PDF Conversion

How to Convert PDF to Excel Online

By PDFConvertly 4 min read

Illustration of a red PDF document converted into a green Excel spreadsheet

Bank statements, invoices, price lists and reports often arrive as PDFs. That's fine for reading, but as soon as you want to add up a column, sort rows or build a chart, you need the data in a spreadsheet. Retyping it is slow and error-prone; converting it is much faster.

This guide shows how to convert a PDF to an Excel file (XLSX) with the PDF to Excel converter, and what to check before you use the numbers.

What makes a PDF suitable for Excel

PDF to Excel works on text-based PDFs – files created by accounting software, online banking, Excel itself or a word processor. If you can select individual numbers in your PDF reader, the file is suitable.

Scanned documents (photos or scans of paper) contain no selectable text. They cannot be converted, because the tool does not perform OCR (text recognition).

The best results come from:

  • tables drawn with ruled lines, and
  • neatly aligned columns, such as a bank statement with Date, Description, Debit, Credit and Balance.

Step by step

  1. Open the PDF to Excel converter.
  2. Choose your PDF or drag it into the upload box. One file is converted at a time.
  3. Press the convert button and wait while the file is processed.
  4. Download the .xlsx file and open it in Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Numbers or Google Sheets.

Each page of the PDF becomes its own worksheet, so a three-page statement gives you three sheets.

How the data comes out

The converter does more than copy text into cells:

  • Numbers become real numbers. Thousand separators, decimals, currency symbols, percentages, European formats such as 1.234,56 and negative values in brackets are recognised, so SUM and sorting work immediately.
  • Identifiers stay as text. Account numbers and codes with leading zeros (for example 00123) are kept as text so the zeros don't disappear.
  • Ruled tables are copied cell by cell, including merged cells.
  • Borderless layouts such as statements are split into columns based on the alignment of the text.
  • Bold text is kept.

Check these before you use the data

A converted spreadsheet is a strong starting point, but always check it – especially if the numbers feed into accounts or reports.

  1. Totals. Add up a column and compare it with the total printed in the PDF. If they match, the column was read correctly.
  2. Column alignment. In irregular layouts, a value can land in the neighbouring column. Scan each column for values that look out of place.
  3. Dates. Dates are kept as text exactly as printed. If you need real Excel dates, use Data › Text to Columns or a formula such as DATEVALUE with your regional format.
  4. Extra text. Headings, addresses and notes that aren't part of a table are also included, usually in the first column. Delete the rows you don't need.
  5. Formulas. A PDF only contains results, so formulas are not recreated. Add them again where you need them.

Tips

  • Convert the original PDF from your bank or software rather than a printed and rescanned copy.
  • Remove any password before uploading; protected files are rejected.
  • Use one sheet per page to your advantage: to combine pages, copy the rows from each sheet into a single sheet, or use Excel's Power Query to append them.
  • If you need to pull only a few tables out of a long document, see our guide on how to extract tables from a PDF.

Frequently asked questions

Will Excel formulas be recreated?

No. A PDF stores the visible results, not the formulas behind them. The numbers arrive as real numbers, so you can add new formulas straight away.

Why is some text in the first column?

Text that isn't part of a table – titles, addresses, footnotes – is kept so that nothing is lost. It usually ends up in the first column and can simply be deleted.

Are cell colours and fonts copied?

Only bold formatting is kept. Colours, borders and fonts are not, so the spreadsheet is clean and ready for your own formatting.

Can I convert a spreadsheet back to PDF?

Yes – use the Excel to PDF converter.

Summary

To convert a PDF to Excel, upload a text-based PDF, convert it and download the XLSX file. You get one worksheet per page with real numbers you can calculate with. Check totals, columns and dates before relying on the data, and remember that formulas and scanned pages can't be recovered from a PDF.

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