Why Charging by Transaction Beats Charging by Page

When you're converting bank statements to spreadsheets, the pricing model matters. Some services charge by the page, but that doesn't make sense when you think about what you're actually paying for.

The Problem with Page-Based Pricing

Bank statements vary wildly in how they're formatted. A single page might have 3 transactions or 30 transactions, depending on your bank's layout. Some banks use large fonts and lots of whitespace. Others cram everything together.

Here's the issue: you're not converting pages. You're converting data. A page with your account summary, disclosures, or marketing materials has zero useful transactions. But with page-based pricing, you'd pay the same as a page packed with actual financial data.

Why Transaction-Based Pricing Makes Sense

Transaction-based pricing charges you for what matters: the actual line items in your statement. One transaction equals one row in your spreadsheet—whether that's a debit, credit, withdrawal, or deposit.

This approach is transparent. You know exactly what you're paying for. A 5-page statement with 20 transactions costs the same as a 10-page statement with 20 transactions. The value is in the data, not the paper.

Real-World Example

Let's say you have a business checking statement. The first two pages are summaries, disclosures, and check images. Pages 3-7 have your actual transactions. With page-based pricing, you're paying for 7 pages. With transaction-based pricing, you only pay for the 45 transactions that actually matter.

What About Blank Pages?

Many banks add blank pages or separator pages between sections. These serve no purpose for data extraction, but with page-based pricing, they count. Transaction-based pricing ignores them completely—as it should.

The Bottom Line

Fair pricing should reflect value delivered, not arbitrary document formatting. When you're converting bank statements, you care about getting accurate transaction data into a spreadsheet format. Transaction-based pricing aligns the cost with that goal.

If a service charges by the page, ask yourself: are you paying for paper formatting, or are you paying for data? The answer should guide your choice.