Importing a bank statement PDF via OCR

Some CEMAC banks only provide statements as unstructured PDFs (internally generated PDFs, not exportable as OFX or CSV). SynkriaOps can extract transactions from these statements via OCR and convert them into importable accounting transactions.

Note

If your bank offers an OFX, CSV or Excel export, use Importing a bank statement instead — it is more reliable and does not require OCR. Reserve PDF OCR import for cases where no other format is available.

Use cases

• Afriland First Bank statement in PDF format (when OFX export is unavailable)
• SCB Cameroun printable PDF statement
• Orange Money Cameroun wallet PDF (when .xlsx is not available)
• Any local bank statement without a digital export format

Accepted PDF formats

PDF type	Expected result
Native PDF with selectable text	Accurate extraction — recommended
High-resolution scanned PDF (> 200 DPI)	Good extraction, some corrections possible
Low-resolution scanned PDF (< 150 DPI)	Partial extraction — expect more manual corrections
Password-protected PDF	Not supported — remove password first

Accessing PDF OCR import

1. In the main menu, go to Banking & treasury → Imports.

2. Click New.

3. In the Import type field, select PDF bank statement (OCR).

4. Select the relevant bank account.

Uploading the PDF statement

1. Drag and drop the PDF into the import zone, or click Browse to select it. Maximum size: 50 MB (approximately 500 pages).

2. SynkriaOps automatically determines the statement type:

   • Standard bank statement → bank parser applied
   • Orange Money statement → Mobile Money parser applied (operator columns, phone numbers, separate fee lines)

   If automatic detection fails, manually select the type from the Detected format dropdown.

3. A progress bar shows OCR extraction progress. Indicative timings:

   • 1 to 10 pages: 5 to 15 seconds
   • 10 to 50 pages: 30 to 90 seconds
   • More than 50 pages: > 2 minutes

4. The preview is displayed with:

   • Number of lines successfully extracted
   • Number of lines in error (unrecognized format)
   • Period covered (detected start / end date)
   • Extracted total debits and total credits
   • Detected closing balance (if present in the statement)

Understanding the preview

Correct lines (white background)

Transactions extracted with high confidence — date, description, amount and direction (debit/credit) recognized. These lines will be imported.

Warning lines (orange background)

Transactions extracted but with one or more medium-confidence fields:

• Missing date (the line will take the previous line’s date by default)
• Truncated description (column too narrow in the PDF)
• Debit/credit direction not automatically determined

You can correct them individually before confirming the import.

Error lines (red background)

Completely unreadable lines or totally unrecognized format. These lines are excluded from automatic import and listed in a separate table for manual processing.

Caution

Systematically verify that the number of extracted lines roughly corresponds to the expected number of transactions in the period. A 30-day statement with only 5 extracted lines signals a very partial extraction.

Correcting warning lines

1. In the preview, click an orange line.

2. A panel opens on the right with the transaction fields.

3. Correct the flagged fields (date, description, amount, direction).

4. Click Confirm correction. The line turns white.

Manually processing error lines

1. After importing the correct lines, consult the Error lines table.

2. For each error line, you can:

   • Enter manually: click Add manually and enter the transaction from the PDF displayed alongside.
   • Ignore: if the line corresponds to an already-posted entry or has no accounting relevance (e.g. a carried-forward balance label).

Confirming the import

1. Verify that the reconstructed balance (cumulative total of imported lines) is consistent with the statement’s closing balance.

2. Click Confirm import. Correct transactions are created with status TO_PROCESS in the BNQ journal linked to the account.

3. Unprocessed error lines are preserved in the import report — accessible from Banking & treasury → Imports → [import reference].

Common errors

Error	Cause	Solution
”PDF format not recognized”	Protected or corrupted PDF	Remove PDF password or request a new export from the bank
”No transactions detected”	100% low-resolution image PDF	Scan at 300 DPI minimum and re-import
”Debit/credit direction undetermined”	D/C columns merged with signed amounts	Manually correct the direction of each warning line
”Duplicate with previous import”	Period already partially imported	Check import history and exclude the already-covered period

Further reading

• Importing a bank statement (OFX/CSV/Excel) →
• Import a Mobile Money statement →
• Reviewing and correcting OCR data →