Best Tools for PDF Data Extraction: Convert PDFs to Excel for Business Automation
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Introduction
Extracting content from PDFs is a task many of us struggle with, especially when it’s so hard to find an accurate solution that extracts your data, the way you want it. For years, the only way to maketo do make sense of the documents we receive wasreceive was was to organise information manually - tediously copy pasting information from one document to another, wasting hours on mind numbing work. Fortunately, technology has caught up to the point where most data entry can be automated. Unfortunately, businesses have not.
Whether as an individual or a business, choosing the right PDF to Excel converter* can be tricky. Good solutions are hard to find, expensive, and unable to extract the data in the formats you need it in.
This guide will cover the best tools available for PDF data extraction, with recommendations for:
- Individuals seeking easy, one-time or low volume conversions.
- Small businesses that need reliable softwaresoftwares for PDF-to-Excel conversion at for larger volumes, and
- Large enterprises that handle high volumes of documents requiring extreme accuracy and advanced tools for data extraction, entry and analysis from PDF and other documents to conversion from PDF to Excel.
We’ll also explore how different techniques (like OCR and AI) can improve data extraction efficiency. These tools not only help you extract data from PDFs to Excel but also ensure that your tables retain their format for easy analysis.
The Ideal Solution:
In order to be great at automated document extraction, a software must do 3 things:
Accurately preserve table structure: The tables extracted should be organised the same way they were in the original file, and corresponding data must always be accurate Handle Multi Page Tables Well: Often, PDFs have tables spread across multiple pages. While this looks like one page to the human eye, most technology considers is at multiple different tables, which needs to be merged while preserving the original context of the data. A great data extraction tool should be able to handle large, full length PDFs and extract data accurately, and at scale. Minimize Cleanup / Formatting after conversion: What’s the point of automation if it doesn’t significantly reduce the work I’m doing? A great tool should adhere to and extract data in your formats, minimizing the work you need to do.
Your requirements can range from extracting data and automating data entry from simple few page documents to complex, 500 page PDFs with content that ais unstructured, with data spread across the document, and where tables don’t line up and there are frequent white spaces in the document.
Keep reading to find the best PDF to excel converter and data entry tool for your specific needs.
Top Tools for Individuals vs. Businesses
Individuals: Simple Converters for One-Off Tasks
For individual users, converting a few PDF documents to Excel every now and then doesn’t require heavy-duty tools. The focus is often on ease of use and affordability.
Top Tools:
- Tabula: A straightforward, free solution to extract tables from PDFs. Great for structured, simple documents.
Pros: It is one of the best tools, and is available completely free.
Cons: Non-Technical Users may have some problems with the initial set up and use of the product.
- SmallPDF: SmallPDF has a range of PDF tools, including conversion, organisationorgnaization, Editing and Signing. The tool has a free tier, and is perfect for someone looking for a broad suite of PDF tools under one subscription.
Pros: Multiple PDF Tools, easily accessible, free tier for low volume of documents
Cons: Occasionally Inaccurate Data Extraction, Structuring and Formatting, particularly for Tables; Unable to maintain accuracy at volume or process unstructured documents.
Small Businesses: Efficient Tools for Regular Use
Small businesses often process multiple PDF documents regularly, such as invoices or customer data. They need a balance between accuracy and scalability.
Top Tools:
- PDFTables: Another efficient solution for PDF to Excel conversion, though its free tier is limited for larger documents. It seems to be marketed towards hedge funds, private equity funds and logistics companies.
Pros: The website claims it offers highly accurate data extraction services for tables
Cons: Designed for Developers, may not be useful for small businesses without a technical resource.
- TwingLabs: Designed for businesses with regular data extraction needs, TwingLabs offers high-accuracy PDF data extraction and seamless PDF to excel, CSV, Json, word and other formats. It custom trains its models on your data, ensuring high degrees of accuracy at any time. for tables as well as structured and unstructured documents, including invoices, purchase orders, contracts etc.
Pros: TwingLabs is able to extract structured and unstructured data, maintain table integrity, and extract data to the format you require.
Cons: For large volumes of complex business documents, they take a short amount of time to train their models on custom formats, resulting in a slight delay in implementation.
Enterprises: Scalable Solutions for High Volumes
For enterprises, particularly those in the Insurance, LogisticsLosgistics, ManufacturingManfacturing, Legal, or Business & Legal Process Outsourcing business, handling thousands of PDFs daily is a common occurrence. These users need tools that offer advanced automation that understand their workflows, ensure high accuracy for their documents and offer seamless integration with their systems.
Top Tools:
- Rossum AI: Rossum is an AI Document Processing automation tool, that automates the transactional document process end to end. It automates everything from capturing data from your e-mail, to document approvals.
Rossum is well suited for large, organised enterprisesenterprise that want to automate the flow of transactional documents in their email.
- TwingLabs: TwingLabs is one of the few companies that offers tech first services. It leverages custom trained AI models and high quality automation with human oversight and validation, ensuring the highest levels of accuracy for enterprises with complex documents. However, it currently only supports the export of PDF documents to word and excel, but does not offer automations or integrations that enterprises may require.
It does not, however, offer workflow automation services, though its website indicates that integrations with other softwares are in the pipeline.
Techniques for Extracting Tables from PDFs
Knowing how these tools work will help you choose the right method to extract data from PDFs to Excel. Three primary techniques include:
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR):
- Tools like PDFelement and Adobe Acrobat Pro use OCR to recognize and convert text from scanned or image-based PDFs.
- AI-Powered Extraction:
- Tools like TwingLabs leverage AI to analyze and understand complex layouts, ensuring that extracted tables retain their structure.
- Parsing:
- Tools like Tabula rely on parsing methods to extract structured data from tables in PDFs, especially when the layout is clean and consistent.
If you’re interested in learning more about how these techniques work, check out our upcoming blog on the Most Efficient Data Extraction Techniques for PDFs: AI, OCR, and Parsing.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an individual user or a business processing high volumes of documents, choosing the right tool for PDF data extraction is crucial. For individuals, tools like Tabula or SmallPDF are excellent for quick jobs, while TwingLabs is ideal for businesses that need scalable, accurate solutions to convert PDFs to Excel regularly, or for individuals looking for specific documents to be extracted and organised with a high degree of accuracy.
Looking to streamline your PDF data extraction process? Explore TwingLabs for your data automation needs.