank statements to Excel - but we do not prepare accounts (that is not the purpose of our work). So I cannot comment on accounts preparation (although no doubt OCREX could explain how their software deals with accounts preparation).
David

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Replying to davidwinch:
By AF Accounting Services
11th Sep 2017 12:31

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to respond. On this occassion I will not be looking to import into accounting software and produce accounts.

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Freddie
By Slim Freddie
11th Sep 2017 11:53

Autoentry is good and will convert the statements into a spreadsheet for you. You can input nominal codes too which is a time saver.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
11th Sep 2017 14:41

Autoentry = The Future.

Couldnt be without and has been a massive help in getting clients converted and brought up to date to get them on bookkeeping software/

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By lh3f9764bg1g
14th Sep 2017 10:40

With regards to AutoEntry . . . . . . would scanning 200 invoices (or bank statements) in a month actually cost £32? That sounds like an awful lot, if that's the case. You could blow your whole £32 per month in a day on just one VAT job if that's the case. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the pricing but if I'm not then this sounds very expensive to me. A human being processing documents of this nature would probably be cheaper.

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Replying to lh3f9764bg1g:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
14th Sep 2017 11:04

?? We pay £75 for 500 documents, so pricing you mention sounds about right.

So you can process 200 invoices in a couple of hours and attach those invoices to the entries in the accounts software.

If you'd only charge £32 for that you must be mad.

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Replying to Kent accountant:
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By lh3f9764bg1g
14th Sep 2017 11:29

It's not a matter of what one might charge . . . . . I'm not in this business just to cover my costs. There's still going to be labour costs on top of that £32. I'm just not convinced that taking the labour-only option wouldn't still be the most cost effective and the least hassle. But . . . . . I have no experience in this so I am open to persuasion, if I hear a persuasive argument!

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Replying to Kent accountant:
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By lh3f9764bg1g
14th Sep 2017 13:40

With regards to that £75 . . . . . would one bank analysis with 50 statements zap 10% of your allowance for the month?

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Replying to lh3f9764bg1g:
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By lh3f9764bg1g
14th Sep 2017 13:46

I'm just looking . . . . . . this is just for invoices isn't it? To do bank statements you'd need AutoRec and that looks crazy expensive (to me, at any rate).

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Replying to lh3f9764bg1g:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
14th Sep 2017 17:02

AutoEntry/Autorec - is one and the same, Ocrex and AutoRec rebranded as AutoEntry.

You can use it for bank statements but that would only be where bank statement file exports - CSV/QIF/OFX are not available.

You should only consider using AutoEntry if it fits in with you way of working. We use AutoEntry to process purchase invoices into Xero.

Occasionally it will be used to convert bank statements to csv.

I use to avoid bookkeeping work, now using AutoEntry/Xero I'm happy take it on as I have trained staff who are very efficient at the process. Get the right system in place and it can be very productive and profitable.

No need to visit clients and collect files, work is all done on line.

By introducing AutoEntry I will be adding 25% to business profits this year. It has allowed us to take on work I would otherwise have turned away as unprofitable and a PITA.

Educate and train clients and staff and you'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier.

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By sosleepy
14th Sep 2017 11:55

Is AutoEntry the same as AutoRec? Sounds exactly the same apart form the name.

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By Mike Ross
14th Sep 2017 13:29

statement Rec, can be pricey but works brilliantly

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By David Scott
14th Sep 2017 14:43

We use OCREX's product Autorec - I understand that Auto Entry is their cloud based product.
We find it can save hours on creation of Excel Spreadsheets
from bank statements. A small one man limited company with about 600 to 800 entries takes minutes. At the other end of the tasks is a property partnership with about 100 properties and the information arrives as one bulging lever arch file filled with all the bank statements! Takes about two hours to process, instead of staff losing the will to live if done manually.
What can cause problems is the (helpful) client handwritten notes on the statements - This confuses Autorec ! Also when you need to "sort" the entries, if many of the statement entries start with the same narrative i.e."Direct Debit to ....." we have a little more work simplifying the descriptions.
In summary even with these problems, Autorec copes with statement of all shapes and sizes. Our estimate is that this part of the accounts preparation is less than half the manual alternative. Our last invoice from Ocrex was £799 for 2000 statements

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Replying to David Scott:
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By lh3f9764bg1g
14th Sep 2017 15:25

I wonder what the costing would be for statements downloaded in PDF or CSV form (e.g. from a client's online banking)? As this would come in as one file . . . . . but may be many pages if one were to use the traditional (paper - posted out via snail mail) how would the costing work? My problem, from a pricing point of view, is that (especially in the modern day of card transactions) some clients have many, many transactions per month and consequently alot of statements. Sometimes these are very low profit businesses. So, as I asked above, how would one big pdf or csv (downloaded) file be priced?

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Replying to lh3f9764bg1g:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
14th Sep 2017 16:10

in the circumstances you mention then a direct bank feed into the software would be the way to go.

Autoentry charge 3 credits for a bank statement. so your 200 credits would do you 67 bank statements, which surely is a fairly big job and surely the £32 cost to have them analysed for you is not unreasonable.

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Replying to lh3f9764bg1g:
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By chatman
16th Sep 2017 18:11

Auto Entry would be irrelevant for statements in csv format, as all it does is convert images to an Excel-readable format.

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By AF Accounting Services
19th Sep 2017 19:17

Dear Everyone who has taken the time to reply to my question and join the discussion.

I did make enquiries with Auto Entry . This looks a great solution and they offer a free trial for a limited number of statements. I needed to do this job in rush and I'm sure they would have provided me with the solution I needed. I reckon it would have cost me about £30.00 as opposed to a good 3-4 hours work myself - so that's gotta be worth it. My only reservation was on the data security side of this. Auto entry do have a data security policy that they make available on request. I would think that the security would most likely be OK. On this occasion though I did end up converting from PDF to Excel myself and then manually tidying up and combining the resulting Excel files. My client was away on holiday and unavailable. I did not want to send his data off in this manner without his prior authorisation. I would definitely seek to obtain my clients permission for future similar circumstances and may build something into my letter of engagement to cover such eventualities.

So yes - a product such as Auto entry does seem to be the way to go.

Thanks again everybody.

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