PDFCellsConvert a credit card statement PDF to Excel
Open the card statement in PDFCells, check the transactions against the page and download Excel. PDFCells detects a card statement from its account summary and, for CSV, OFX and QBO, signs purchases as money out and payments as money in, the way a card issuer’s own download does.
Steps
- Go to pdfcells.com and choose the PDF, or drop it on the page. Drop several files to open them as a batch. A password-protected PDF asks for its password.
- Check the export panel: it shows Credit card (detected) or Bank account. Switch it if the guess is wrong; the switch applies to Excel and every statement format.
- Each table opens in an editable grid next to the page. Totals that don't add up, balances that don't tie, text in a number column and cells OCR was unsure of are flagged. Fix any cell, merge or split columns, or undo.
- Download Excel, or a statement format once the summary ties.
How a card statement is recognised
The account summary has to print at least two card-only lines with a value next to them: minimum payment due, credit limit or credit line, available credit, payment due date, cash advances, or purchases or new charges. “New balance” alone isn’t enough, because some bank statements print it.
Signs
| Transaction | On the statement | In CSV, OFX, QBO and Xero |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase, fee, interest | Usually positive | Negative (money out) |
| Payment, refund, credit | Usually negative or in a Payments column | Positive (money in) |
| New balance owed | Positive | As printed in CSV; negative ledger balance in OFX/QBO |
In the Excel sheet the amounts stay as printed, and the By month, By description and By category sheets count payments as money in and purchases as money out.
The check on a card statement
Most card statements have no running balance, so the check is the summary: previous balance − payments and credits + purchases, fees and interest = new balance. When the summary prints totals for payments and for charges, the transactions must add up to those too. Only undated summary rows count, so a transaction called “Payment” or “Interest charged” is treated as a transaction.
Card statements often print transaction dates without the year (01/15). Many statements print dates as month and day only (01/15), with the year only in the statement period. For the statement formats (OFX, QBO, Xero CSV and the bank CSV), PDFCells takes each date's year from the printed period, so December dates on a January statement get the earlier year. When the page prints no period, the export panel's Statement year picker asks for the year, and those formats stay off until you pick one rather than guess. In the Excel export these dates stay as printed text.
Questions
Why are my purchases negative in the CSV?
Accounting imports read a card account from your side: a purchase is money out (negative) and a payment is money in (positive), as in the card issuer’s own OFX downloads. The Excel sheet keeps the amounts as printed.
What if PDFCells thinks my card statement is a bank statement?
Switch the account type in the export panel. Detection reads table cells, so a statement whose card terms only appear in running text needs the switch.
Does it handle several cards on one statement?
The Excel export keeps every table. The statement formats export one account at a time, combining sections of one account and otherwise preferring a table whose running balance ties, then the longest; untick the tables you don’t want.