The library: answers first, then the detail.
Reference pieces on the questions that surround financial documents: what to keep, how to get records back, and how the paperwork becomes usable rows. Every piece opens with the answer in its first two sentences.
Bank statements
- 5 min read How long to keep bank statements Keep bank statements for 7 years when they support a tax return, 1 year otherwise. The retention periods that matter, and what banks keep for you.
- 5 min read How long to keep credit card statements Keep credit card statements for 7 years when they support a tax return, about 1 year otherwise. Why cards differ: disputes, warranties, and business use.
- 5 min read Getting bank statements from a closed account Yes, banks can pull statements from a closed account: US banks must keep records 5 years. How to request them, what it costs, and who to call when the bank is gone.
- 5 min read How to reconcile a bank statement The reconciliation procedure, and what a leftover difference turns out to be: timing, an error, something missing, or a duplicate, with the arithmetic to spot each.
- 5 min read Bank statement vs bank certificate A statement records every transaction over a period. A certificate attests to a balance on one date. Which one an application wants, and how to ask for it.
Reading statements
- 6 min read What a bank statement actually contains What is on a bank statement and what each part is for: the header, the balance line, the transaction table, and the figures people are usually looking for.
- 6 min read How to read a bank statement Work through a statement in the right order: check it is yours, prove the balances chain, read the transaction table, then find the fees most people miss.
- 5 min read Bank statement abbreviations decoded What the codes on a bank statement mean: BACS, CHAPS, SO, DD, POS, ACH, NSF, and the rest, grouped by the payment system each one comes from.
- 6 min read Reading a brokerage statement A brokerage statement has three parts that answer different questions: what you hold, what moved, and what you realized. Which one to read, and when.
Using statements
- 6 min read Using bank statements as proof of income When a bank statement counts as proof of income, how many months are usually asked for, what assessors discount, and what to send when statements are not enough.
- 5 min read Certified bank statements explained Certified, stamped, notarised, and apostilled statements are four different documents. Which one you were asked for, and how to get each from your bank.
Accounts payable
- 5 min read Accounts payable automation for small businesses What AP automation actually covers, which of its five stages a small business should automate first, and how to judge a tool without a demo call.
- 4 min read Accounts payable automation around QuickBooks What AP automation means around QuickBooks: invoice capture, PO matching, and approval routing happen before the ledger. Where LedgerBox fits, honestly.
- 4 min read Accounts payable automation before Xero Xero handles bills, approval states, and batch payments. Use LedgerBox to extract invoice data and export a CSV file for Xero.
- 5 min read Invoice vs receipt: the difference An invoice requests payment before money moves; a receipt proves payment after. What each contains, when one plays both roles, and why the books care.
- 5 min read Purchase order vs invoice A purchase order authorizes spending before it happens; an invoice bills for it after. Who issues which, why the numbers must match, and when POs are optional.
- 5 min read Three-way matching in accounts payable How 3-way matching works in accounts payable: the three documents, what each comparison catches, tolerance thresholds, and a worked example with real numbers.
- 5 min read Invoice reconciliation, start to settled What reconciling an invoice actually checks, the five ways reconciliations break, and a working process that catches duplicates before they get paid.
- 5 min read Invoice management, arrival to archive The invoice lifecycle from arrival to archive, why one intake path beats three, and what a real system adds over a tidy folder of PDF attachments.
Bookkeeping
- 5 min read Outsourced bookkeeping, an honest guide What an outsourced bookkeeper actually does, what stays your job, the real cost drivers, and how to evaluate a provider before handing over the books.
- 5 min read Accounting cleanup, step by step What an accounting cleanup involves, when a business needs one, and the steps for rebuilding months of unrecorded activity into books that reconcile.
OCR
- 5 min read What OCR is, and what it isn't OCR turns images of text into machine-readable characters. How optical character recognition works, where it fails, and why reading is only half the job.
- 6 min read Extract tables from a PDF A decision tree for PDF table extraction: pdfplumber for digital PDFs, Tesseract and pytesseract for scans, and where the DIY approach breaks down.
File formats
- 4 min read What is a QBO file A QBO file is a Web Connect bank file, the QuickBooks flavor of OFX. What it carries, where banks offer it, and how to make one from a PDF statement.
- 4 min read What is an OFX file OFX is the 1997 standard banks use to hand transactions to finance software. How it works, how QFX and QBO relate to it, and what opens an OFX file.
Document verification
- 5 min read How to spot a fake bank statement The signals reviewers use to spot a fake bank statement: the running balance chain, typography, PDF metadata, plausibility, and confirmation with the bank.
- 5 min read What document fraud detection software does The five technique families behind document fraud detection software, where each one is strong and weak, and how detection fits lending and screening workflows.
FileCabinet CS
- 5 min read FileCabinet CS end of life Thomson Reuters stops updates and support for FileCabinet CS after December 31, 2027. What happens on that date, what still works, and when to move your files.
- 5 min read How to export from FileCabinet CS Export FileCabinet CS documents with File, Send to, File. The steps, the four naming boxes, and why the files come out without your folders on them.
- 7 min read FileCabinet CS migration options Four ways out of FileCabinet CS: the Onvio tool, the GoFileRoom service, doing it yourself, or paying somebody. What Thomson Reuters publishes about each.