Bank Statements to Excel for Your Small Business Year-End

Steps for small business year-end

1. Download all twelve statements for each business account as a PDF (scanned PDFs aren't supported).
2. Add the file to the converter at the top of this page. Several PDFs can go in together.
3. Check each month's first balance against the previous month's last balance.
4. Set Export layout to Standard columns (QuickBooks, Xero and YNAB layouts are free as well), choose Download Excel, then put each month on its own tab.

What the file looks like

Sample rows, Standard columns setting.

Excel notes

• Editing a cell in the preview changes the downloaded workbook too, which is quicker than fixing it in Excel afterwards.

Why it fits small business year-end

Closing the year means proving every month is complete. With each statement in Excel you can line the months up, check each closing balance against the next opening one and send a tidy workbook to your accountant.

Before sending anything to your accountant, run three checks per account: the number of months is twelve, each month's closing balance equals the next month's opening balance, and the year's total in and out make sense. Fix gaps now and the year-end close is far less painful.

Tip: Put each month on its own tab, then add a summary tab that pulls each month's total in and out. A month that doesn't tie out is where to look first.