Bank statements often contain information that finance professionals need in a usable format, from transaction details to account balances, fees, and so on. To use that data, first you need to get it into your system, whether that’s an accounting software, a simple Excel spreadsheet, or any other application.
The good news is that you don’t have to waste hours every week inputting data by yourself. If your company happens to have a Citigroup account and you want to gather bank statement data in an Excel spreadsheet, you can use an OCR solution to extract data with
One such solution is Docparser: a document parsing solution that is simple to use and delivers accurate results thanks to its powerful OCR engine. In this quick guide, we are going to show you how to use Docparser to convert Citigroup statements to Excel.
Note: you can follow this process for bank statements from not just Citigroup but any other bank.
Step 1: Create a Template
First, sign up for a free Docparser account.
Once you do, you’ll be taken to the template library where you choose the kind of template you want to start with. Templates have pre-set parsing rules, which are the instructions that Docparser’s algorithms follow to identify and extract data from documents. The library includes templates for various types of documents (bank statements, invoices, forms, etc.) and industries.
In our case, click on the button ‘Start with a Bank Template’. This will create a customer parser with no pre-set rules — a blank slate so to speak. Then, type a name for your template (e.g. Citigroup statements).
Step 2: Upload a Citigroup statement
Next, you need to upload at least one sample bank statement which will serve as the basis for building your parser. So log in to your Citigroup account and download one or several statements.
You can drag and drop your bank statement to your Docparser account or upload it from your local drive. Other ways to upload your sample documents include sending them as email attachments, importing them from a storage app like Google Drive, and using the Docparser REST API to import them.
After uploading your Citigroup statement, click on the button ‘Continue’.
Step 3: Create parsing rules
With parsing rules, you can train Docparser to extract the specific data fields you need and leave out all the unnecessary information.
Go to the Rules section in the left-hand side panel and click on ‘Create First Parsing Rule’. In the rule editor, you will see a number of parsing rules tailored for bank statements.
Let’s say you want to extract the balance summary. Select the table you want to extract, add column separators, and you’re good to go. The rule editor will show you a preview of the extracted data. If something needs to be fixed, you can do so by adding table filters with various parameters.
Step 4: Download to Excel (or send to a cloud app)
You’re almost done setting up your bank statement converter. Once the bank data has been parsed, you can download it as a file in Excel, CSV, JSON, or XML format.
To do this, go to the Downloads section, choose the download format you want (in this case, Excel), name your file, and click on the download link that will be generated.
But there’s more: if you prefer to send your data to a cloud application like, say, the online version of Excel or Google Sheets, you can do that too. Just go to the Integrations section, click on a button that says ‘Add a New Integration’, then choose Microsoft Excel.
In the settings, do the following:
- Add your Microsoft account
- Select the workbook and worksheet where you want the data to go
- Set up the field mapping: match the columns on your Excel spreadsheet to the columns of the data fields you extracted
- Save and test your integration
- Validate the integration
Once your integration is up and running, every time new documents are uploaded to your parser, you can parse them all at once and the new data will be automatically exported to your spreadsheet. This eliminates much of the repetitive manual work you would normally do and allows you to move on to the work that actually matters.
Closing Thoughts
So that’s how you can use Docparser to convert Citigroup statements to Excel. You can do the same thing for any other bank statement: JPMorgan Chase, PNC… but here is the thing: Docparser is designed to parse any kind of document that you receive regularly. So beyond bank statements, you can use it to extract data from invoices, contracts, HR forms, and so on.
By implementing Docparser into your document-based workflows, you will save hours of painstaking work and focus on the tasks that move the needle. Instead of spending hours typing data and double-checking it, you will have more time for reporting, budgeting, analysis, and other higher-value tasks. So get started today and convert your bank statements to Excel in just a few minutes.
