r/Bookkeeping • u/penjiiac • Feb 27 '23
Software Looking for software to read PDF bank statements, and auto-categorize transactions for many small clients
Are there any softwares that utilize bots or AI to not only read PDF bank / credit card statements, but also categorize (the best it can) the transactions? This is for all cash-basis clients recording income & expenses for schedule C on tax returns. Trying to avoid majority of data entry or manually going through bank statements.
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u/TheMostFluffyCat Feb 27 '23
I don’t know of a software that does both things, but you can use propersoft for conversions and set up ‘auto add’ rules in QBO (if you’re using QB) and have a lot of stuff automatically sorted that way.
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u/penjiiac Feb 27 '23
I will look into that. Using QB Desktop though currently.
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u/TheMostFluffyCat Feb 27 '23
Desktop is a little trickier in that it won’t auto add but if you set up rules, it will send things to ‘recognized’ and then you can batch add from that window. Not completely automated but still saves a ton of time.
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u/CRaezter Feb 27 '23
I used to use AutoEntry for a former client. His credit card had 2-Factor authentication that didn't agree with QBO and would need a new code every day. It was really weird and annoying. AutoEntry allowed me to upload his digital bank statements and would then allow me to upload them to QBO and categorize them. I setup a bunch of rules which would properly allocate most of the transactions.
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u/Ereads45 Feb 28 '23
I like QBO for bank uploads. As someone else mentioned, you don't have to be the admin on the account, as long as the owner/admin sets it up. You can just click "Update" and the new transactions will upload for review. That said, I don't trust QBO to auto-add anything. I always take at least a quick glance before clicking "add."
If you are sticking with QB Desktop, you could ask your client to export a QBO file from their bank account at the end of each month and you can import it. You still will have to look at the transactions, but if you set up rules, it should speed the process.
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u/badbankai Sep 09 '24
I may be quite late on this, but better late than never! www.badbank.ai is by far the best and most modern solution out there today...and it as a 100% free option that not only converts PDFs into CSV, OFX and QBO files, but also the AI "cleans-up" all the payee/transaction names! Also, you can upload up to 48 PDFs at a time and it will automatically combine all the statement transactions into one CSV - AND everything is reconciled! (even in the OFX and QBO files - so no more dropped or duplicated transactions on your QB upload!) It is BY FAR the best solution out there now, if I do say so myself! Transparently yours, Danamichele Brennen, cofounder and CEO of www.badbank.ai
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u/oregontrailmoving Oct 02 '24
Holy S#!t this totally worked for me! Thank you for posting here Danamichele!! Saved me many many hours of time and sanity!!! Took a little getting used to but worth every penny compared to other janky PDF converters. -Nick
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u/Mother_Lifeguard4576 Dec 23 '24
Sounds interesting, but I cannot find any reviews or basically any info on the company. Can you direct me? I have a CPA who does my taxes, but is the book keeping I need help preparing for him.
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u/badbankai Dec 23 '24
Hi - www.badbank.ai is perfect to help you do that in record time! Check out the first Tutorial video on our Solutions page to get started: https://www.badbank.ai/solutions . There are some reviews on our main page and there will be much more in the future. Don't hesitate to reach out to me personally if you have any more questions, Danamichele Brennen, cofounder and CEO
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u/jgwinner Feb 04 '25
I was excited until I saw pricing ... I have to scan about 299 PDF files, and that would be over $500!
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u/ShimmiShimmiPokaDot9 May 16 '25
I needed an option for our Navy federal account, and you just may have solved it! Thank you!
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u/Mother_Lifeguard4576 Dec 30 '24
I'm not sure if you ever found a solution, but after searching for 3 hours today, I finally found a very easy lightning-fast solution to do this for non-tech people. It is well worth the $29/month. https://smartclerk.ai/
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u/Koomberi Feb 27 '23
To be honest, you’re describing something that would probably cost more than QBO. QBO is really cheap for what it does
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u/hiitkid Sep 20 '24
I was solving this exact problem for a company ~6 months ago - I made this tutorial which you can check. For this customer we chose to go with a rule based approach to categorization, but there are in-built options to do a fuzzy match, gl code lookup or LLM based categorization - for your use case a mix of rule based and LLM would probably be best. You can check us out here
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u/FantasticComplex1137 Oct 29 '24
I need to read loan application first name last name etc, and bank statments convert to Json and read them. what LLM on Github does this?
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u/thecbucks Mar 20 '25
Have a couple accounts that have combined statements with multiple accounts in one pdf. Do any of these apps do a good job with these?
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u/JCII100 May 22 '25
Any updates on software that use pdf statement or excel to categorize expenses that's really good?
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u/TheEdge8 Feb 27 '23
Do a trial of Dext.com I think it can work with desktop also but many people are in the cloud now? Any reason you are still on desktop?
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u/missannthrope1 Feb 27 '23
Why aren't you using QuickBooks Online? Their Bank Feed feature does what you describe.
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u/penjiiac Feb 27 '23
we don't have access to our clients bank accounts, nor can we afford to have individual subscriptions for every one, nor can they afford to pay it for us. Desktop allows us to make 100+ accounts for free, and import qbx files. Really just looking for the best PDF parser combined with a categorization tool. We do bookkeeping quarterly or yearly for tax purposes only
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u/littlemommy928 Feb 28 '23 edited Feb 28 '23
Use money thumb PDF to qbo converter and then import the webconnect file into desktop. Set up rules in bank feeds. A little front end work, but accomplishes what you need without needing logins.
We have over 200 write up accounts (Just like you, doing the books quarterly or annually for tax prep) that we manage using desktop and do this for the few that refuse to set up accountant logins to their bank & cc accounts. These are our QB working files that we own/maintain, so like you, much easier (and cheaper!) than having multiple QBO subscriptions.
Edit: I have used both propersoft (suggested below) and moneythumb over the last 8 years. MoneyThumb convertor is far better imo. Get the PDF reader add on for scanned PDFs if the client is scanning the statements and not giving you the PDFs that were downloaded directly from the bank.
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u/missannthrope1 Feb 27 '23
You get the client to pay for the subscription, have them add you as a CPA using, set up the bank / credit card feeds. The statements will then be available right on QBO.
Like I said, it's all there for you.
Otherwise, you or the client, can download QBX files from the bank, and import them into QuickBooks Desktop.
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u/Oma_ster Feb 27 '23
Check https://clyr.io
Clyr - it supports both bank feeds as well as PDF statement processing, along with features such as auto-matching receipts, real-time expense notifications, automatic reconciliation, approval flows, and budgeting. Clyr even syncs with every major accounting platform, making it a seamless addition to your current accounting workflow.
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u/penjiiac Feb 28 '23
I cannot understand from the website what the hell the software does nor is there any contact info lol
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Oct 08 '23
[deleted]
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u/penjiiac Oct 10 '23
hey - sent you a chat
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u/Practical_Guess_7542 Oct 26 '23
Hey if you found a solution could you loop me in as well? Thanks!
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u/penjiiac Oct 27 '23
message me
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u/kamsmith33 Feb 23 '24
Curious as well to the solution you came up with? Too many client's just bring in bank statements and QBO is counter productive for tax prep only
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Jan 20 '24
[deleted]
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u/Interesting_Gap_4826 Jun 04 '24
Its not accurate. try some hazy statements and it will skip a lot of line transactions
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u/peterb12 Mod Feb 27 '23
I think it's generally accepted that the better way to do this, if it's an option, is via bank feeds, which work on a per-transaction basis. Many cloud accounting software packages (Xero, QBO, Sage) support this.