Bank statement scanning software like StatementReader requires OCR to extract from PDF to Excel. This is because a scanned PDF image isn’t in a format that can be read by a computer as text.  StatementReader uses the very best proprietary OCR software on the market, which goes a long way towards 100% accurate results, particularly from bank statements that may be scanned in a low quality.

 

As a final step to make sure perfect results are exported from your PDF into Excel, StatementReader provides automated corrections directly into Excel.

 

With electronic bank statements you can get 100% accurate results without needing any corrections in Excel, but in StatementReader this is automated so you can be certain all the dates and balances are correct with your bank statement extraction.

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The old way: To validate a list of transactions in Excel you used to add a formula in Excel to calculate a running balance, then go line by line to see which transactions cause the printed balance on the PDF to fall out of sync with the calculated balance; then, once an error is found, you’d scroll to the page where the transaction was extracted from to make the necessary change in Excel.

 

Now, here’s the StatementReader way: our application uses bespoke algorithms to check the date and amounts to first identify, and then correct errors - the Excel that’s produced contains the transactions row by row, with background shading to highlight any cells with errors in orange, and corrections made in green.  Hyperlinks are also available in Excel to go directly to the page where the transaction was extracted from.

 

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

 

SCAN BANK STATEMENT

Using your ordinary office scanner, create a PDF with 300DPI.  If you can select ‘text’ as the document type, then this can help improve the accuracy as the contrast settings will be optimised, especially if you don’t have an original document.

 

FIND THE BANK TEMPLATE

In StatementReader, match your bank statement with the bank names and thumbnail images provided.  If you can’t find an exact match, you can request that we create one for you - this is completely free.  Alternatively, StatementReader includes a tool for creating your own bank template in just a minute; watch [this video] showing the template creation feature in action.

 

SELECT YOUR PDF

Use the browse button to locate the PDF that you saved earlier.

 

ACCURACY REPORT

Once you click ‘Go’ you’ll see a report showing:

 

Number of errors found - All dates and amounts are compared to all the other data points that have been extracted from the page and flagged if any inconsistencies are found.

 

Number of corrections made - Errors are only corrected if it is safe to do so based on other extracted dates and amounts, otherwise the error is shaded in orange to direct the user to watch out for a potential error.

 

Accuracy percentage - You can expect very high levels of accuracy from our templates; if the accuracy percentage is too low, you can request support directly from the File menu of StatementReader.

 

 

And, here’s a case study of a firm that utilise our automated ‘detect and repair’ feature:

 

Client: Insolvency investigation team in London, UK

Start date of contract: December 2015

Range of services provided:

We provided StatementReader for installation on individual client machines, requiring minimal coordination with client’s outsourced IT function

New users install and start using StatementReader within a few minutes with minimal training

We provided a highly accurate remote OCR server for extracting data from scanned images using the client’s existing scanner 

An automated validation feature interacts directly with Excel, highlighting any corrected cells and potential errors, with hyperlinks for fast reference to the exact page of the original scanned document

We assisted the client with configuring multiple users so that users can share templates and extracted data

New bank statement templates are created by users with StatementReader, or remotely within 24 hours. Sample documents can be uploaded directly to our secure server within StatementReader

Hassle free installation and support across multiple offices is a necessity for this client