What's the difference between a passbook and a bank statement?

The accounting content is largely the same: date, particulars, withdrawal, deposit, running balance. What differs is the artefact. A statement is generated for a period and issued as a file. A passbook is a physical booklet printed cumulatively, updated whenever the holder brings it in, and it exists only on paper.

That distinction decides whether a converter can help you at all. A PDF statement downloaded from net banking has an embedded text layer, so a tool can parse the characters directly. A passbook page has no text layer — it's ink on paper, and once photographed, pixels. Template and text-parsing converters have nothing to work with; some state plainly that image-only input isn't accepted.

Reading the page as an image removes the distinction. Photograph or scan the passbook pages and they convert exactly like a digital statement, through to Tally vouchers, Excel, or CSV.

This matters far more in India than most converter documentation admits. Public-sector banks, urban co-operatives, and payments banks serve a large customer base through branches and counters, so passbooks and printed slips are routine rather than exceptional — see converting Indian bank statements.

Two practical notes. Passbook printing is dot-matrix and frequently smudges or clips a digit, which is exactly why each line is checked against the running balance and flagged when it doesn't tie out. And print quality sets the ceiling: a flat, evenly lit photo converts cleanly, while a dark or angled one produces rows you'll need to review.