Upload the PDF statement a write-up client emailed you and get an Excel workbook built for the Accounting CS Spreadsheet Import wizard: one row per transaction with date, description, check number and amount. Made for CPA firms keeping client books, payroll and financial statements in Thomson Reuters Accounting CS.
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Accounting CS cannot read a PDF bank statement. It takes bank data three ways: Bank Feeds powered by Yodlee, a QIF, QFX, OFX or BAI2 file on the Bank Statement Import tab of a reconciliation, or an .XLS or .XLSX workbook through File > Import > Spreadsheet. When a client only sends PDFs, BankXLSX converts each statement into an Excel workbook with date, description, reference and amount columns, you add a Transaction Type column, and Spreadsheet Import brings the rows in, with an option to mark them cleared for the bank reconciliation.
Accounting CS is good at the work that happens after the transactions are in. Getting a quarter of bank activity in from a client who only has PDFs is the part firms still pay staff to type.
The reconciliation import lists four file types (QIF, QFX, OFX and BAI2) and Spreadsheet Import lists two (.XLS and .XLSX). A PDF e-statement or a scan of a paper statement is not on either list.
Thomson Reuters notes that Bank Feeds retrieves transactions only as far back as the institution allows, which is up to 3 months for most. A new client who arrives in October with an unreconciled year is outside that window.
Small community banks, credit unions and some business card programs do not support a direct connection, and many owners will not hand a bookkeeper their online banking login in the first place.
Without a file, each check, deposit and card charge goes in by hand on the Transactions screen. Eighty lines a month across thirty clients is a full week of data entry before anyone reviews a number.
Rows that come in on the Bank Statement Import tab take the posting period end date as their posting date. That is fine for matching, but it is not how you want new activity recorded when the books for the period are still empty.
The Spreadsheet Import wizard will not run without a Transaction Type column. A copy and paste out of a PDF gives you merged text, not a Deposit or Withdrawal label on every row.
A clean workbook per client bank account, laid out so the Column Mappings screen in the Spreadsheet Import wizard takes a minute instead of an afternoon.
The file downloads as a real Excel workbook, which is one of the two formats Spreadsheet Import accepts. There is nothing to resave or convert before you point the Source Data screen at it.
Date, description, check number and amount land in separate columns, so each lines up with Date, Payee Name/Description, Reference and an amount field on the mapping screen.
Credits and debits are split, which makes the Transaction Type column a single formula: deposits on one side, withdrawals and checks on the other.
The statement balances come through with the rows, so you can prove the period ties before import and have the ending balance ready for the reconciliation screen.
On the Plus plan, upload up to 50 statement PDFs at once for a catch-up client and download a workbook per statement period.
Nothing connects to the client bank, to Yodlee or to your Accounting CS database. You upload a statement and download a spreadsheet.
The routine for a write-up client whose bank will not connect, or whose history predates what Bank Feeds can reach.
Upload the PDF. Every transaction comes back as a row with date, description, check number where the bank prints one, and the deposit or withdrawal amount.
Tip: Keep one bank account per workbook.
Insert a Transaction Type column and fill it with Deposit or Withdrawal from the amount side (Check where there is a check number). Save the workbook and close it, because Accounting CS will not import a file that is open or password protected.
Tip: Save the column layout as a mapping template the first time.
In Accounting CS choose File > Import > Spreadsheet, map the columns, pick the client bank account on the Bank Accounts mapping screen and mark Cleared if the rows came from the statement you are reconciling.
Tip: Review the Data Analysis screen before you finish.
CPA and accounting firms using Accounting CS for client write-up, trial balance, payroll and financial statements.
Turn the monthly PDF packet from each client into imported, cleared transactions and spend review time on classification instead of keying.
Rebuild a year or two of books for a new client when Bank Feeds can only reach the last few months.
Get a shoebox client into Accounting CS quickly so the trial balance is ready to flow into the business return.
Business credit card statements convert the same way, which matters for the accounts that are least likely to have a working feed.
No. None of the import paths Thomson Reuters documents for Accounting CS reads a PDF. The Bank Statement Import tab inside a reconciliation accepts QIF, QFX, OFX and BAI2 files, and the Spreadsheet Import wizard accepts .XLS and .XLSX workbooks. Thomson Reuters even names bank statement data as a typical source for a transactions spreadsheet, which is the route that works when all a client can give you is a PDF: convert it to Excel, then import the workbook.
That leaves a firm with three honest options for a client account that has no feed. Ask the client to log in and download an OFX or QFX file for each month, if the bank offers one for that period. Type the transactions. Or convert the statement the client already sent into a workbook and let the wizard do the entry. The third is the only one that does not depend on the client doing something new.
Accounting CS gives you three doors for bank activity, and they are not interchangeable. The practical difference is what each one does to the books and which date it records.
| Question | Bank Feeds | Bank Statement Import tab | Spreadsheet Import |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where you find it | Bank Feeds Dashboard | Actions > Reconcile Bank Accounts | File > Import > Spreadsheet |
| What it takes | A linked account (powered by Yodlee) or a downloaded file | QIF, QFX, OFX or BAI2 | .XLS or .XLSX |
| What it does | Retrieves transactions you review and approve | Matches statement lines to recorded transactions | Creates transactions from the rows |
| Date recorded | Transaction date from the institution | Posting period end date | The date on the row, when it falls in the current fiscal year |
| How far back | Up to 3 months for most institutions | Whatever the file covers | Whatever the workbook covers |
| Works from a PDF statement | No | No | Yes, once the PDF is converted to Excel |
Menu paths, formats and date rules as described in the Accounting CS help articles from Thomson Reuters.
For a client whose books are empty for the period, Spreadsheet Import is the right door because it creates the transactions and keeps their real dates. The Bank Statement Import tab is built for the opposite situation, where the checks and deposits are already recorded and you are proving them against the bank. It matches on type, reference and amount, and anything it cannot match can be marked as an adjustment, given a GL account and posted from the reconciliation.
Choose File > Import > Spreadsheet and the wizard walks through five screens: Source Data, Column Mappings, the Data Mapping screens, Data Analysis and Import Complete. On Column Mappings you tell Accounting CS which column holds each field. On the Bank Accounts mapping screen you pick the client bank account for the rows, and marking the Cleared checkbox imports them as cleared for the bank reconciliation. The column layout can be saved as a template, so next month is a matter of choosing the template and the new file.
| Accounting CS column | Required? | From the converted statement |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction Type | Always | Add it: Deposit for money in, Withdrawal for money out, Check where a check number is printed |
| Date | Optional, but map it | The statement posting date |
| Reference | For checks, AP checks and AP payments | The check number column |
| Payee Name/Description | For checks, AP checks and AP payments | The transaction description |
| Total Amount (or a distribution amount) | At least one amount field | The deposit or withdrawal amount |
| Bank Account | Optional | Leave it out and choose the account on the mapping screen |
| General Ledger Account | Optional | Add it if you code rows in Excel first |
Required and optional columns as listed in the Accounting CS Spreadsheet Import help article.
The Transaction Type column is the only one you build yourself, and it is one formula. With withdrawals in column D and deposits in column E, =IF(D2>0,"Withdrawal","Deposit") filled down the sheet labels every row, and you overwrite the handful of checks by hand or sort on the check number column and fill those in one pass. Accounting CS also accepts Check, Credit, Debit, Payment, AP Check, AP Payment and Journal Entry as types, but a bank statement rarely needs more than the first three.
If you leave the GL account blank, the wizard fills it from the vendor record distribution or drops the row into the client Undistributed account, which is a reasonable place for a first pass that you then reclassify. Two things will stop an import: the workbook being open in Excel or protected with a password, and rows dated into a future period that has no posting period set up yet. Accounting CS flags the second as a critical error on the Data Analysis screen.
Import the statement rows through Spreadsheet Import with Cleared marked for that bank account, then open Actions > Reconcile Bank Accounts, select the account, and enter the ending balance from the statement. Because the rows came from the statement itself, they are already cleared, and the difference that remains is almost always something recorded in the books that the bank has not processed yet, or a bank fee nobody entered.
When the client books are already current and you only need to prove them, the order flips. You would normally bring the bank side in on the Bank Statement Import tab, but that tab needs an OFX, QFX, QIF or BAI2 file, not a spreadsheet. With only a PDF in hand, the converted workbook becomes your checklist instead: sort it by amount next to the Unmatched grid and the items that do not tie stand out quickly. Firms reconciling a year at once can process the statements in bulk through batch bank statement conversion and work period by period.
Because the feed can only retrieve what the institution makes available, which Thomson Reuters puts at up to 3 months for most financial institutions. Bank Feeds does have an Import Statement File option for accounts that will not connect and for history outside that window, but it expects a file downloaded from the bank. For a client who shows up with twelve monthly PDFs and no portal access for the old account, converting those PDFs and importing them as spreadsheets is the practical way to get the missing months in. Our catch-up bookkeeping converter page covers that engagement end to end.
Most firms running Accounting CS also have clients who insist on QuickBooks Online. Accounting CS can import transactions, the chart of accounts, vendors and bank accounts from QuickBooks Online, though Thomson Reuters notes that payroll and classes do not come across. The other direction is narrower: exports go to QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier and Enterprise only, not QuickBooks Online, and transactions that arrived through a spreadsheet import cannot be exported at all. That is a good reason to keep the converted statement files with the client workpapers. The full trade-off, including what each costs a firm, is in Accounting CS vs QuickBooks Online for CPA firms, and the QuickBooks side of the statement workflow is on the QuickBooks bank statement converter page.
Thomson Reuters does not publish a list price for Accounting CS, so the software cost is whatever your firm was quoted. BankXLSX is priced by pages converted. Starter is $49 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly, with unlimited users. Plus is $149 a month, or $74 a month billed yearly, and adds bulk upload of up to 50 files, saved templates, categorization and QBO export for the QuickBooks clients. A new account gets a one-time 15 page demo, no credit card, which is enough to check the converted rows against a real client statement before deciding.
The number to compare against is staff time. A business checking account with 80 transactions a month is a long sitting to key and tie out; converted and imported, it is a review of the Data Analysis screen. Firms that also keep some clients in Drake can see the equivalent CSV workflow on the Drake Accounting bank statement converter, and the wider audit and tax file workflow is on bank statement CSV for CPAs.
No. The Bank Statement Import tab accepts QIF, QFX, OFX and BAI2 files, and the Spreadsheet Import wizard accepts .XLS and .XLSX. A PDF statement has to be converted to an Excel workbook first, then brought in through File > Import > Spreadsheet.
The Bank Statement Import tab under Actions > Reconcile Bank Accounts accepts QIF (Quicken Interchange Format), QFX (Quicken Web Connect), OFX (Open Financial Exchange) and BAI2. Imported lines are matched to recorded transactions by type, reference and amount.
Transaction Type is always required, plus at least one amount field such as Total Amount. Reference and Payee Name/Description are also required for checks, AP checks and AP payments. Date, Bank Account, GL Account and Memo are optional but worth mapping.
Yes. On the Bank Accounts mapping screen of the Spreadsheet Import wizard, marking the Cleared checkbox imports that bank account rows as cleared for the bank reconciliation. That suits rows taken straight from the statement being reconciled.
Only as far as the financial institution allows, which Thomson Reuters describes as up to 3 months for most institutions. Older history has to come in from a file, which for a client with only PDF statements means converting them to Excel and using Spreadsheet Import.
Transactions brought in on the Bank Statement Import tab use the posting period end date as their posting date. Spreadsheet Import instead posts each row to the period it is dated in, as long as the date falls in the current fiscal year.
No. Accounting CS exports client data to QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier and Enterprise only. It can import transactions, chart of accounts, vendors and bank accounts from QuickBooks Online, but not payroll or classes.
The workbook separates deposits and withdrawals, so the Transaction Type column is one IF formula filled down the sheet. Save the finished layout as a mapping template in the wizard and the next month for that client maps itself.
Audit and tax files for CPA firms.
Rebuild months the feed cannot reach.
Convert a year of statements at once.
The same workflow for Drake practices.
For the clients who stay in QuickBooks.
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