Kayabyte

ProperConvert alternatives for Mac: what to compare before you pay

By Kayabyte · Last updated 28 October 2026

ProperSoft’s ProperConvert is one of the better-known tools for turning bank statement PDFs into spreadsheet or accounting files. If you searched for an alternative, you probably want one of three things: a different price model, a different set of export formats, or to see how a tool handles your own statements before paying. This page helps you compare, and we are upfront that we make a competing app.

1. What is public about ProperConvert

From their public site as of October 2026 (check their site, since prices and features change): ProperConvert runs on Mac and Windows, converts locally on your computer, has been around since about 2008, offers a free trial, and is sold as a subscription listed at USD 19.99 per month or USD 179.99 per year. That is a respected product with a long track record. We are not going to claim it lacks anything; check their site for supported formats and limits.

2. Do you need a converter at all?

Always try the free route first, because it may be enough.

  1. Download CSV from online banking if the bank offers it for the period you need. Banks often limit how far back this goes, and the exact option varies, so look for “download” or “export” near your account activity.
  2. Open the CSV in Numbers or Excel. If dates look wrong (day and month swapped), import the file with the date column set as text first and convert it after.
  3. For a PDF only: open it in Preview, select the table if the text is selectable, paste into Numbers or Excel and split columns. This works for short statements. It gets slow with long ones, because descriptions wrap onto several lines and each page repeats headers.
  4. Import the result into your accounting program using its CSV or bank-file import. The exact menu labels vary by version.

If you convert statements a few times a year, this is a perfectly good answer. A paid tool starts to make sense when you repeat it monthly, handle scans, or need OFX, QBO or QIF files for software that will not take plain CSV.

3. What to compare in any converter

Whether you choose ProperConvert, Balanced or something else, test with your own statement and compare:

4. How Balanced differs

Balanced is the Mac app we make. A few concrete points, so you can compare against the list above:

Honest limits: results depend on the statement’s layout, so check the preview; heavily skewed or low-quality scans can fail; password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first with the password from your bank. We cannot promise every bank’s statement will parse.

Run the same statement, ideally a long one with a messy layout, through each tool and compare the transaction count, the totals against the statement, and how many cells you had to fix.

Download Balanced and convert for free: the free version converts and checks everything and exports the first 10 transactions per file. See pricing if you decide to go further.