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Analyze UAE and GCC bank statements (English and Arabic)

Updated

Statements from banks in the UAE and the wider Gulf are often bilingual, sometimes fully in Arabic, and usually sent as locked PDFs. docsanalyzer was built UAE-first for exactly these. This guide covers what it reads, how, and where its limits are.

Why Gulf statements are harder to convert

  • Column headers may be in Arabic, in English, or both side by side.
  • Amounts and dates can be printed in Arabic-Indic digits.
  • The same currency is written several ways: AED, Dhs, dirham or درهم on one statement.
  • Many banks email statements as password-protected PDFs.
  • Card statements mix purchases in several currencies, with the exchange rate in the description.

How docsanalyzer reads them

It does not rely on a template per bank. On each statement it finds the table header (Date, Description, Debit, Credit and Balance, a single Amount column, or the Arabic equivalents) and places every amount by the column it sits under. The layout found on the first page carries across the rest, and repeated headers, page totals, page numbers and footers are never mistaken for transactions.

  • Arabic-Indic digits are read as ordinary digits, so ١٬٢٥٠٫٠٠ is 1,250.00.
  • PDFs that store Arabic in visual order or as presentation forms are turned back into reading order and normalised before anything else.
  • Currency names are normalised: درهم, Dhs and AED are one currency, and likewise for riyals and dinars of each Gulf country. A bare “dirham” is read as AED.
  • Different currencies are never added together. Totals, insights and the Excel workbook keep them apart.
  • Descriptions stay exactly as printed. The payee is found alongside, not written over them.

Step by step

  1. Open docsanalyzer.com/app.
  2. Drop the statements: PDFs, scans or photos, or an Excel or CSV export from online banking. Several months or accounts can go in together.
  3. Type the password for any locked PDF when asked.
  4. Check the balance check on each statement, then open All statements to see them merged, with gaps between months and overlaps named.
  5. Use Groups, Insights and Trends to see spending by payee and category, recurring payments, fees and the month-by-month picture, per currency.
  6. Export to Excel, CSV, QuickBooks (.qbo) or OFX.

Payees and categories on a Gulf statement

Card lines usually carry more than the merchant: a payment processor’s prefix, the city and country, a foreign-currency note. docsanalyzer takes those off to find the payee, keeps the raw description, and moves a foreign amount into its own Original amount, Original currency and FX rate fields while the booked amount stays the amount.

Transactions are then sorted into 22 categories by ordered rules, among them Government & Taxes, Utilities & Telecom, Rent & Housing and Bank Fees & Charges. Each category can be traced to the rule that set it, and you can correct one row or every row from the same payee.

Card statements

A credit card statement is read the card way: the balance is what is owed, so the previous balance plus purchases minus payments must equal the new balance. CR after an amount marks a credit. A card payment that matches a debit from one of your bank accounts in view, same amount and currency within three days, is counted as a transfer between your own accounts rather than spending.

Known limits

  • Arabic reordering reverses Arabic runs; it is not a full bidirectional algorithm. Headers, footers and descriptions read well; an unusual mixed line may not.
  • Arabic in scans and photos is not reliable yet. A text PDF in Arabic is read in full; on a scanned or photographed Arabic statement the amounts and dates are read, but Arabic words can be missed and a right-to-left table can be misread. When that happens the balance check says the statement does not reconcile, so nothing wrong passes as right. Ask your bank for the PDF where you can.
  • The app is UAE-first. Other Gulf statements are read the same way, and the balance check tells you at once if one was not read right.
  • The interface and these guides are in English for now.