Convert bank statements to CSV – complete guide 2025

CSV gives you clean data you can actually work with

PDFs are great for archiving but painful for accounting. DATEV, Excel, and BI tools expect clean columns. The right conversion saves hours every month and avoids typo risks in audits.

This guide shows four common approaches, real-world speed estimates, and a pragmatic recommendation for teams that handle many statements.

Why CSV beats PDFs for bookkeeping

• Import-ready for DATEV, Lexware, and BuchhaltungsButler.
• Easy reconciliations: sums, pivots, and duplicate checks take seconds.
• Data quality: consistent date formats, decimal separators, and balance columns.
• Automation-ready: trigger rules, categorize, and feed dashboards.

Four methods compared (realistic timings)

Manual entry

Typing values line by line is reliable for tiny volumes but does not scale. A single typo in amounts or dates can distort VAT or P&L figures.

• ✅ Works without tools, suitable for one-off statements.
• ❌ Slow and error-prone, no audit trail of corrections.
• ❌ No templates; reconciliation has to be redone every month.

Excel copy & paste

If the PDF is text-based, you can copy rows into Excel. But column order, line breaks, and decimal separators often break. You still need to align the columns for DATEV or your bookkeeping tool.

• ✅ Quick for single-page statements with simple layouts.
• ❌ Fails on scanned PDFs or protected files.
• ❌ Needs manual cleanup: dates (DD.MM.YYYY), thousands separators, balances.

OCR tools

OCR is required for scans but still expects templates and manual review. Tools like Adobe or ABBYY extract text, not meaning, so column mapping and balance detection remain manual steps.

• ✅ Necessary for scanned statements without selectable text.
• ❌ Template maintenance for each bank layout.
• ❌ Balance and running totals often missing, which makes reconciliation harder.

AI with KontoCSV (6 seconds per page)

KontoCSV is trained on German bank statements. It detects tables, balances, dates, and descriptions automatically – no templates needed. Export profiles include DATEV, Lexware, BuchhaltungsButler, and standard CSV.

Best practices

• Always keep the balance column to reconcile faster.
• Normalize date formats to DD.MM.YYYY before importing into DATEV/Excel.
• Use consistent decimal separators (comma for EU) to avoid mis-parsed amounts.
• Store PDFs plus CSV exports for audit trails; note the tool and date used.

FAQ

Wrap-up

Manual and Excel workflows are fine for tiny volumes, but they do not scale. OCR helps with scans but still needs cleanup. AI-powered conversion with KontoCSV gives you clean CSVs in seconds, including balances and export profiles.

Start with three free pages and keep the workflow if it saves you time. If you need help mapping a specific bank, contact us in chat and we will add it.