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All work03 / 08 · Financial software

RowSmith

Turns text-based bank statement PDFs into spreadsheet or accounting files, and checks the running balance on every row.

RowSmith running in the browser on its fictional sample statement: the PDF is read into rows, the running-balance check finds the one misprinted row and shows it on the PDF, the fix brings the difference from −27.00 to 0.00, then export to Excel, QuickBooks or Xero, a sample year of 11 statements checked as one, and the app's own 'Nothing is uploaded' promise.
Film · 0:28
Fact sheet
Input
Text-based PDF statements
Output
Spreadsheet / accounting files
Validation
Running-balance checks
Live
rowsmith.app (opens in a new tab)

01The problem

Bank statements usually arrive as PDFs. Getting their transactions into a spreadsheet or accounting tool by hand is slow, and a single mis-keyed row breaks the running balance.

02The engineering

My work on RowSmith brings statement extraction, editable transaction data and running-balance validation into one web application. The important detail is the check between rows: extracting text is useful, but the numbers also need to reconcile before they move into a spreadsheet or accounting tool.

Statement PDF
Extract
Editable transactions
Running-balance check
Spreadsheet / accounting file
Interactive model · sample data
Statement workspaceGBP
November statement3 entries
DescriptionAmountBalance
Opening balance—5,000.00
Client payment+1,250.006,250.00
Software subscription−425.005,825.00
Statement closing balance£5,798.00
Running-balance check
—

Every row should tell the same story.

03The outcome

RowSmith is live at rowsmith.app.

Visit RowSmith (opens in a new tab)