This article will answer the following questions:

For bank and credit card statements, AutoEntry can extract and return the processed data to you in a fraction of the time when the files are uploaded as an ePDF! You can get your extractions back up to 10 times quicker versus scanned paper statements for supported banks.

An ePDF is a PDF file that originates from a digital source, essentially any computer generated PDF. If you download statements from your online banking portal or receive them via email directly from the bank, they are an ePDF.

It is not always obvious if a particular file is an ePDF or not but if you're unsure, one check that generally works is that upon opening the file, if you can highlight or search for text (Ctrl+F) then it should be an ePDF. Don't forget though, AutoEntry will still process regular PDF files as normal if it's not an ePDF! We're not insisting on ePDF documents but added this extra extraction process to benefit you.

Any statements or data that originates as a piece of paper and is scanned, photographed or otherwise converted into a PDF file is not an ePDF. They are essentially just images of the original document saved as a PDF and will be extracted and processed as normal.

AutoEntry has built a bespoke digital extraction for ePDFs that does not require OCR (optical character recognition), speeding up the extraction process dramatically. When a scanned paper document is uploaded, we turnaround approximately 80% of those files within 4 hours primarily depending on server load, file size and scan quality. These documents are scanned by our system, the data extracted via OCR and then the figures are verified.

With an ePDF, the data is read from the code embedded within the file, removing the requirement for OCR and verification as the data extracted is direct from the code embedded in the ePDF. Meaning that the turnaround time for an ePDF upload has the potential to complete up to 10x quicker!

Currently, approximately 20% of statements uploaded to AutoEntry are an ePDF, so the potential for all our customers to see a marked improvement in turnaround times is dramatic.

Simply go to your online banking portal for your bank or card provider. Most institutions have the option to download statements as a PDF. Save it locally to your PC and that's the file you can upload to AutoEntry. If there's no obvious download option, please contact your bank to inquire if the option is available.

Currently, as of February 1st, 2021, we have over 600 banks and card providers already set up to digitally extract from ePDFs. Every time AutoEntry receives an ePDF from a bank or card provider that we have not set up for digital extraction AutoEntry will process those files as normal so as not to delay your work but will add it to our data set for digital extraction going forward.

Please note: Unfortunately as banks change the format or layout of their statements from time to time without notice, the supported banks will change quite regularly as we not only add new banks to the system but also update those that have changed. Due to this, AutoEntry cannot guarantee that every time a statement is uploaded as an ePDF that it will be digitally extracted.

Last edited:

Dec 5, 2022, 12:59 PM