Manual Check Data Extraction Times from PDFs

To enter a check from a bank statement PDF by hand, you key four fields: check number, date, payee and amount. How long that takes depends less on typing speed than on the check: how clear the image is, whether the payee is handwritten, and how often you switch between the PDF and QuickBooks.

These timings are for human keying, and they hold whether or not the PDF has a text layer. Software is what needs one, which is why scanned statements need OCR before software can read them.

No public study times check entry from bank statement PDFs. This page gives the nearest published benchmark, the parts of each check that take the most time, and a way to measure your own clients so you can price the work.

Table of Contents

• The nearest published benchmark
• What slows each check down
  • Image quality
  • Handwritten fields
  • Check layouts and statement navigation
  • Errors and rework
• Time your own clients
• What to do with the number

The nearest published benchmark

The closest public figure comes from invoice entry, not checks. Rossum timed a typist at a client who entered field values at 78 keystrokes per minute, and estimated 111 seconds to key one 15-field invoice: 81 seconds of typing plus 30 seconds to open and handle the document.¹

A check has fewer fields than an invoice, but the handling time does not shrink. You still open the statement, find the check image, zoom in and switch windows. Treat the invoice figure as a sense of scale, not a rate for your clients.

What slows each check down

Image quality

A clean, upright scan reads fast. A faint, skewed or compressed image makes you zoom, squint and guess. Bank portals often compress check images to save space, and phone-captured deposits add shadows and blur. The handwritten check OCR guide covers why the same problems defeat software.

Handwritten fields

The check number is printed, and the amount is on the bank statement. The payee and the memo are where the time goes. A clear printed payee takes a glance. A cursive payee can take a re-read, a guess against the client’s vendor list, or a call to the client. The written-out amount is harder to read than the number in the box, so if the two disagree, you stop and work out which one the bank paid.

Check layouts and statement navigation

Every bank lays out its statement and check images differently. Some put a page of check thumbnails at the end of the statement. Others show one check per page, or none at all. Each new layout costs time while you learn where the fields are. Moving back and forth between the PDF and the QuickBooks Desktop register adds time to every check.

Errors and rework

Rework is slower than the first entry. Rossum assumed rework takes three times as long as entering an invoice from scratch, and cited an IOFM figure that 12.5% of invoices need some rework.¹ For checks, the usual errors are a misread payee, a transposed amount, or a check posted to the wrong month. Each one surfaces at reconciliation, when it costs the most to find.

Time your own clients

A published rate will not match your clients. Your own number will:

1. Pick one month of statements for a check-heavy client.
2. Start a timer when you open the PDF.
3. Enter every check into the QuickBooks Desktop register as you normally would.
4. Stop the timer when the register reconciles to the statement.
5. Divide the time by the number of checks.

Repeat for a client with clean printed checks and one with messy handwriting. The gap between the two is what each kind of client costs you.

What to do with the number

• Price check-heavy clients separately. If one client takes much longer per check than another, a flat monthly fee hides the difference.
• Ask for better images. A client who can download higher-quality check images, or send the paper checks, saves you time on every check.
• Decide what to stop keying. If most of your time goes to reading payees off images, that is the part software can take over, with you reviewing what it reads.

For firms ready to compare tools, see our bank statement converter software comparison. For how to find the payee when a statement leaves it out, see check payees from bank statements.