Match the Total After Converting a Statement PDF
After converting a transaction statement PDF to Excel, add up the item amounts with SUM and compare the result with the total on the original. This guide lists what we saw when we converted 2 fake statements with this site's PDF to Excel tool and read the cell values of the result file. The company names and amounts in our test documents are all made up.
Last updated: 2026-10-24
How do I match the total after converting?
Check that the SUM of the item amounts equals the total in the PDF.
- Add the statement to PDF to Excel. In our test the screen said "Found 1 table in 1 page".
- In the preview, check that the columns (item, quantity, unit price, supply amount, tax) are split correctly.
- Click Download Excel file and open it in Excel.
- Select only the item cells of the supply amount column and add them with
=SUM(range). In our test file with one title row (5 items), the items were on rows 6 to 10 and the total row was row 11. In our test file without a title row they were rows 5 to 9 and row 10. Adding the supply amount column with=SUM(E6:E10)should give 317,500, the same as the value on the total row. The tax column adds up to 31,750 in the same way. - If you add the whole column including the total row, the total is counted twice. Leave the total row out.
- Finally compare with the total on the original PDF.
We worked out these numbers by reading the cell values in the file, then put the formulas into LibreOffice Calc and checked them. We did not try them in Microsoft Excel. Column letters and row numbers differ from file to file, so change them to fit yours.
Did the amounts come in as numbers?
In our test files, quantity, unit price, supply amount and tax all came in as number values, so SUM worked at once (for example, the supply amount cell 120,000 was the number 120000). If the sum is 0 or too small, some cells are left as text. → Fix numbers stored as text
One thing to watch: an amount written as a sentence outside the table comes in as one text cell, not a number. At the bottom of our test file, the line "청구 합계(공급가액+세액): 349,250원" (total billed: supply amount + tax) was one cell of text, and SUM could not use it. Compare such an amount by eye with the supply total plus the tax total (317,500 + 31,750 = 349,250).
What happens to blank cells?
In our test file some cells in the remarks column were empty, and they stayed empty after conversion. Blank cells outside the amount columns did not affect the total. If an amount column has a blank cell, check against the original whether that amount was never in the PDF or was lost in conversion. Our test had no blank cells in an amount column, so we did not check that case.
What happens to merged cells?
In a test file with a title row spanning several columns at the top of the table ("2026년 9월 납품 내역", a delivery list for September 2026), that row also came into Excel as a merged cell (A4 to G4). It was the same with Apply original formatting and with Values only. The cell is text and did not affect SUM, but it pushed the column header row down by one, so the table starts at row 5. Check the row numbers by eye when you pick the range to add.
To unmerge the cell, select it in Excel and choose Unmerge Cells from the Merge & Center drop-down. We did not try this ourselves; it follows Microsoft's help page Merge and unmerge cells. Menu names can differ by Excel version and language.
A column header can split in two
In another test file where the number column was very narrow, the header "번호" (No.) was split into "번" and "호". "번" went into the header row, and "호" went into the first item's number cell, in the same cell as "1" on two lines. It is not an amount column, so the total was not affected, but if a column header and the first row look odd, the column width in the original PDF may be the cause. For why cells shift, see Why PDF tables break in Excel.
When this does not work
- Scanned or photographed statements are not converted. When we added a scanned PDF, the screen showed "Scanned (image) PDFs cannot be converted." → How to tell a scanned PDF from a text PDF
- Statements look different from one supplier to the next. We tested only 2 fake documents, so we cannot say other layouts give the same result.
- We did not test statements that run over several pages. Check the row count and the page boundary as in How to check a converted PDF table.
The conversion is automatic, so check the amounts against the original before you use them.
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