Handy Tools to Convert PDF Bank Statements into CSV

Whether you are doing it for personal or business uses, you may come across a scenario where you will need to convert PDF bank statements to CSV format. Converting PDF bank statements to CSV format can be beneficial for a variety of reasons, such as allowing you to keep track of expenses, manage bills, automate certain financial tasks, and also plan for future purchases. In addition, banks and also require new clients to provide different proofs of address, like bank statements or utility bills, to verify their identity and current address. Automatically converting PDF bank statements into structured formats then allows individuals and businesses to speed up the onboarding or analytical processes.

Try out our free online bank statement converter.

But PDF bank statements are notoriously difficult to extract data from or convert into other file types because of the tamper-proof nature of the format. 

With this short blog post, you will be able to convert your PDF bank statements into CSV for further analysis. We will show you how to do this using a range of handy tools and services. You’ll be able to download your file, which can then be imported into your preferred spreadsheet application or data processing program such as Numbers or Excel.

You can transform your PDFs into editable spreadsheets with Adobe Acrobat. But if you try to convert PDFs into CSV directly, there are bound to be formatting errors, and in some cases, the conversion will fail entirely. So, what you can do is first convert your PDF to an Excel file, and then convert the new Excel file into CSV. Taking this small detour will help you avoid any possible CSV formatting errors.

1. Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat
2. From the menu bar on the right, select Export.
3. From the Convert To drop-down menu, select the Excel format
4. Convert.
5. Open the Excel file in Microsoft Excel and convert it to CSV if everything looks good.

The ZAMRAR service offers a free conversion to CSV, and the process of conversion is extremely straightforward. When you open the website, the buttons, and steps for using each function are right there in front of your eyes, so you won't have to spend any time trying to figure out how to use it.

Converting PDF into CSV is as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Visit zamzar.com.
2. Add the file/s you want to convert
3. Select CSV format and convert.

The service, however, has a free usage count limit, and your conversion will still be recorded even if it fails. So, be sure to check how much available credit you have before attempting to use this tool and give it another shot if you don't succeed.

Think about using ProperSoft PDF2CSV, a desktop application, to convert PDF bank statements if that's what you prefer. It is not only a powerful PDF converter, but it also allows you to convert PDF files to XLS, XLSX, and CSV Mint formats, in addition to supporting the conversion of PDF files to CSV. The process of converting PDF bank statements is straightforward, of course.

ProperSoft PDF2CSV makes the task of converting a PDF bank statement to a CSV file format quick and easy. This software is ideal for individuals who need to review bank statements or other PDF files on multiple platforms because it is compatible with both the Windows operating system and the Mac operating system. There is ongoing support for the conversion process, in addition to professional and team licenses, which are both available.

Once you have the ProperSoft PDF2CSV software installed:

1. Load your PDF file.
2. Select CSV format in the export options.
3. Convert.

One drawback, though, is that despite being a desktop application, there are some formatting errors and there is also no batch conversion support.

FormX is different from the aforementioned options since it's an intelligent document processing solution powered by optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning that assists businesses in automating the process of extracting information from documents.

FormX allows businesses to automate extracting data from PDF bank statements and the conversion process is also a breeze. It offers automation and accurate verification of a customer's address with bank statements or other financial statements. FormX already has pre-configured data extraction models for you. A single click is all it takes to get all the information you need!

To improve the extraction accuracy, FormX optimizes the images with different methods, including light and contrast adjustment, skew correction, and edge normalization. Furthermore, the end result can come in the forms of JSON or CSV which can be directly integrated into other software for further uses.

It's much simpler than you think to convert PDF bank statements into CSV with FormX. Let us walk you through the process.

Step 1. Sign up for a free trial

You can process the first 100 pages of bank statements with FormX for free! You simply have to sign up here.

Step 2. Create your bank statement extractor

FormX has provided a set of pre-built extractors, such as Government ID / Passport, Invoice, Receipts, Bank Statement, and Bill of Lading. Click on Bank Statement to create your first extractor.

Step 3. Select your auto extraction items

After creating your bank statement extractor, you can select the data fields, or extraction items, that you want the extractor to automatically extract. Some auto extraction items include bank name, issue date, address, name of the account owner, open balance, close balance, and details of all transactions. You can also create some custom extraction items if needed.

Step 4. Set up Formatter to modify the extracted (Optional)

Formatter is a tool that allows you to add several steps to automatically modify the extracted data. You can remove certain characters, only keep a certain language, or declare date format when needed. More actions are coming in the future!

Step 5. Test your bank statement extractor

After setting up your extractor, you can upload bank statement samples to check the extracted result.

Step 6. Download our desktop app

After testing your extractor, you can click on the "Extract" tab and download our desktop app.

Enter the Form ID, Access Token, and select the region of the server once you open the desktop app.

Afterwards, you can upload the PDFs or images containing scanned copies of your bank statements and download the CSV file that can be furthered processed or uploaded to other software.

While online conversion is free, they are not without some drawbacks.

No batch conversions

None of the online services and the free tools we tested were capable of batch operations. Suppose you want to analyze your bank statements for the last two or three years. You'll need to manually convert dozens of PDFs if you're using online converters, and you'll have to do it one at a time. This is a cumbersome task that will also take a long time to complete. Furthermore, the results may not always be correct.

Lack of accuracy

Bank statements are not easily convertible due to the nature of the security itself, and the majority of online converters only rely on OCR technology, which may or may not be powerful enough to produce accurate or even near accurate results. Furthermore, the end results are most likely not organized or properly formatted enough to be used for downstream workflow.

And that's precisely what we discovered in our testing. Even in the conversions that the converters deemed to be successful, they still produced errors in data and formatting. This is in addition to the online converters' frequent inability to convert correctly.

Slow conversion speeds

The snail's pace at which almost all the free online converters perform conversions is another significant limitation of these tools. Because they provide the service at no cost, they are forced to make concessions in some areas, and one of those areas is the amount of bandwidth they make available. It is not very ideal if you plan to convert more than one PDF into CSV because the tasks are frequently queued up for longer than five minutes, and some services limit the number of tasks that can be completed in an hour to only two or three.

They are ads galore

Another advantage of using free online services is that you are constantly bombarded with advertisements. They are providing you with a service at no cost. Therefore, they need to find a way to recoup their costs. One way that they do this is by littering your screen with advertisements that are pointless and frequently offensive. You can't also discount the possibility of malware or malicious code lurking behind the codes.

Final word

While free online converters and desktop applications are good options for converting PDFs into CSV, they are not always the best. Quality comes at a cost and going with an option that has not only aced the OCR and machine learning technologies but also provides stability, security, and ease of use makes much more sense.

If you want to expedite verification of addresses for better customer onboarding using bank statements, utility bills, and other financial statements, contact us or sign up for FormX to see how easy and convenient it is.