Convert PDF to CSV

Do you have bank or credit card transactions stored in a PDF file but cannot open it in Excel as a table with transactions? Microsoft Excel], Google Sheets, or another spreadsheet app do not open PDF files directly, and copying text from an opened PDF does not work for tables either.

extract transactions from PDF

The Solution: Try the ProperConvert (PDF to CSV converter, replaced PDF2CSV) app. It converts your transactions into a format from PDF to CSV.

Pricing Download

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a widely used format for documents that are shared and viewed on various devices and platforms. PDFs are meant to be shared and look exactly the same everywhere (on paper, on screen, etc.), but from the data point of view, PDFs are not great to work with.

Convert transaction PDF to CSV

Comprehensive tool for your bookkeeping needs

extract transactions as CSV

How can I use the converter tool to convert transactions from PDF?

The conversion process is simple and straightforward.

Example: How to make CSV for Xero from a PDF statement

This tutorial shows how to convert a PDF file downloaded from your Bank or Credit Card account and save it as a CSV file with layout compatible with Xero accounting system.

Step 1. Start the ProperConvert app and load a PDF ilfe

Start the app, select a PDF to process and load the file. Review parsed transactions and confirm the transactions details are correct like dates, amounts, amount signs, descriptions and check numbers.

You can check the Payee and the Description. And you can see if it's correct if it's what you expect. What does it do for the PDF file? It takes the Description from the PDF file and tries to remove all Description noise and just leave only Payee, related information, details, or Payee name. In this case (this is not a good example), but let's say that Description has some Date, some Numbers, some Frasers, like Deposit, POS. So all this stuff is removed for Payee.

Step 2. Select CSV layout for Xero.

There are different CSV layouts, CSV generic formats. The Regular CSV layout, that will just save all the columns you see inside the application. Also, there are Excel files - the same, XLSX Excel layout - recent XLSX format, XLS Excel - old XLS format, CSV layout for Quickbooks Online, CSV layout for Xero, Quicken for Mac (CSV Mint layout), POSH layout, Clipboard layout - the same as CSV layout, you can copy it without saving the file, copy to Clipboard and then you start Excel and just paste it.

We will use the CSV Xero. The Date Format for CSV Xero could be month/day/year or day/month/year, as the day suggests on the help page, depending on your country settings. The Converter looks at your country setting and uses as month/day or day/month suggesting the format, but you can set it the way you like. We will use month/day/year for Xero.

The checkbox 'Open after conversion' will make the converter open the CSV file after a conversion, so you can review it before importing it into your accounting system.

Step 3. Import created CSV into Xero.

The file is saved and the last thing is to import it into Xero. We have a test account in Xero. Click 'Accounts' - 'Bank Accounts'.

Let's say we have a Checking account. Click 'Manage Account' - 'Import a Statement'.

It says, that it supports a CSV file. Then click 'Browse' for CSV, select a sample-bank-statement.csv, open it and click the 'Import' button.

The right column is the names from the CSV file and the left column is the names inside Xero. Select Check Number is 'Check No.' and Reference is 'Reference' if you have it. When you have CSV or Excel with additional information, the ProperConvert app to create a CSV layout compatible with Xero, then you would Map the 'Reference' column and use it here. Check 'Don't import the first line because they are column headings' and click 'Save'.

Before you click 'Save', 'Convert', 'Import' pay attention to how many statement lines were imported, and click 'Ok'.

For the next step, we have to process it inside the application, like Map it to Proper Account, select Proper Vendor Name. It is a usual process in the accounting system after you import any file with transactions. Quickbooks called it 'Mapping', Xero called it 'Review'. Before you just have done those transactions into your system, it usually goes to some intermediate place, when you review imported transactions and add them to register.

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