Financial data extraction is a key part of financial data analysis. It’s the first step in the analysis process, enabling accountants to access and work with the data they need to perform high-level and high-value work for their clients.

More often than not, accounting professionals use Excel for applying formulas, ratios, and other analytics to accounting data. However, getting data from accounting systems into a usable Excel workbook is an arduous and therefore time-consuming task. Especially when it needs to be done on a frequent cadence, such as once every month.

This article will review why extracting data into a usable Excel is such a challenge for practices, delving into ways to simplify the process in order to save your firm time and money while improving the quality of your client work.

Why Financial Data Extraction Is Challenging

Time-Consuming

Whether a team is performing due diligence, an audit, or delivering monthly reporting, the professionals at an accounting firm are incredibly busy. It’s a people-first profession that requires both brain power and experience. Accountants are expected to be thorough and accurate in tight timelines. Enter the first challenge of financial data extraction: it takes too long!

Sure, many accounting systems offer reporting features that deliver extracted financial data. However, these reports rarely, if ever, match the needs of accountants, who have their own set of standard templates, formulas, and calculations they need to run. The accounting data in these native reports gets delivered with empty cells, inconsistencies, and missing information, requiring hours upon hours of manually manipulating the extracted data into a usable format. If data is delivered in an unstructured format like a PDF, this ends up adding even more time.

High Potential for Human Error

In addition to being incredibly time-consuming, proper financial data extraction requires attention to detail. Even small errors in the data or formatting can lead to incorrect conclusions. Thoroughness and precision are key. However, the tedious monotony of extracting and formatting data is rife with opportunities for human error. When it comes to activities such as multi-entity reporting, the potential for error grows even higher, as the involvement of several subsidiaries increases the amount of data, compounding the chance for mistakes to abound.

Incomplete Data Reports

Another challenge often faced is incomplete information. When using native reporting features in accounting systems, key data may be left out. The system may provide its end results without the underlying accounting data that lead to those numbers. For thorough analysis in certain practice areas, like forensic accounting and due diligence, those underlying data points are essential, but the back and forth with the business and accounting system may never quite deliver all the information needed. Accountants often need to merge multiple reports to get the data required for their work.

Security Concerns

Lastly, financial data is private, sensitive information. Accountants need to be careful about privacy and security when extracting data, limiting options that may be available for less sensitive data sharing.

All this boils down to one thing: before an accountant can even begin the high-value work a client is expecting (and paying for), countless hours of extracting, formatting, and reviewing for accuracy must take place. Fortunately, there are things firms can do to simplify this cumbersome process.

How Do You Extract Data from an Accounting System? Ways to Simplify Financial Data Extraction

Extracting data from an annual report involves gathering financial data from an entity and importing it into a spreadsheet. It is a complicated and tedious process, which is why we recommend using financial reporting tools to smooth and speed up the process.

There are two main ways that practices can simplify the arduous task of data extraction: standardization and technology.

Establishing standard formats and templates for data analysis makes it much easier to know exactly how you need your data extracted. These templates can be powerful tools for upskilling your team, scaling your practice, and assuring the quality of your client deliverables.

However, standard templates are really the second step in the equation. The first is to standardize the process—a much bigger challenge when clients all have variable needs, accounting systems, and data quality.

This is where technology comes in, and tools that perform financial data extraction end up saving firms countless hours, preventing projects from eating into their budgets.

Accounting data automation tools like Strongbox, for example, automate the collection and standardization of accounting data from a broad range of sources, such as QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and others, into a consistent and analysis-ready format. This capability drastically reduces the time professionals spend chasing down files or formatting disparate spreadsheets, which is especially critical during time-sensitive projects like audits and transactions.

When it comes to audits, Strongbox minimizes the risk of manual errors by pulling raw financial data directly from source systems and delivering comprehensive workbooks containing trial balances, general ledgers, AR/AP aging, and more. This streamlined access to verified data not only improves auditor confidence; it also ensures transparency and traceability, which are key factors in maintaining audit integrity. This automated financial statement extraction also enhances sampling efficiency and supports detailed testing without manual transcription or formatting delays.

With regard to due diligence, especially in M&A and financing rounds, Strongbox provides a fast, secure, and repeatable method for extracting historical financials, analyzing trends, and identifying anomalies. Its standardization across accounting systems allows deal teams to compare companies side-by-side, regardless of differences in tech stacks. Furthermore, the built-in ratio analysis and cash flow forecasting tools enable analysts to generate insights without building custom models from scratch.

Strongbox makes recurring data collection easy and secure when it comes to client reporting and compliance. Advisors can generate consistent, high-quality reports at regular intervals without relying on clients to export or email sensitive files. Because our software uses Microsoft Azure encryption and is compliant with GDPR and SOC 2 Type II standards, firms can confidently use it knowing their data is secure.

Save Your Firm Hours with Strongbox

Technology will never replace the need for talented accounting professionals. However, giving your team the tools that let them get to work faster will enable your firm to grow in a sustainable way. Strongbox is just one such tool.

Entrusted by the majority of the Top 25 firms, Strongbox integrates with the most used accounting systems and ERPs, from QuickBooks Online to Netsuite. With SOC 2 and GDPR compliance, customer data is kept safe and secure from beginning to end.

Contact our team today to find out how your firm can save hours in the data extraction process.

FAQ’s

How do you extract data from an annual report?

Extracting data from an annual report involves gathering financial data from an entity and importing it into a spreadsheet. It is a complicated and tedious process, which is why we recommend using financial reporting tools to smooth and speed up the process.