In a departure from my usual explainer/”how to” posts, this is a short entry introducing something cool I’m building. Let’s dive in:

What’s the problem?

Client emails you a PDF bank statement. It’s 50 pages long. No, they can’t give it to you in another format and it needs to get into your accounting software ASAP. You really don’t want to spend the next week in a slow, tedious process of manual capturing but what do you do?

Solutions and Issues

There are multiple web services if you search for “bank statement to csv“. The issue with these is that bank statements hold incredibly private personal and business data. In this era of privacy conscious clients and privacy focused legislation, it’s not so smart to share private information with an untrusted third party.

The other option is to use DIY methods like Tabula. However, this requires manual editing to create the right format for your accounting software.

Surely there’s a better way?

I felt the need for a privacy safe and easy to use tool that works well on South African Bank Statements.

So I started building:

🎉 Bank Statement to CSV (bs2csv.co.za) 🎉

BS2CSV is a web-app that takes in PDF bank statements and outputs CSV files. It solves the above issues by working entirely on your browser. The PDFs are processed to CSV on your device and never leave your device. It does this to ensure maximum privacy of your documents.

Sounds great, where do I sign up?

Unfortunately, not so fast. Currently this service is in closed beta as I refine it and add support for more banks. If you want to become a beta tester and get the service for free while helping to test it, email bs2csv@gmail.com for more information.

(Featured image remixed from this photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)