PDF conversion

Document Storage And Data Extraction Needs For Accountants

In the world of accounting, document handling and management are important. Everything is now highly digitized and it’s now necessary for accounting firms to adjust to an ever growing world of digital data.

To do so, there are many best practices and standards that all accounting firms are encouraged to follow for dealing with document and financial data.

Successful Document Storage Options For Accounting Firms

Major accounting resource sites like AccountingToday.com, for example, emphasizes the importance for document management in the accounting industry by outlining factors for one important area: document storage.

In addition to security and liability among other factors, they place emphasis on file type, and in particular, the PDF format for archival purposes, on their list of factors for successful document storage.

Floppy Disk Saved Files

And this is a great point that needs to be highlighted. As a PDF solutions company, we know the format’s excellent and effective capabilities for archiving. Whether clients decide to password protect the file or selectively lock down what users can do with the content, your clients’ financial data is faithfully and securely available to only you and your intended recipients.  

The Double Edged Sword: Archiving And Data Extraction

However, this also sheds light on one important point about the PDF format. The data that is accurately preserved can also be extracted just as faithfully. This is the PDF format’s main strength for accountants. 

Accountants will often find that PDF documents are not only used at the starting and end points of the process, but also at points in the workflow that come in between–during  the data analysis step.  But as you can imagine, this part of the process, which deals with data that’s already in archival format, can be the number one cause for backlogs in the workflow.

And accounting companies are highly aware of this. The accountants at JMPA (Jewell Muller Professional Accountants), who specialize in tax and accounting services in South Africa, for instance, struggled with the issue themselves.

PDF Bank Statements Need Editing

JMPA provides accounting solutions to small businesses. Being a technology dependent company, they rely on software tools to get their work done. However, they need to work with and edit the data stored in archival PDFs first.

CEO JMPA

“Almost all our documents are PDF bank statements that need to be imported to our accounting software,” explains JMPA CEO Cassie Muller. “Before we can do that, we have to edit them in Excel, which is where we had our first obstacle.”

Their search for a PDF converter solution led them to Able2Extract, which helped them speed up the management of PDF documents.

In our case study with JMPA, we took a close look at how data extraction played a factor in their document management process and what it meant for the company overall. JMPA highlighted some of the benefits of using Able2Extract:

  • Reduced processing time by 85%
  • Saved 80% of money on wages
  • Improved delivery time to clients by 90%
  • Converted 7 months’ worth of bank statements in minutes

In sum, knowing how your accounting company works with all kinds of documents is one of the keys to success. Because being efficient with your document process has an effect on the rest of your firm’s efficiency, be sure to explore all of your software options for storing and extracting document data. With JMPA, they were able to resolve the one factor holding them back with a single PDF converter tool.

Read the full JMPA case study and learn how they managed to improve their document management system in detail .

Why Accounting Firms Need A Document Management System

Performing Manual Calculations

For any financial services company, a client’s financial data is at the heart of its operations. As such, it becomes crucial for them to invest in a document management system and all the tools and processes it entails.

Underscoring this fact, CPA Practice Advisor outlines a number of pros and cons for having a paperless office with a document management system in place. As expected, the benefits presented by the pros outweigh, by far, the struggles imposed by the cons.

A document management system can drastically improve the workflow for accounting firms and clients alike.  

For one thing, it saves business costs on paperwork. Businesses and customers can reduce paper dependency, ultimately making documentation, transactions and records easily accessible online.

For another, it allows companies to automatically create an electronic audit trail that can keep documents accurate and in compliance with industry standards. Document workflows can be set up and incorporated into daily processes, making routine procedures easy for accountants.

However, one important caveat to keep in mind is that simply having a document management system in place doesn’t mean your workflow is fool-proof. Depending on the dynamics of your clientele and your document processing routine, your needs can shift and change from day to day. In fact, companies that incorporate document management systems can still struggle.

CFO Momentum
Momentum, a renowned financial and credit services  company, is one such example. They keenly  felt the affects of a document management system that quickly became inadequate. “Our working volumes grew exponentially and then came to a point where the manual process no longer made any sense,” Riaan Verbeek, CFO of Momentum explains.

Turning A Flawed Document Management System Around

As one of the leading services in the area of financial advising, insurance, investment and health, Momentum had client data already digitized in the PDF format. But there was a weakness in their document management system.

The company quickly found that they needed a dedicated PDF to Excel converter in order to improve, complete and streamline their document management system.  They needed to efficiently extract the vast amounts of PDF data to Excel and handle the data generated by the accounting department, as well.

Improving Document Management With Able2Extract

With this in mind, the company added Able2Extract to their document management system to fill that need.  A case study on Momentum shows that the company’s workflow did nothing but improve from the addition. You can read the full Momentum case study here. Successful highlights from the case study include:

  • Saved $30,000 annually
  • Saved 100% of their time on information assembly
  • No training required to start converting PDF to Excel
  • Experienced accurate data conversions

By making an adjustment in one troublesome area in their document management system, Momentum was able to start processing and handling their client data more effectively.  

Implementing a document management system can do wonders for the productivity of accounting firms. But that system must be flexible enough to change with your daily activity and routine.  

If your firm has a system already set up, make sure it has a tool for every step in the process. Tailor the workflow and make adjustments as needed. If the addition of one PDF converter can improve Momentum’s metrics, think of what it can do for your firm.

Exploring Document Management Needs For Insurance Companies

Document management in the insurance industry is important. Clients submit documents in a number of different methods and formats. As such, insurance companies need to be prepared to handle any type at any time, whether paper-based or electronic.

However, with PDF files being the de facto standard for document submission, insurance companies can expect to deal with high volumes of digitized data. This means being able to handle, process, and store those files.

Document Management Folders

Despite this obvious fact, some insurance companies are still hesitant to invest in document management software or individual tools. But for some companies, the onslaught of data and documents that need analysis is pushing them forwards, forcing them to explore their options.

Insurancenewsnet.com, in fact, provides a timeless guide for companies who need to start thinking about it and make sound decisions in choosing a document management software tool.

How To Start Your Search For Document Management Tools

To start, there are a few main questions you should keep in mind: How easy is scanning? How are documents organized? Are documents editable?

These are essential questions to think about. For instance, as you get into analyzing those documents, editability will determine the tools you use and the work you perform.  Not only that, but it will determine the time spent on working to convert the data from one format to another.

Document organization determines how efficient you’ll be–how do you store, name and retrieve files later on? 

With paper-based workflows still largely in existence among clients and third parties, you can expect many setbacks before that data is even ready to be digitally processed and analyzed. How can you get them quickly into an electronic format?

Struggling With Extracting Data From PDF Documents

As a case in point, one insurance company, AgencyOne, struggled especially with making the data they received in PDF files editable. But dealing with PDF files without a specific tool in place affected their efficiency as an insurance company, an issue not uncommon in the industry.

“It was frustrating that I could find no way to speed up the process of data extraction or take real advantage of the import capabilities,” says Alexandra Smolen, Commission Specialist at AgencyOne. “It used to take me all week to get my work done auditing commission statements.”

AgencyOne Commission Specialist

Finding The Key To Improving Document Workflows

They struggled with PDF files and, later on, found success with data extraction using Able2Extract Professional. The benefits the company experienced include:

  • 3x increase in efficiency
  • Time previously wasted was converted into time spent on strategic activities
  • Affordable for company budget
  • Week-long data extraction tasks turned into a few days’ work
  • Increase in productivity led to an employee’s raise in wage

Without doubt, insurance companies need to start looking at document management solutions. As technology becomes more and more advanced, things such as electronic submissions will quickly become the basic standard. The key to tackling the new digital document age is to make sure your insurace company stays one step ahead of the game.  

Read the full AgencyOne case study here for inspiration on how you can get your own insurance company’s workflow up to speed.

How To Work Faster With Your PDFs Using Able2Extract 9

How effectively do you convert PDF files? Are you spending more time on setting things up? Making formatting adjustments after conversion? Checking in for conversions to start and end?

Well, with this short guide, we’re putting our foot down on some of the most common PDF conversion time-wasters.

If you’ve got Able2Extract, you may already be familiar with a few of the features on this list. But if you haven’t given them much thought before, you’ll want to take a closer look now. Because when combined, they can eliminate a majority of the small tasks that add up and slow you down.

Specify Custom PDF To Excel Settings Only Once

Performing a custom PDF to Excel conversion is one of the most effective ways to get your spreadsheet data right. But it’s all too easy to get caught up in getting the rows and columns formatted just right. This is why Able2Extract offers Custom Excel Templates.

When you use this feature, you can easily save your column structure and use it to instantly convert other PDF tables that are formatted in the same way. You don’t have to reset your parameters or remember how you set your conversion up.

Custom Excel Template Option

Once you have a template saved, you can simply load it to perform the same conversion any time. So if you’re dealing with customer data or PDF invoices in standardized forms, this feature can do a lot of the leg work for you.

Quickly Open PDFs Without Clicking

When opening a PDF file, you probably waste more than 4 clicks to get it open and set up. Did you know that Able2Extract will let you open a file in less than half of that? Try a couple of these quick PDF-opening tricks:

  • Drag the PDF onto the Able2Extract shortcut on your desktop

This will open a new window of Able2Extract when you want to quickly start viewing a PDF in isolation, away from PDFs to be converted or edited.

Opening PDF With Shortcut

  • Drag PDF documents into the Able2Extract 9 interface

Doing this will open a PDF file within the application simply by dragging your PDF into the open application. No double clicking needed. Use this trick to work with a specific group of PDFs at the same time which aren’t located in the same folder.

Opening PDF By Dragging

Automatically Convert To Different Microsoft Office Versions

We know that not everyone uses the same version of Microsoft Office. At one point or another, you probably came across this compatibility issue with others. Ever have to re-convert a PDF or re-save the converted Office file?

Well, instead of re-working the already converted Word, Excel or PowerPoint data, Able2Extract will let you switch up the default format even before you start converting the PDF.

Usually, Able2Extract will convert your data to the Office version you have installed by default. But you can also set the Office output format to 2007 so you convert to the .docx format regardless of the Office version you have installed.

  1. Go to View> Conversion Options
  2. In the dialog, depending on the format you’re using you can,
  • Switch the PowerPoint default format from the General tab
  • Switch the Microsoft Word default format from the Word tab. You can choose between .RTF and Word 2007.
  • Switch the Microsoft Excel default format from the Excel tab. Select between .CSV and Excel 2007.

To make things even easier, you can save your conversion settings as a file. This way you can easily switch between different Office output settings as needed.

Convert To Different Worksheets With One Click

Excel conversions are hard to nail. Oftentimes, you may opt to simply extract everything into one worksheet and then spend a few minutes, post-conversion, moving data around into different worksheets.

If that’s the case, then you should take a look at the Excel Single Worksheet feature. With this functionality, Able2Extract converts selected data from your PDF into one single Excel worksheet.

Excel Single Worksheet Option

By default this is turned on. So if you want to break up your converted data and get each page into separate worksheets for more precise conversions, you can do so before you convert. Here’s how:

  1. Go to the View menu
  2. Click on Excel Single Worksheet to remove the checkmark next to it.

Microsoft Excel Multiple Worksheets

Or you can simply hit F5 to turn the feature off.

Automate And Perform Multiple PDF Conversions At Once

With Able2Extract’s batch conversion, you can get the most done with the least amount of effort. Of all the features in this list, the Batch Conversion option is the one that saves you the most time as it works on multiple PDFs at once. If you have a handful of straightforward conversions to the same format, use this feature.

Automating Batch PDF Conversion

The process is automated, so you don’t have to sit and supervise each process as Able2Extract goes down the list. Just set it up and Able2Extract will take care of the rest. You can quickly access the feature from the command toolbar or by hitting CTRL + V.

How To Sign PDF Documents With Google Docs & Offline

Sign PDF with Google Docs and PDF Editor Software

The business world is now a digital one. Professionals and users are looking to do and keep everything digital–even signing PDF documents. Users are turning to access a quick way to deal with e-signatures without having to print, sign, and re-scan contracts and forms.

There are a ton of services that can help you sign your documents, both online and offline.

In this tutorial, we show you how to sign your PDF documents offline using Able2Extract Professional PDF editor and online using Google Docs.

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