Invoices, bank statements, receipts, and forms are examples of documents that typically present data in tables. While manually retyping the data for input is possible, dealing with many documents at once can feel tedious and overwhelming. This is why automating data extraction is the best way to make document processing with extensive tables more efficient. With AI-powered Optical Character Recognition (OCR), extracting tables from PDF documents can be done effortlessly. This technology streamlines your workflow by automatically reading and capturing data in tables, resulting in structured datasets that readily processable.
In this article, explore how AI OCR can help you automate table data extraction, from its benefits to step-by-step guide.
The Challenge of Extracting Tables from PDFs
Compared to full-text documents, processing PDF documents with tables can be more difficult due to several challenges, such as:
- Non-editable documents: PDFs are designed for viewing, not for editing, making it difficult to copy tables without losing original structures.
- Inconsistent formatting: Tables in documents usually built in merged cells, different column widths, or multi line text that can complicate data extraction.
- Time-consuming manual work: Without automation, extracting tables needs tedious manual adjustments.
How AI OCR Technology Simplifies Table Extraction
Basic parsing tools often struggle to read data in tables and end up with messy results. But with AI-powered OCR from Fintelite, you can seamlessly extract data from complex tables and gain clean, accurate results. Here’s what makes Fintelite AI OCR different from any others:
- Automated process: Fintelite automatically scans and extracts all the necessary data right after your document is uploaded.
- Capable of large-scale processing: Its scalability strengths efficiently handle growing volumes of documents as your business expands.
- Output varies in formats: Fintelite delivers structured datasets in multiple digital formats, such as Excel or JSON, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your needs.
- Adapts to any document types: If documents you received usually come in different layouts, Fintelite smart AI flexibly processes them all without you having to standardize each one manually.
A Guide to Extract Tables from PDFs Automatically
Now that you understand how Fintelite makes data extraction easier, let’s see how you can use it to automatically extract tables from PDF documents. We have divided the process into three main steps you can follow.
- Document upload: To get started, upload PDFs of your invoices, bank statements, receipts, or other table-based documents you need to process.
- Auto Data Capture: Fintelite’s AI-powered OCR automatically detects and extracts tables from complex document structures.
- Export Results: Review the extracted tables in an easy-to-read format. Download results or integrate directly with your existing systems.
Bonus: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What output formats are provided after table extraction?
Fintelite supports exporting extracted tables into Excel, CSV, JSON, or XLS, allowing you to choose the most suitable format that works with your analytics tools or databases.
Is AI OCR secure for PDF table extraction?
AI OCR is generally safe to use for extracting tables from PDFs. To ensure your data remains secured, consider a trusted AI OCR provider like Fintelite that has been certified with global ISO 27001 standard and process your documents with zero data retention.
