ScanWriter v. BankScan: Which Data Automation Software Can Simplify Your Life?

With the advent of technology, crimes have also become hi-tech and more sophisticated. Every industry applies technology to its advantage.

The financial sector has also come a long way from manual data entry and passbooks to e-statements and online banking. These advancements have also changed the way you investigate financial frauds today. It is tedious to deal with voluminous financial data in different formats and compile it for investigation manually.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) conducted a Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey in 2020, revealing a big increase in the reported fraud incidents.

PwC survey
source: PwC

To investigate the ever-increasing financial frauds, the investigators must automate their data extraction and preparation process for analysis to stay ahead of the fraudsters. With the right tool, you can save hours on data preparation and analysis and simultaneously increase productivity.

ScanWriter

ScanWriter by Personable Inc. is a data automation tool that can convert any document or digital file, including PDF and images, into a structured Excel spreadsheet or data visualization. It is a turnkey solution from start to finish that you can effortlessly implement into your current computer processes. With ScanWriter, you can also get an analytic summary of data within minutes.

Additionally, you can easily follow the money trail with sophisticated analytical tools and modeling techniques. As a result, you can boost your productivity by 90% through time-saving tools and ultimately create more growth opportunities.

Key Benefits

  • Convert bank statements, credit card statements, check images, timesheets, payroll, phone records, accounting system ledger, insurance forms, contracts, etc. into Excel or data visualization
  • Collect, evaluate, preserve, and report findings
  • Link analysis tools to help with data collection and analysis
  • Run analytic models to scrutinize the movements of funds in various cyber crimes
  • Verify the integrity of the financial information
  • Create powerful graphs and financial data models with Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence)
  • Maintain the privacy of data by saving it locally
  • Ensure 100% data accuracy
  • Simplify your workflow with a user-friendly interface having built-in features

Integration & Deployment

  • Seamless integration with Excel and Microsoft Power BI
  • Deployable on Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, On-Premise-Windows, On-Premise-Linux

Financial Institutions Support

ScanWriter has a public library of more than 40,000 institutions, including over 10,000 financial institutions. Personable also provides customization of a format for your document within 24 to 48 hours of your request.

Language Support

ScanWriter supports 21 languages, including most European, Asian, Middle Eastern languages.

Location

Personable has its head office in California, with a second office in Washington DC.

Client Base

ScanWriter caters to both the government and private sectors.

ScanWriter client base
Source: ScanWriter

Customer Feedback

ScanWriter feedback
Source: ScanWriter

Pricing

Standard ScanWriter Excel, which includes one workstation user and ten customized readers, costs $4995 per license. In addition, each license has a non-prorated $2940 annual fee.

You can reach out to ScanWriter for prices on the Premier ScanWriter Excel, which includes standard features plus an independent library.

Demo & Free Trial

You can get an idea of the working of ScanWriter Excel Edition by viewing videos on their Youtube channel. You can also request a free demo on ScanWriter’s website.

Using data automation software

BankScan

BankScan by Gee Whiz Software, LLC facilitates the conversion of bank and credit card statements into a usable form like an Excel spreadsheet or other electronic formats. BankScan recommends its use in conjunction with OmniPage, an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program.

Key Benefits

  • Reduce time in converting financial documents to a useable electronic format
  • Provides extraction of data from printed checks that can be OCR’d with the help of FileScan
  • Separates transactions in multi-account statements
  • Quality control checks such as skipped line review and AutoBalance
  • Customized editor for efficient error correction
  • Extract specific data items from transaction descriptions

Integration and Deployment

It requires the following for proper integration and deployment:

  • Either OmniPage Standard (v18.0) or Ultimate (v19.X)
  • High-resolution monitor
  • Windows 7 or greater OS running on Intel i5 or greater class processor 2+ GHz speed, 8+ GB RAM
  • Good quality scanners like Fujitsu fi-7160

Financial Institutions Support

BankScan has hundreds of banks in the library and new banks and statement formats are added almost as soon as a sample is submitted to the template request tab.

Language Support

English.

Location

Gee Whiz Software, LLC has its base in San Diego, California.

Client Base

BankScan majorly caters to the government sector. Initially, it was developed for use at the Department of Justice and is currently used by federal, state, and local agencies.

Pricing

There are several licensing options available, from a flat yearly subscription plan to a pay-as-you-use service. The exact cost to license will depend on factors such as the number of desired license seats, the level of support required, and the volume of data you process.

Demo & Free Trial

You can watch some of the demo videos on their website.

ScanWriter v. BankScan

ScanWriter

BankScan

Accuracy

YES – Accuracy checks are built into the software, alerting users of any missing or skipped pages through a pop-up notification.

NO – User must manually check for missing pages, duplicates, and other complicating issues.

Large Comprehensive Public Library

YES – Public library of more than 40,000 institutions, including over 10,000 financial institutions.

NO – Only 3,000 different templates are available.

Automatically Updated Public Library

YES – Automatically updated with new and enhanced templates in real-time.

NO – Requires users to manually check for template updates within the software.

Data Recognition

YES – ScanWriter knows what to pick up automatically. The user does not need to use tools to select the data that needs to be entered.

NO – You have to edit it manually. Provides OCR erasing tools to select specific parts not to be picked up.

Convenient Purchasing

YES – Purchased all in one as single software. Includes SourceLink and Microsoft Power BI.

NO – OmniPage and FileScan must be separately purchased through its developers in order to utilize BankScan.

Easy Set-Up/ Installation

YES – Easy installation with step-by-step instructions. Dedicated support manager to help with any ScanWriter questions.

NO – You must install software separately (Omnipage, BankScan, and FileScan)

Automatic Mapping of Data

YES

NO

Easy to Reference Data Against PDF Documents

YES – Can easily compare retrieved data against source documents side by side.

NO

Document Management

YES – Automatically saves and links documents to a structured folder.

NO

Easy User Interface

YES

NO

Data Analytic Capability

YES – Microsoft Power BI Analytics that includes custom and built-in models (flow of funds, all transactions overview, Beneish M Score, etc.)

NO

Wrap Up

ScanWriter can make your data processing and analysis job easier and faster. It provides many more features than BankScan that only converts the documents into a usable format with the help of OmniPage and FileScan. You don’t need to worry about the accuracy of the extracted data as ScanWriter ensures 100% accuracy.

Increase your efficiency with the state-of-the-tech art to automate data entry and create financial data visualizations like ‘flow of funds’. You can also segregate the data by location, entity, amount, date, category, etc. Request ScanWriter demo today with the help of dedicated support managers who will address all your needs and questions.