Drake Accounting Bank Reconciliation Import from PDF Statements

Can Drake Accounting import a PDF bank statement?

No. Drake's own knowledge base says the only file type its bank reconciliation can import is a .CSV file, and the Bank Import on the Spreadsheets screen also reads a spreadsheet file, not a PDF. The fix is to convert the PDF statement to CSV first. Upload it above, export CSV, and import that file through Accounting, Bank Reconciliation, Import Bank, or through Tools, Spreadsheets, Import when you need to create the transactions themselves.

Every menu path and limit on this page comes from Drake's knowledge base and the Drake Accounting 2024 manual. Our part is the conversion step. The converter reads the statement, digital or scanned, and writes the transaction table to CSV, so nobody on your staff retypes a month of checks and card swipes before the import can start.

Why tax firms end up with PDF statements in Drake Accounting

Drake Accounting is sold to tax and accounting practices that keep books and run payroll for their clients. The Professional edition lists at $795 a year with unlimited clients, and that pricing is why so many small firms run their write-up work in it. The catch is the input. Clients rarely hand over a bank download. They email PDF statements, forward the bank's monthly notice, or bring a folder of paper statements in March.

A bank download only goes back so far, and you cannot log into a client's bank to pull one anyway. The PDF is what you have. Drake can reconcile against a printed statement, but that means picking every cleared item by hand with the right arrow. For a client with 300 card transactions a month, that is the difference between ten minutes and an afternoon.

How to import a bank statement into Drake Accounting from a PDF

The steps below are for the bank reconciliation import, the route most firms use every month. Plan on about ten minutes for the first file and a few minutes after that, since the column layout repeats for each bank.

1. Upload the client's PDF statement with the box at the top of this page. Scanned and photographed statements go through OCR the same way.
2. Review the rows against the printed beginning and ending balances, then export CSV.
3. Open the CSV in Excel. Keep only the transaction rows and the columns above. If the bank prints deposits and withdrawals in separate columns, add one Amount column with deposits positive and withdrawals negative. Save as CSV.
4. In Drake Accounting go to Accounting, Bank Reconciliation, pick the account, enter the Statement Date, Starting Balance and Ending Balance, and click Load Trans.
5. Click Import Bank, browse to the CSV and open it. The Reconciliation Import window shows the first records. Use each column's drop menu to fix any data type Drake labeled wrong, then click Import.
6. Match each Bank Report line to its book entry with the Book ID drop menu. Matched book lines change to Cleared. Add bank fees and interest with Journal Entry, then click Finish when the unreconciled balance is 0.00.

Which CSV columns does Drake Accounting need?

Drake does not publish a fixed template for either import. You map the columns on screen when the file opens. Its Bank Import maps five fields, Date, Check Number, Description, Amount/Deposit and Withdrawal, and the reconciliation import lets you relabel each column with a drop menu. A converted statement already has the date, description and amount columns. The table shows how to shape them so both imports read the file the first time.

Drake displays debits as positive numbers and credits as negative numbers in parentheses. For a checking account that means deposits positive and withdrawals negative, which is the sign convention to use in your Amount column. If a statement prints one amount column with a minus sign on withdrawals, the converted CSV keeps that sign and no extra column is needed.

Reconciliation import or Bank Import for client write-up

The two routes solve different problems. Use the bank reconciliation import when the client's checks, deposits and payments are already entered in Drake and you only need to prove them against the statement. Use the Bank Import under Tools, Spreadsheets when the statement is the only record and you are building the books from it. Drake creates those transactions as unposted entries under Accounting, Transactions, so you can assign accounts and review them before anything hits the general ledger. Many firms do both for a new write-up client: Bank Import to create the year, then a reconciliation per month to prove each ending balance.

Drake Accounting bank reconciliation limits to know before you import

• 13 months. A reconciliation pulls book transactions back only 13 months from the Statement Date. Catching up an older year means working in date order.
• One finish per account and date. Once a reconciliation for a given account and Statement Date is finished, Drake will not reconcile that same combination again. Use Save Partial if you have to stop, and Unreconcile if an item was cleared by mistake.
• Both sides must balance. The account is reconciled when the Calculated Unreconciled Balance shows 0.00. Bank fees, interest and wires that are not on the books need a Journal Entry first.
• Accounts listed. Only postable Current Asset accounts, and Current Liability accounts with a credit card subtype, appear in the Account list. Card statements convert and reconcile the same way.

What a year of client statements costs to convert

OFXStatement Starter is $49 a month, or $24.50 a month on the annual plan, for 2,500 pages from one shared pool. A typical small business checking statement runs four to eight pages, so a full year for one client is 50 to 100 pages, and a whole season of catch-up write-up for twenty clients fits inside one Starter month. Plus is $149 a month for 10,000 pages with bulk upload of up to 50 files at once, which suits firms that collect statements in batches. You can test 15 pages without a credit card before you pay.

Compare that with the alternative: a staff accountant keying a 300 line card statement into a spreadsheet takes most of an hour, and every typo shows up later as a reconciliation difference you have to hunt down.

Tips that save time on the first import

Keep one saved CSV layout per bank, because each bank prints its columns in its own order and the mapping you choose in Drake is easier when the file looks the same every month. Save the file as CSV, not as an Excel workbook, and do not reopen and resave it in Excel after you are done, since Excel can strip leading zeros from check numbers and rewrite dates. If the statement shows dates without a year, add the year before you import, especially for a December to January statement.