So you have a new client, and not much else. But the good news is that your client has written checks for every transaction of their 9 month-old business. They also put every dime of earnings into the bank making deposits that corresponded to one deposit for each sale.
You think to yourself, this will be real easy. We will set-up QuickBooks, hook-up bank feeds, and we will have all their business transactions since day one in no time at all. There is only one problem; when you connect to their bank you find that they only allow you to retrieve or download electronic data for the last 90 days, and in fact if you don’t get this work finished by tomorrow, you are going to hit another rolling statement period. What are you going to do?
The natural tendency may be to simply start keying in data from the client’s bank statements. He has saved each statement as a PDF since the first, so all the information is there. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could convert those PDF files into QuickBooks bank data?
You are in luck. There is a product from a little company called MoneyThumb that will convert those PDF files into importable bank data that your QuickBooks BankFeeds can read. PDF2QBO Convert Pro uses advanced algorithms to compare the PDF files of hundreds of different banks and converts those for import into QuickBooks.
If you have your bank statements saved in PDF format, you will most likely be able to convert them, no matter how old the statements are. This is an easy process with PDF2QBO once you have installed the software. By the way there is a free trial that will allow you to import 10 transactions from any PDF statement if you are one of those people who is a little skeptical.
PDF2QBO reads your transactions directly from the PDF statement files. In most cases the predefined configurations (based upon the bank you select) will extract the data perfectly; however, you might find that the configuration needs a plus/minus adjustment which is easily accomplished from the settings page.
When the configuration seems right, you are ready to select and convert the file. Just select the PDF file to convert and the software will do the rest.
If this is your first time using the software with this specific bank configuration, you may want to preview the data before attempting the import to QuickBooks. Simply highlight the PDF file and then click the Preview button. Your transactions are displayed just as they will appear in the imported data.
If you are happy you are ready to begin the import into QuickBooks. Now you need to have set-up your bank account in QuickBooks; if you have done that then go ahead and open QuickBooks, then select the Banking Menu. Click on the Bank Feeds menu item, and then select Import Web Connect File. When QuickBooks opens the windows dialog box browse to the location of the file PDF2QBO created.
Once you have selected the file, click Open, and the Bank Feeds process is initiated in QuickBooks. Your transactions will be displayed in the Bank Feeds Center so you can review, append, and import the transactions into your bank register in the normal manner.
The PDF2QBO Convert Pro product comes in different configurations for Windows, Mac and Java; this product is really a collection of the various conversion utilities that MoneyThumb offers, all wrapped up in one package. It will allow you to convert different file types as well as the PDF files into a QuickBooks format, but they also offer products for Quicken and Spreadsheets as well as other financial software. So there are a lot of product offerings, but if you don't need all the options, you can select a less expensive option that does 'just one kind of import'.
The real benefit of this product is the efficiency and simplicity of its design. If your bank is in their list of banks for which they have created the conversion configuration settings, then you can take old PDF-file bank statements and have them imported into QuickBooks in no time. With this economical software, bank imports from PDF statements are ‘thumbs-up’.