Amazon Textract vs Zera Books for Accounting
Amazon Textract is a powerful AWS OCR API—but it requires developers to build a complete solution. Zera Books is a ready-to-use platform designed for accountants. Compare building on AWS vs using a purpose-built tool.
What Is Amazon Textract?
Amazon Textract is an AWS machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting, and structured data from scanned documents. It's part of Amazon Web Services' AI/ML portfolio and is designed as a building block for developers to create custom document processing applications.
Textract goes beyond basic OCR by identifying tables, forms, and key-value pairs in documents. It offers specialized APIs for analyzing expenses (invoices/receipts), identity documents, and lending documents. The service is SOC-compliant and integrates with other AWS services like Lambda, S3, and Step Functions.
However, Amazon Textract is not a ready-to-use application. It's a raw API that returns JSON data. To use it for bank statement processing, you need to:
- Set up an AWS account and configure IAM permissions
- Write code to call the Textract API and process responses
- Build logic to understand bank statement structure
- Create transaction categorization for accounting
- Format output for QuickBooks, Xero, or other software
- Build a user interface for your team
For engineering teams at fintech companies, this flexibility is valuable. For accountants and bookkeepers who need to convert client bank statements today, it means months of development before you can process your first statement.
Build on Textract vs Use Zera Books
Building a bank statement processor on Amazon Textract requires 3-6 months of developer time. Here's what you'd need to build—and what Zera Books includes out of the box.
| Component | Build on Textract | Zera Books |
|---|---|---|
Bank Format Parsing Logic to identify different bank statement layouts and extract transaction fields correctly | 4-8 weeks | Built-in (Zera AI) |
Multi-Account Detection Automatically detect when a PDF contains multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit card) | 2-4 weeks | Built-in |
Transaction Categorization AI to categorize transactions into accounting categories (Income, Expense, COGS, etc.) | 6-12 weeks | Built-in (GAAP-trained) |
QuickBooks/Xero Export Format output for direct import into accounting software | 2-3 weeks | Built-in |
User Interface Web application for uploading PDFs and downloading results | 4-8 weeks | Built-in |
Error Handling & QA Handle edge cases, poor scans, unusual formats, validation | 4-6 weeks | Built-in |
| Total Time to Production | 3-6 months | 2 minutes |
Developer Cost Calculation
At an average developer rate of $150/hour, 4 months of full-time development (640 hours) costs $96,000 before you process a single statement. Zera Books costs $79/month—that's over 100 years of Zera Books subscription for the same investment.
Amazon Textract Pricing vs Zera Books
Amazon Textract charges per page with different rates for different APIs. Tables cost $0.015/page, forms cost $0.05/page, and queries cost $0.065/page—these charges stack when combining features.
Amazon Textract
Pay-per-page pricing
Basic OCR text extraction
Extract tabular data
Key-value pair extraction
Natural language queries
Note: Charges stack when using multiple features. Processing a bank statement with tables + forms costs $0.065/page minimum.
Zera Books
Unlimited processing
Flat rate, unlimited pages
No per-page fees. Process 100 or 10,000 pages—same $79/month.
| Monthly Volume | Textract (Tables+Forms) | Zera Books | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 pages/month | $1.50 - $6.50 | $$79 | Textract wins at very low volume |
| 500 pages/month | $7.50 - $32.50 | $$79 | Textract wins at low volume |
| 1,000 pages/month | $15 - $65 | $$79 | Breakeven point |
| 2,500 pages/month | $37.50 - $162.50 | $$79 | Zera Books saves $83+ |
| 5,000 pages/month | $75 - $325 | $$79 | Zera Books saves $246+ |
| 10,000 pages/month | $150 - $650 | $$79 | Zera Books saves $571+ |
* Textract pricing excludes developer time to build the solution. Range shows Tables-only to Tables+Forms pricing.
What Textract Doesn't Include (That Accountants Need)
Amazon Textract extracts text and tables from documents. But bank statement processing for accounting requires much more. Here's the gap.
No Bank Format Intelligence
Textract extracts tables generically. It doesn't understand that Chase statements have different layouts than Bank of America, or that credit card statements differ from checking accounts.
Zera Books: Zera AI is trained on millions of financial documents and dynamically understands any bank format.
No Transaction Categorization
Textract returns raw text. It doesn't categorize "AMAZON MARKETPLACE" as an Office Expense or "STRIPE PAYOUT" as Revenue. You need to build all categorization logic yourself.
Zera Books: AI categorization trained on GAAP standards, maps to QuickBooks/Xero chart of accounts.
No Multi-Account Detection
When a client sends a PDF with checking and savings combined, Textract extracts all tables together. You need to build logic to separate accounts.
Zera Books: Multi-account auto-detection creates separate tabs for each account automatically.
No QuickBooks/Xero Export
Textract outputs JSON. Converting that to QBO, IIF, or properly formatted CSV for accounting software import requires custom development.
Zera Books: Direct export to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, and 10+ other accounting platforms.
No User Interface
Textract is an API. There's no upload button, no dashboard, no way for non-technical staff to use it. You must build the entire UI yourself.
Zera Books: Intuitive web interface with drag-and-drop upload, client management dashboard, and batch processing.
No Client Organization
Textract doesn't know about "clients." If you manage 50 clients, you need to build organization, history tracking, and access controls yourself.
Zera Books: Organize by client, track conversion history, access past statements anytime.
"My clients send me all kinds of messy PDFs from different banks. This tool handles them all and saves me probably 10 hours a week that I used to spend on manual entry."
Ashish Josan
Manager, CPA at Manning Elliott
Why ready-to-use matters for accountants:
"I don't have time to build custom software or learn AWS. I need to upload a bank statement PDF and get clean data for QuickBooks. Zera Books works out of the box—that's the entire point. I started converting statements the same day I signed up."
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon Textract?
Amazon Textract is an AWS machine learning service that extracts text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents. It's a raw API service designed for developers to build custom document processing applications. Textract provides OCR capabilities but does not include accounting-specific features like transaction categorization or QuickBooks integration.
How much does Amazon Textract cost per page?
Amazon Textract pricing varies by API: Detect Document Text costs $0.0015 per page ($1.50 per 1,000 pages), Analyze Document for tables costs $0.015 per page, forms costs $0.05 per page, and queries cost $0.065 per page. These charges can stack when using multiple features. Zera Books offers unlimited processing for $79/month flat.
Can I use Amazon Textract without coding?
No. Amazon Textract is an API service that requires programming knowledge to use. You need to write code to call the API, process responses, handle errors, and format output. Zera Books is a no-code platform—upload PDFs and download Excel files without any technical knowledge.
Does Amazon Textract categorize transactions for QuickBooks?
No. Amazon Textract only extracts raw text and table data. It does not understand accounting categories, chart of accounts, or QuickBooks/Xero formats. You would need to build categorization logic separately. Zera Books includes AI categorization trained on GAAP accounting standards and exports directly to QuickBooks/Xero formats.
How long does it take to build a bank statement processor on Textract?
Building a production-ready bank statement processor on Amazon Textract typically takes 3-6 months of developer time. You need to build: bank format parsing for different layouts, multi-account detection, transaction categorization, error handling, output formatting, and a user interface. Zera Books is ready to use immediately—no development required.
Does Amazon Textract work with any bank format?
Amazon Textract extracts tables and text from any document, but it doesn't understand bank statement structure. You need to build custom parsing logic for each bank format to identify account numbers, transaction dates, amounts, and descriptions. Zera Books' proprietary Zera AI dynamically understands all bank statement formats without custom configuration.
Skip the Build. Start Converting Today.
Don't spend 3-6 months building on Textract. Zera Books is ready to use right now—upload your first bank statement in 2 minutes. $79/month unlimited processing.
0 code
No developers needed
2 minutes
Time to first conversion
$79/mo
Unlimited processing