Adobe Acrobat vs ProperConvert: PDF to Excel and statement conversion compared

Adobe Acrobat and ProperConvert

Adobe Acrobat is the program most people already have when they first try to get transactions out of a PDF statement, and its Export to Excel with OCR is a real option. ProperConvert is a converter built for that one job, which ends in a file your accounting software imports. This page lists what each one does with a statement and what it costs.

The facts below were checked on the two official websites on September 24, 2026. Prices and plans change; the links go to the current pages.

What Adobe Acrobat is

Adobe Acrobat Pro is a general PDF editor for Windows, Mac, web and mobile. Its export feature converts a PDF to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, with the site promising that columns, layouts and formatting carry over, and its OCR turns scanned pages into searchable, editable text, so a scanned statement can be exported to Excel too. You can select an area of a page and convert only that.

Acrobat does not know it is looking at a bank statement. The Excel file holds the page as it was printed: headers, footers, page numbers, wrapped descriptions on their own rows, and amounts as text with the sign shown however the bank shows it. Sorting that into dated, signed transactions is the user's job, and there is no path to QBO, OFX or any accounting format.

Adobe Acrobat pricing

Acrobat Pro for individuals is US$19.99 per month on an annual plan billed monthly, US$239.88 per year prepaid, or US$29.99 month to month with no cancellation fee. Cancelling the annual plan after the first 14 days incurs a fee of up to half the remaining commitment. Cheaper tiers exist, Express at US$9.99, Standard at US$14.99, and Studio at US$24.99 above Pro; the site is not precise about which tiers include OCR of scans. There is a free trial.

What ProperConvert is

ProperConvert is one desktop application for Windows and macOS. It opens PDF statements, scanned PDF statements, CSV and Excel files, and QBO, QFX, OFX, QIF and QMTF files, shows the transactions in a table where you can review, edit, exclude and rename payees, and saves QBO, IIF, QFX, QIF, OFX, CSV and Excel files for QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, Quicken, Xero, Sage and other accounting software. The conversion runs on your computer. Statements are never uploaded to a server.

ProperConvert pricing is one subscription for everything: $19.99 per month or $179.99 per year for one user, and a Team plan of three users at $49.98 per month or $449.97 per year. There are no page, statement or transaction limits, all formats are included, updates are free, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. A free trial is on the download page.

Adobe Acrobat and ProperConvert side by side

Which one fits

Acrobat fits someone who already pays for it, has one clean statement, and is comfortable cleaning up a spreadsheet by hand. It is also the right tool when the job is the PDF itself, editing, signing or redacting it, rather than the numbers inside.

ProperConvert fits anyone who has done the Acrobat-to-Excel cleanup once and does not want to do it again: it reads the statement as transactions, handles the two-line descriptions and the sign conventions each bank uses, shows the rows for review, and saves the QBO, QFX, OFX, QIF, IIF or CSV file the accounting software wants. It costs the same US$19.99 a month as Acrobat Pro and runs on Windows and Mac without uploading anything.

Questions people ask

Can Adobe Acrobat convert a bank statement to Excel?

Yes, Export PDF to Excel works on any statement, and OCR handles scans. The result is the page as a grid, not a transaction list; cleaning it up is manual. ProperConvert produces the transaction list directly.

Can Acrobat create a QBO or OFX file?

No. Acrobat exports document formats only. ProperConvert saves QBO, IIF, QFX, QIF and OFX for QuickBooks, Quicken, Xero and Sage.

How much is Acrobat Pro?

US$19.99 per month on an annual plan, US$239.88 prepaid, or US$29.99 month to month. ProperConvert is $19.99 per month or $179.99 per year.

Is Acrobat's OCR good enough for statements?

It makes the text readable, which is the first step. It does not check the numbers against the statement balance or rebuild split amounts; ProperConvert shows every transaction so you can, and reconciles to the balances where the statement prints them.