PDF to Excel: Pull Tables from a PDF into a Spreadsheet

Numbers locked in a PDF are hard to use. You can read a statement or a price list, but you cannot add up a column or find all rows for one SKU. Typing the rows into Excel by hand is slow and mistakes creep in. This guide explains what the tool does and how it fits a seller's accounts work.

What PDF to Excel does

You add one or more PDFs and get a spreadsheet for each. Simple tables convert well. Complex layouts may need a tidy-up in Excel afterwards. One option joins all the results into a single workbook.

This tool runs on our servers. The file is uploaded, converted, and deleted after 30 minutes.

• Accepts PDF files, one or many at a time.
• Option: Combine results into one workbook. It is off unless you tick it.
• Best on simple tables with clear rows and columns.
• Free, with no sign-in.

How to use it

If the tables are on a few pages of a long PDF, use Extract PDF pages first and convert only those pages.

• Open PDF to Excel and choose your PDFs, or drop them on the page.
• Tick Combine results into one workbook if you want all files together.
• Press Convert to Excel. The files are converted on our servers.
• Download the spreadsheets.
• Open them in Excel and compare a few rows and the totals with the PDF.

How it helps sellers

A lot of seller data arrives as PDF: a supplier's price list, a statement, a tax invoice with many line items, a courier bill. To compare it with your own records you need it in a sheet. Once the rows are in Excel, you can match payments against orders, check rates, or total the tax column.

This is most useful at month end. When your CA asks for purchase details for GST, you can convert the supplier invoices and statements, combine them into one workbook, and send a sheet that is ready to check.

• Bring a supplier price list into Excel to compare rates or work out your selling price.
• Convert a statement PDF to reconcile payments received against orders shipped.
• Pull line items from purchase invoices when you prepare GST paperwork.
• Check a courier or logistics bill row by row against your dispatch records.
• Combine several monthly PDFs into one workbook for a yearly view.

Tips for a clean result

Treat the converted sheet as a draft until you have checked it against the PDF.

• Compare the totals in the sheet with the totals printed in the PDF.
• Look for merged or shifted columns where the PDF layout was complex.
• Make sure amounts and dates are read by Excel as numbers and dates, not as text.
• If the PDF has a password, remove it with Unlock PDF first, using the password you know.

Common questions