A bank-statement converter built for bookkeepers
ProofRows is a reviewed-cleanup workspace — not a generic OCR-to-CSV converter. It exists for the bookkeeper running catch-up engagements, onboarding new clients, and rebuilding books from PDFs.
The work this tool is opinionated about
If your week is half catch-up cleanup and half ongoing bookkeeping, this is the shape of work ProofRows was built for.
Three to twelve months of bank statements from a single client. Drop the PDFs in, get a clean file back in a fraction of the time it would take to retype.
Mid-year, a new client arrives with 3–6 months of statements in their inbox. Bring them in before QBO sync, not after.
When a previous bookkeeper left the books untidy and the bank export is long gone. PDFs in, reviewed transactions out, audit log attached.
Reconstructing the year a client is missing before an extension deadline.
Standardise the cleanup across your client base. Same CSV shape, same review surface, same balance check.
A 1099 bookkeeper with five cleanup clients and no junior staff. The tool does the work a junior would do — but doesn't bill hours, doesn't forget rows, and doesn't lose the source line.
How a bookkeeper uses ProofRows on a real engagement
- 01Create a client workspace
One workspace per former client. Set the retention window per the client's data-retention policy.
- 02Upload the statements
Drag a folder of PDFs. Multi-month, multi-bank, mixed quality. The worker extracts in the background.
- 03Review per statement
The first statement opens in the review screen. PDF on the left, table on the right. Click a row, the source line highlights.
- 04Validate the math
Beginning + Σ credits − Σ debits = ending. To the cent. If it's off, the export button stays disabled.
- 05Export the right format
QuickBooks-ready CSV, Xero-ready CSV, or a plain CSV. The export is logged with format, options, row count, and SHA-256.
- 06Hand off
The export log row is your audit record that the cleanup was reviewed and shipped. Hand it to the client or the auditor.
Why a bookkeeper still has to review
Honest framing for the FAQ answer.
- ProofRows is a productivity tool, not an autonomous bookkeeper. Every row is reviewed before export. Low-confidence rows are flagged and cannot be silently shipped.
- The math has to reconcile. Beginning + Σ credits − Σ debits = ending. To the cent. If it doesn’t, the export is blocked.
- Duplicates are surfaced, not silently kept. Same-amount, similar-description rows within a statement are flagged for review.
- Vendor normalisation is per-client, opt-in. AMAZON.COM*RT4N9 PMT → Amazon. The override stays scoped to that client’s workspace.
Try it on your messiest client
The first catch-up is the one that takes the longest by hand.
150 free pages. No credit card. One client workspace, one client, one statement at a time — and the math has to add up before you ever export.
Frequently asked questions
- Can ProofRows convert bank statement PDFs to CSV?
- Yes. ProofRows extracts transactions from bank-statement PDFs — text-based or scanned — and lets bookkeepers review, edit, validate, and export the results as CSV. The QuickBooks-ready and Xero-ready CSV profiles import cleanly into those tools through their native bank-import wizards.
- Does ProofRows work with scanned bank statements?
- Yes. Scanned and image-only statements are read with built-in OCR, then parsed into transactions the same way as text PDFs. Low-confidence rows from rough scans are flagged for review, and every statement still has to pass the balance check before export.
- Can I import ProofRows exports into QuickBooks?
- ProofRows exports QuickBooks-ready CSV (for the Banking → Upload from file wizard) and .qbo Web Connect files that QuickBooks Online and Desktop import natively. A direct QuickBooks Online API push is on the roadmap and should not be described as live yet. ProofRows is not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit.
- Can I import ProofRows exports into Xero?
- ProofRows exports a Xero-ready CSV that supports Xero's bank-import workflow (Accounting → Bank accounts → Import a statement). A direct Xero API push is on the roadmap. ProofRows is not affiliated with or endorsed by Xero.
- Does ProofRows export to Excel (XLSX)?
- Yes — XLSX export is supported today. CSV files produced by ProofRows also open cleanly in Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, and Google Sheets.
- Is ProofRows a replacement for bookkeeping software?
- No. ProofRows is a statement-cleanup workspace. It prepares transaction data for import or reconciliation in accounting tools like QuickBooks Online or Xero. It is not a ledger of record.
- Who is ProofRows built for?
- ProofRows is built for solo bookkeepers, small bookkeeping firms, accountants, tax preparers, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, cleanup bookkeeping specialists, and fractional CFOs who receive bank statements as PDFs.
- How long do you keep my client's bank statements?
- Source PDFs are auto-deleted after the per-client retention window (default 30 days, configurable). The extracted transactions and export-log audit trail stay for the life of the account. Account deletion cascades and removes every row, file, and auth artifact in a single transaction.
- Do you train AI models on my client's bank statements?
- No. We do not train models on customer data. The extraction provider we use is contracted not to train on API requests, and our application does not write statement text back to the database from the model — the only path through is a strict schema validation.
- How accurate is the extraction?
- Confidence scores are surfaced per row so the bookkeeper can see which transactions the model is less sure about. The validation page enforces a beginning + Σ credits − Σ debits = ending balance check before any export. We do not claim 'perfect AI extraction' — every export is human-reviewed.
More questions? Contact support or read the full FAQ.