How do I 'reconcile' bank statements in PDF format, without printing them?

[Donald169e]

Hello

I am new here!

How do I 'reconcile' bank statements in PDF format, without printing them?

i.e. I need an efficient method for adding ticks (and other comments) to a PDF file.

Background
I am trying to go through my bank statements, which are in PDF format, line-by-line ticking them, as I check them off (to make sure that each one correctly matches has already been added into my accounts).

Obviously one option would be to print them out and tick them off with a pen, but that seems wasteful & inefficient.
Another option is to mark them up with my PDF reader (currently Adobe Acrobat Reader [version 2003.003.20284] on Windows10), but it seem very fiddly as I can't find any good keyboard shortcuts.

Any suggestions?

D


PS My (idiotic) bank does not offer any form of CSV / XLSX download for credit cards.

 

[DontAsk]

Use Acrobat built in highlighter, or similar.

 

[fisicx]

Or buy adobe acrobat pro. It’s only £15

 

[GLAbusiness]

I recommend Foxit PDF Editor, You can highlight, add text etc. A really good product

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

If you find printing them and using a high lighter simple then do that
Don't let these kids put the idea into your head that everything has to be done on an ipad ?

Don't worry about your effort to save the planet you might use up a couple of tree branches but its nothing in the grand scheme of things Just look up in the sky and see how much more damage is being done by aircraft ??

 

[numbersrule]

As you have mentioned your frustration about your bank not offering XLSX, there is a free file conversion website called Convertio which will convert PDF to XLSX and many other conversions.

 

[Donald169e]

Use Acrobat built in highlighter, or similar.

But Adobe Acrobat Standard costs £13.14/month
==> that's over £150/year
==> and is over £750 for 5 years of use.

Absolutely out of the question

What other freeware/freemium applications can we use?
If pushed I would pay a maximum of say $50 for this, but only as a one-off.

D


P.S. I do also have Office 365, but importing into Word makes a total mess of the financial columns. :^[

 

[GLAbusiness]

Foxit PDF Reader is free and may do what you need. You can download from the Foxit site.

 

[NicoJ]

I used to scan the statements in and copy paste them onto an excel spreadsheet as a picture. You then had the actual statement and could line it up with the excel cells for comments (it was used to analyse for me). Bit clumsy but it worked.

 

[Donald169e]

As you have mentioned your frustration about your bank not offering XLSX, there is a free file conversion website called Convertio which will convert PDF to XLSX and many other conversions.

One problem with Convertio is that it fails to put things into columns correctly.

No, I believe all I need is a really slick/fast way of marking up my PDF files:

[Rationale:
Because I travel a lot, my master-copy of all my bank statements is now not paper, it is in digital PDF format. Furthermore, I would actively like my master copy information to also contain the evidence that of what I have/have not ticked off! ]

So, simply put, I need a software tool to allow me to edit my PDF bank statements so that I can add :
- add a tick
- or a cross
- and/or add a short comment

However it needs to be fast and easy, with lots of keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys to speed things up!

Any other suggestions?

D

 

[japancool]

If the PDF is actually formatted text rather than just an image file, you could copy and paste the lines into a spreadsheet. Acrobat Reader, amongst other programs, will allow you to copy text.

I have to do that sometimes to get product lists from invoices.

 

[Donald169e]

Foxit PDF Reader is free and may do what you need. You can download from the Foxit site.

Hmmmm..... OK, when I download Foxit PDF Reader, it asks me if I want to install a 14 day trial of Foxit PDF Editor. (NO! I do not want to install any time-bombed software - not ever!)

Nonetheless, I have now installed just the Foxit PDF Reader (not the "Editor" variant) and yes, it seems extremely powerful.

OK, it's slightly boated & confusing to learn but so far I am extremely impressed!

I shall let you know how I get on.

D

 

[DontAsk]

But Adobe Acrobat Standard costs £13.14/month
==> that's over £150/year
==> and is over £750 for 5 years of use.

Absolutely out of the question

Did you actually bother to try the free version?

What other freeware/freemium applications can we use?

Like I said, Acrobat's built in highlighter tool.

Open a pdf in the free reader and you find you can use the highlighter, and various other tools. Some require an update.

 

[fisicx]

It always amazes me why people think software should be free. It cost a lot of money to develop these tools so they aren’t going to give away all the goodies for free.

@Donald169e - how about I give you access to my pdf editor and in exchange I get access to your products and services for free ?

 

[KM-Tiger]

A bit late to this party, but a quick Google shows a large number of online free PDF -> CSV converters.

Might be worth a try.

 

[japancool]

Word will also open PDF files.

 

[fisicx]

Word will also open PDF files.

As does open office.

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

I Use Microsoft Edge - open any PDF on Edge and it will let you "draw", add text or highlight!

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hello

I am new here!

How do I 'reconcile' bank statements in PDF format, without printing them?

i.e. I need an efficient method for adding ticks (and other comments) to a PDF file.

Background
I am trying to go through my bank statements, which are in PDF format, line-by-line ticking them, as I check them off (to make sure that each one correctly matches has already been added into my accounts).

Obviously one option would be to print them out and tick them off with a pen, but that seems wasteful & inefficient.
Another option is to mark them up with my PDF reader (currently Adobe Acrobat Reader [version 2003.003.20284] on Windows10), but it seem very fiddly as I can't find any good keyboard shortcuts.

Any suggestions?

D


PS My (idiotic) bank does not offer any form of CSV / XLSX download for credit cards.

What bank do you use and what bookkeeping software are you using?

My reason for asking is that it's fairly unusual now to have to spend ages trying to reconcile a bank account - most software enables a bank import of some form.

 

[UKSBD]

Open the PDF with Edge

 

[UKSBD]

I Use Microsoft Edge - open any PDF on Edge and it will let you "draw", add text or highlight!

I missed your post before replying.

I thiink a lot of people are so engrained in using FF or Chrome that they don't realise what Edge is like nowadays

 

[fisicx]

I think @Donald169e want to be able to permanently highlight and mark. I know the Firefox extension does this, not sure if it's the Same in Edge.

 

[UKSBD]

I think @Donald169e want to be able to permanently highlight and mark. I know the Firefox extension does this, not sure if it's the Same in Edge.

Yes, and add comments or notes too

 

[vince]

just to cover all bases, Excel also imports from PDF

How to Import Data From a PDF to Microsoft Excel

Put the file converter away and import your PDF right into a spreadsheet.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[eteb3]

Assuming you can select the PDF text and copy-paste it into an Office file, you can usually use spreadsheet text functions to convert the data to csv format

It’s a pain to set up as you count characters to split spaceless strings of text, but you only need to do it once.

Does depend on how the PDF is compiled, though.

LibreOffice is free, and has a regex function, too - so beats Excel most days imo

Edit: if the PDF import in Excel works then great. How good is it, @vince ?

 

[campbeji]

Hello

I am new here!

How do I 'reconcile' bank statements in PDF format, without printing them?

i.e. I need an efficient method for adding ticks (and other comments) to a PDF file.

Background
I am trying to go through my bank statements, which are in PDF format, line-by-line ticking them, as I check them off (to make sure that each one correctly matches has already been added into my accounts).

Obviously one option would be to print them out and tick them off with a pen, but that seems wasteful & inefficient.
Another option is to mark them up with my PDF reader (currently Adobe Acrobat Reader [version 2003.003.20284] on Windows10), but it seem very fiddly as I can't find any good keyboard shortcuts.

Any suggestions?

D


PS My (idiotic) bank does not offer any form of CSV / XLSX download for credit cards.

Hi,

I do my reconciliations in exactly the same way.

I use 'The Gimp', a free Graphics software similar to Photoshop.

I then open the pdf in 'The Gimp', with the option set to pages rather than layers (if the pdf is multipage), I can then save each page individually.

There are a few steps that I take that took me a while to work out, but it is really quite simple and works really well (and is free).

If you want I can give you more info, maybe put a little video together for you if you want, just let me know.

Good Luck
Jim

 

[DontAsk]

It always amazes me why people think software should be free.

It amazes me people are still making suggestions when the basic free acrobat reader speed you to highlight.

 

[campbeji]

It amazes me people are still making suggestions when the basic free acrobat reader speed you to highlight.

Perhaps people are still making suggestions because they are using a method that works better for them than the basic free Acrobat reader did, but maybe that's just me, sorry for trying to be helpful.

That being said the basic free Acrobat reader does do a good job too.

Jim