Check that a PDF statement's transactions add up to its balance
Most bank and credit card statements print an opening balance and a closing balance. When ProperConvert reads a PDF statement, it finds these two balances and checks that the opening balance plus the transactions it read equals the closing balance. If they add up, every transaction on the statement was found and read with the right amount. If they do not, a transaction may be missing or read wrong, and it is better to know that before you import.
Make sure you have the latest ProperConvert: choose Help > Check for updates.
Where to see it
After you select a PDF statement, look at the bottom line of the transactions grid, under the Memo column (or under Payee when the output has no Memo):
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Balance: reconciled, ending 5,230.18 | The transactions add up to the statement's opening and closing balance. |
| Balance: off by 25.00, ending 5,205.18 | The transactions are 25.00 short of (or over) the closing balance. |
| Ending balance: 5,230.18 | The statement prints its opening balance but no closing balance (for example, you opened only some of its pages). Compare the ending balance with the last balance on your statement. |
| Balance: 2 statements off | You opened several PDF statements, and 2 of them do not add up. |
| Totals: match | The statement prints no balances (or only one), but it prints its total deposits and withdrawals (or checks), and the transactions add up to them. |
| Totals: withdrawals off by 25.00 | The withdrawals read are 25.00 short of (or over) the total withdrawals the statement prints. The same for deposits and checks. |
| nothing | The statement prints no balances and no totals, or ProperConvert could not find them. The transactions are converted as usual. |
The ending balance is the opening balance plus the checked transactions: the balance your accounting software shows after the import, if it started at the opening balance. For a credit card, it is the amount owed.
The check follows the transactions that are checked in the grid. If you uncheck a transaction, the balance line changes; check it again and it comes back. Changing the amount sign of all transactions does not change the result: a credit card statement adds up either way.
Printed totals
Many statements also print a total for each side: Total deposits, Withdrawals and other debits, Checks, or on a credit card Payments and credits and New charges. ProperConvert compares each total it finds with the transactions of that side. When a statement prints checks, fees or interest apart from its withdrawals, they are added before comparing.
When one statement is loaded and its balance does not reconcile, the Deposit and Withdrawal sums at the bottom of the grid also show, in parentheses, the totals the statement prints: 1,932.91 (761.53) means the withdrawals read add up to 1,932.91 while the statement prints 761.53.
The totals are shown only when the balances cannot confirm the statement: when the statement prints no opening and closing balance, or when the balance is off. When the balance is off, Totals: withdrawals off by 25.00 tells you which side to look at: here, a withdrawal is missing or read wrong, and the deposits are fine.
When the balance is off
Before you convert, compare the statement with the grid:
- Look for a transaction with the amount shown after off by. Often it is a single missing or unchecked transaction.
- If you cannot find it, compare the transactions page by page: a transaction may be missing, read twice, or read with a wrong amount or sign.
- A statement that holds more than one account (for example a checking and a savings account in one PDF) is shown as off today, because ProperConvert checks one opening and closing balance against all its transactions.
When you click Convert, a statement that is off (its balance or a printed total) is listed as a warning in the issues found before you convert. Close lets you review it first; Convert anyway saves the file as it is.
If a statement is off and you cannot see why, send it to support@propersoft.net with the amount shown: we use these statements to improve how ProperConvert reads PDFs.
Other files
The check is for PDF statements only. CSV, Excel, QIF, OFX and other files are converted with the transactions they hold, and the balance line stays empty.