Import a Bank Statement PDF into Excel with Power Query (Get Data From PDF)

Last updated July 2026.

Excel for Windows can pull a PDF into a worksheet on its own through Power Query. You open the Data tab, choose Get Data, From File, From PDF, point it at your statement, and Excel lists the tables and pages it found so you can load one into a sheet. It is free if you already own Excel, and for a clean, ruled table it works well. Bank statements are the hard case, because their transaction lists have no visible grid lines, so Power Query often merges the description into the amount column or splits a single transaction across two rows. This guide walks the full process, shows why statements trip it up, and explains when to skip it.

Which version of Excel has Get Data From PDF?

The PDF connector lives in Excel for Windows on a Microsoft 365 subscription (and recent perpetual versions such as Excel 2021 and 2024). It is not in Excel for Mac, and it is not in Excel for the web, so if you are on a Mac or working in a browser you will not see From PDF in the Get Data menu at all. On those platforms you have to convert the PDF to CSV or XLSX first and then open it. Everything below assumes Excel for Windows.

How to import a bank statement PDF into Excel with Power Query

The short version: Get Data, point at the PDF, pick the right table object, then clean up the columns. Here is the full sequence.

1. Open a blank workbook and go to the Data tab.
2. Click Get Data, then From File, then From PDF. If you do not see From PDF, your Excel version does not include the connector.
3. Select your statement PDF and click Import. Power Query scans the file and opens the Navigator window.
4. In the Navigator, you will see a list of items named Table001, Table002, and Page001, Page002, and so on. Table objects are blocks Excel thinks are structured tables; Page objects are whole physical pages. Click each one to preview it and find the one that holds your transactions.
5. Click Transform Data (not Load) so you can fix the columns before they land in the sheet.
6. In the Power Query Editor, promote the real header row with Use First Row as Headers, delete rows that hold page numbers or the bank address, and rename the generic Column1 and Column2 labels to Date, Description, Debit, Credit, and Balance.
7. For a multi page statement, expand the list of tables at the Source step so every page unrolls into one long table instead of loading a single page.
8. Click Close and Load to drop the cleaned table into your worksheet.

Why do the columns come in wrong from a bank statement?

Power Query reads a PDF by looking for table structure, and a bank statement rarely gives it a clean one. Statements print their transactions as a borderless list, so the tool has to guess where one column ends and the next begins. When the guess is off, a long merchant description spills into the amount column, or a two line description splits a single transaction across two rows. Real headers often land in the first row of data instead of the header, and Power Query labels the columns Column1 and Column2 until you rename them by hand. None of that is a bug; it is the difference between a document built for printing and a document built for a spreadsheet.

Can Power Query read a scanned bank statement?

No. Power Query has no OCR, so it can only read a PDF that already contains selectable text. If your statement is a scan or a phone photo, the pages are images, and Power Query returns nothing usable no matter how the tables look on screen. The same is true for a statement your bank flattened into an image to stop editing. For those files you need a converter with built in OCR, because there is no text layer for Power Query to parse.

Power Query vs a dedicated converter for statements

Power Query is a genuinely good tool, and for tables with ruled lines it is all you need. For bank statements specifically, the cleanup usually outweighs the convenience. Here is an honest side by side.

If your statement is a clean digital PDF and you only have one or two, Power Query is worth the ten minutes. If you are converting many statements, older or scanned ones, or you work on a Mac, a bank statement PDF to Excel converter reads the transaction table directly and gives you date, description, debit, credit, and balance columns with no manual repair.

What to do when From PDF is missing

If the From PDF option is not in your Get Data menu, you are almost certainly on Excel for Mac, Excel for the web, or an older build that never shipped the connector. Rather than hunt for a workaround, convert the statement to a spreadsheet outside Excel and open the result. A converter returns a ready made XLSX or CSV, so it sidesteps the version problem entirely. Mac users can follow our walkthrough on how to convert a bank statement PDF to Excel on a Mac, which covers Numbers and Excel for macOS.

After the transactions are in your sheet

Once the data is in Excel, format the range as a table so you can sort and filter, add a SUM under the debit and credit columns, and check that your calculated ending figure matches the balance the statement carried over. From there the file is ready to reconcile, categorize, or import. If you run the numbers through a formal expense workflow, tools that read the export and sort each line into expense categories automatically save the second round of manual tagging. And if you would rather not fight the columns at all, the PDF to Excel converter hands you a reconciliation ready sheet from the start.