[blindLaw] Reviewing a financial statement and other accounting documents

Tue May 31 16:00:27 UTC 2022

Hello all

Yes it will let you save a PDF in multiple different formats. HTML is one of those. Unfortunately, your results may vary with how tables get rendered.

I was looking at an article the other day explaining in accounting concept. Unfortunately all of the example journal entries were images. I  saved the webpage as a PDF and processed it with abbyy abbyy. Some of the example journal entries came out as tables, and others did not. That's why I would say I get about 90% success with Reading financial statements in SEC filings, because there are always a couple which do not render.

At one point it seems like I noticed that the software has the ability to let you visually select areas on the PDF, and tell the program how to treat them, a.k.a. like a table or like a paragraph. I tried to get a sighted person to do that for me in one instance and had no joy. Maybe I just had bad luck with the sighted person.

Regards

Justin Harford
Oregon Bell Academy Coordinator

> On May 31, 2022, at 3:54 AM, Matney, Angela R. via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello Rahul and everyone,
> 
> Justin may have more specific points to add, but my understanding with ABBYY is that it will let you save a PDF in one of many different formats, including HTML. It has been a while since I used ABBYY, but this would be standard. HTML is capable of producing tables that are easy to navigate and use with JAWS (and presumably other screen readers). I sometimes have to work with Word documents that contain several tables where a number of the table entries have check-boxes. I find that JAWS does not always seem to be responsive with these kinds of documents. Sometimes, I save them as HTML files to retain the tabular format. This is better for situations where I have to review but not edit the document.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Angie
> 
> 
> 
> Angela Matney,  CIPP/US (she/her)
> Counsel
> 202-414-9343
> Amatney at reedsmith.com<mailto:Amatney at reedsmith.com>
> 
> Reed Smith LLP
> 1301 K Street, N.W.
> Suite 1100 - East Tower
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> 
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw
> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2022 3:29 AM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Rahul Bajaj <rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Reviewing a financial statement and other accounting documents
> 
> EXTERNAL E-MAIL - From blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Justin, one question. How can one convert a file into HTML form using ABB why why? I thought ABBYY was only for converting PDF document into word.
> 
> Also, in my experience, HTML documents do not retain rows and columns in tables. They present the information contained in tables in textual form. Am I wrong on that score?
> 
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> External Signed
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org>> on behalf of Justin Harford via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>>
> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2022 11:33:07 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>>
> Cc: Justin Harford <blindstein at gmail.com<mailto:blindstein at gmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Reviewing a financial statement and other accounting documents
> 
> Hello
> 
> Since you didn't get any responses from blind accountants, maybe my response might be at least partially useful, though  I'm not an accountant.
> 
> I read a lot of securities and exchange filings including statements of income, cash flow and assets/liabilities. I have found that I get decent results when I pass a PDF of one of these documents through. ABBYY, and export as HTML. I find that around 90% of the time it gets the tables correctly tagged, and it even tags headings for key sections which makes it a bit easier to navigate. Many corporate entities will have spreadsheets of their financial statements. You can usually download these if it is a public company in the USA. I have successfully requested XLS versions of financial statements from foreign companies.
> 
> Of course this would break down if the financial statements were hand written, or if you were dealing with a tax return from the IRS. It seems to me like if you are working with a high networth individual, they would be able to supply you with proper spreadsheets.
> 
> Sorry you didn't get a reply from a Real accountant. Hopefully somebody with the proper credentials will be sufficiently infuriated with my response to enlighten both of us as I personally would like to know as well.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Justin Harford
> Oregon Bell Academy Coordinator
> 
> 
>> On May 30, 2022, at 3:09 PM, Singh, Nandini via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> No. I may ask again at a later time though.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of Caleb E. Smith via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2022 3:58 PM
>> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>>
>> Cc: Caleb E. Smith <ces2266 at columbia.edu<mailto:ces2266 at columbia.edu>>
>> Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Reviewing a financial statement and other accounting documents
>> 
>> [EXTERNAL]
>> 
>> Did you get any responses? I would be curious as well.
>> 
>>> On Mon, May 2, 2022 at 11:28 AM Singh, Nandini via BlindLaw <
>>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> 
>>> I have a more corporate-type of assignment that involves reviewing and
>>> analyzing such classic accounting  documents like a personal financial
>>> statement (for a high net individual) and cash flow. For any corporate
>>> attorneys or those who know blind accountants, I would appreciate hearing
>>> from you.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Nikki
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