Guides
Practical notes on getting bank statement data out of a PDF and into Excel or Tally without handing the file to a stranger.
Is it safe to upload bank statements to ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude?
Pasting a statement into a general AI assistant has two separate problems: it is a disclosure of someone else's financial data, and models transcribe numbers approximately. What to do instead.
The DPDP Act and client bank statements — what it means for a practice
Uploading a client's statement to a converter is a disclosure to a processor. What India's DPDP Act, 2023 asks of you when that happens, and the architecture choice that avoids the question.
Do you need a TDL to import bank statements into Tally?
TDL is how you get an Excel bank statement into Tally, and it is a real cost you keep paying. Where the add-on earns its place, where XML makes it unnecessary, and how to decide.
What Tally XML actually contains, and why it imports cleanly
An annotated look at the voucher XML Tally imports — the envelope, the ALLLEDGERENTRIES sign convention, the date format, and the one attribute that stops a re-import creating duplicates.
How to convert a bank statement PDF to Excel without breaking the columns
Copy-paste, Power Query and generic PDF converters all mangle bank statements in the same three ways. Here is why, and how to check your Excel file is actually complete before you use it.
How to import a bank statement into Tally Prime
The XML voucher import path in Tally Prime, the two things that make it fail (ledger names and duplicates), and why importing via Excel is the longer road.