How to stop manually moving numbers from PDFs into Excel
Standard converters and import tools fail on messy scans and shifted tables from diverse client documents like bank, brokerage, and AP aging statements. This forces staff to spend a huge portion of their day manually cleaning up data, matching files, and hunting down exceptions.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Using built-in Excel import toolsDid this help you?
- 2Using file convertersDid this help you?
- 3Using AI tools like Claude and GPTDid this help you?
- 4Using general-purpose AI tools like Claude or Gemini for pieces of the processDid this help you?
- 5Using alternative software like cellsource.appDid this help you?
- 6Using AI meeting notes to help offset the transcription effortDid this help you?
- 7Switching entirely to Excel or digital toolsDid this help you?
- 8Using post-it notes for quick reminders and tossing them when doneDid this help you?
- 9Breaking down large or messy files into smaller chunksDid this help you?
- 10Manually cleaning up, formatting, or fixing inconsistent client data before starting actual workDid this help you?
- 11Waiting to invest in software until it immediately saves timeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“honestly starting to feel like we’re still doing way too much manually Especially when PBC docs aren’t super clean . Like investment statements, bank statements, random schedules from clients.”source ↗
“We can get the data out, but my staff still has to clean it up, match it against another file and go hunt down the exceptions.”source ↗
“how much of your guys day is literally just moving numbers from a PDF into Excel.”source ↗
“I’m tired of it,we get bank statements, brokerage statements, AP agingreports, all from different systems.”source ↗
“one client sends us actual photos of documents, I’ve tried the built in Excel import and a few converters and they’re fine until they’re not, and the “not” is usually a scan or a table that shifted two columns over”source ↗
“But at this point I am spending more time with the tools to make them understand our processes than its actually claim to save.”source ↗
“My experience with chatgpt has been terrible and I had to break down the files into chunks to make it work”source ↗
“The demo always works, they've seen those sample files before you did. Datasnipper on a clean bank statement is nothing like a scanned PDF the client photographed at an angle, and that gap is where your vendor time goes.”source ↗
“It's an extra step to transcribe them to send out, but I usually have AI notes, so my personal notes are a good way to validate/augment the AI content”source ↗
Where this came up
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