Process bank transactions from bank feeds or an imported file

Summary

How to use the incoming transactions page to process transactions imported from a bank feed or a bank statement in Accounting Start.

Description

Use the Incoming Bank Transactions page to process transactions imported from a bank feed or bank statement.

We tell you when you have new transactions ready to process. Just select the link with the number of new transactions on the tile for each bank. This opens the Incoming bank transactions page.

Resolution

How this works

Each transaction shows the date, amount and a reference. For money out of the account, the amount is in red.

Decide how to process each transaction using the Match, Create,or Transfer buttons in the middle of the transaction.

For common transactions, consider setting up bank rules to process them automatically based on your predefined criteria. Find out more about bank rules.

Match to existing transactions or pay invoices

Use the Match option to:

Match to a payment or receipt you have already entered in Accounting Start
Pay outstanding invoices

Match existing transactions

Use this to confirm that the transaction from the bank is the same as the transaction in Sage Accounting. This could be for a transaction you already recorded in Sage Accounting, or for a bank transfer already imported from another bank.

Select Match in the middle of the transaction to see a list of existing payments and receipts as well as outstanding invoices. Use the Search to narrow down the list.
Select the matching payments or receipts.
We show the selected transactions in the bottom section. When the Left to match is zero, select Match from here.

Pay outstanding invoices

Create a new customer receipt or supplier payment and use it to pay an outstanding invoice.

If we find any outstanding invoices that may match the payment, we show these with a Match button on the right. We use the reference and amount to suggest these matches.

If we don't a find a matching invoice, or you want to pay a different one

Select Match in the middle of the transaction to see a list of all outstanding invoices. Use the Search to narrow down the list.
Select the invoices you want to pay.
We show the selected invoices in the bottom section. When the Left to match is zero, select Match from here.

Partial payments

If you want part pay an invoice

Enter the amount of the partial payment in the Payment field.
When the Left to match is zero, select Match.

Add bank fees and interest

Sometimes a bank payment or receipt may include charges. For example, if it's been converted from another currency.

To include the bank fees or interest

Select Make Adjustment.
Enter the details for the bank charges and select Add.
When the Left to match is zero, select Match.

Create new transactions

Money Out

This is for payments or expenses for both general purchases and to pay a regular supplier, just select the correct category and VAT rate.

Select Create in the middle of the transaction.
Select the supplier from the Who drop-down list, if required.
Select the relevant ledger account from the What drop down list.
Check the VAT rate and amount is correct where applicable.
Select Create.

Money in

This is for money received not being used to pay a sales invoice, such as money from till receipts, or income from grants.

Only use this for a customer contact when the customer has paid you and you are not going to send them a sales invoice, such as if they paid at the point of sale.

For money used to pay sales invoices, select Match to pay an existing invoice.

To create the receipt you just select the correct ledger account and VAT rate, where applicable.

Select Create in the middle of transaction.
Select the customer from the Who drop-down list, if required.
Select the relevant ledger account from the What drop down list.
Check the VAT rate and amount is correct where applicable.
Select Create.

Add more than one category

If a single payment or receipt needs to be split over several categories or VAT rates, select Split. You might have a single expense payment that covers petrol and office sundries for example.

Select Split
Create a new line for each ledger account or VAT rate.
Make sure all of the lines add up and then select Create.

Transfer between bank accounts

Use this when transferring money between bank accounts. This creates a transaction in both bank accounts. If both bank accounts use bank feeds, you'll need to match the imported transaction from the other bank account.

Select Transfer.
Choose the bank account to Transfer to or Transfer from.
Select Transfer.

Delete transactions

If you have transactions you don't want, you can delete them. You may need to do this if you have bank transfers or transactions you've already imported or processed.

Select the transaction (or transactions) you want to delete and then select Delete.

Fix problems with your incoming transactions

Missing transactions

You may have transactions in your online bank that don't yet appear in Accounting Start because they haven't downloaded yet. For connected banks, we usually download once a day but this varies between banks. We show the date and time of the latest update from the bank at the top of the Incoming Transactions page.

If this is up to date

Check to see if you need to re-authorise your bank feed. For security reasons you must re-authorise with your bank every 90 days. When this happens, we display a message at the top of the page. Choose Enter Credentials to re-authorise the bank feed
Check your bank feed is working properly. We update our website with know problems. Check the Bank feed status page (opens in new tab)

Duplicate transactions

This can happen when your bank has made an error in providing transactions to us, or something has gone wrong with the bank feed. We update our website with known problems. This will tell you if there is a reported incident. Check the Bank feed status page (opens in new tab) .

How you delete duplicate transactions depends on when you notice them. If you have

Only imported from your bank feed, then discard the duplicated transactions from the bank feed.
Created the duplicate transactions in Accounting Start, then delete any transactions from the bank account ( Activity tab). Where possible, we recommend that you delete transactions before reconciling your bank account.
Reconciled your bank account, then delete the transactions from your bank activity in the same way. We update the starting balance of your next bank reconciliation to reflect the deleted transaction. Read more about how to delete bank transactions
Included them on a submitted VAT return, then create a reverse transaction to clear the value from the bank account. Read Correct transactions included on a VAT return