Clients upload annual brokerage statements in any layout. AI extracts realized gains and losses, dividends, interest and foreign tax withheld per security into the advisor's Excel worksheet, checks the totals against the statement's summary page and flags anything that does not tie.
Typical results
≈1.5 hrs
Typical time per return, down from about four
100%
Worksheets tied to statement totals
Any layout
Brokerage PDFs read without per-broker templates
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Private investors bring brokerage statements from several banks and brokers, each with its own PDF layout and tens of pages per account. The tax advisor retypes every sale, dividend and withholding line into a capital gains worksheet, which takes three to five hours per return in peak season, and a single missed line can change the tax due.
Before and after
Advisor hours per investor return
−63%Lines retyped by hand per return
−93%Missed lines found after filing per season
−83%The automation
Clients upload their annual statements to a secure folder. AI reads each PDF, whatever the layout, and extracts realized gains and losses, dividends, interest and foreign tax withheld per security into the advisor's capital gains worksheet in Excel. The automation then checks that the extracted totals tie to the statement's own summary page. Statements that do not tie, or that contain unfamiliar items such as options, are flagged for manual review with the page reference.
How it works
- 01
Statements uploaded
Clients upload their annual brokerage statements as PDFs to a secure folder linked to their return.
- 02
AI extraction
AI reads each statement and extracts realized gains and losses, dividends, interest and foreign tax withheld per security.
- 03
Worksheet filled
Extracted lines are written into the advisor's capital gains worksheet in Excel, one row per security and event.
- 04
Tie-out check
The extracted totals are compared with the statement's own summary page for each account.
- 05
Flags for review
Statements that do not tie, or that hold options or other unfamiliar items, are flagged with the page reference.
Starts from
- Brokerage statement PDFs
- Secure client upload folder
Delivers
- Capital gains worksheet
- Totals tie-out check
- Flags with page reference
The impact
Time per investor return falls by about 60%, from around four hours to about an hour and a half, most of it spent reviewing flagged items. Every worksheet ties to the statements' own totals, and the advisor can take on more investor clients in the same season.
Questions about this automation
Can it read statements from any bank or broker?
In most cases, yes. The AI works from the content of each statement, so a new layout does not need a template. Every extraction is checked against the statement's own summary totals, and a statement that does not tie is flagged for the advisor instead of being trusted.
What happens with options, short sales or corporate actions?
Items the worksheet does not expect, such as options, short sales, stock splits or mergers, are flagged with the page reference and left for the advisor to enter, so nothing is guessed. As the advisor adds rules for common cases, fewer items need manual handling each season.
Where do the client documents and the worksheet live?
Statements stay in the client's secure folder, and the worksheet is saved next to them in the advisor's own file structure. Extraction runs through an AI model under the firm's own account, and nothing is shared outside the firm. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages.