Bank Feeds

The Bank Feeds screen (headed Banking) is home to your bank and credit card accounts. For each one it shows what your books say the account holds beside what the bank last said, and it is where you bring in the bank's own transactions — from a live connection to your bank or from a statement file you download from online banking — and answer each one: match it to something already in your books, categorize it to an account, or exclude it.

You do not have to use feeds or imports. Many businesses simply enter their cheques and deposits and reconcile from the paper or PDF statement. But every bank or card account you want to reconcile must be set up here.

Opening Bank Feeds

• Banking ▸ Bank Feeds
• Connect Bank in the Banking panel of the Home Page

The screen

At the top: the number of accounts and the buttons Reconciled, Rules, Transfer, Connect live feed, Refresh and New account. Below, one card per account and, if you have any live connections, a Live feeds card.

An account card

Each card shows the account's name, the bank and the last four digits if recorded, and reconciled with the last statement date (or never reconciled). On the right:

• ledger — what your books say the account holds.
• bank — what the bank last said: the balance from the live feed, or otherwise the balance of the last reconciliation. It is red when it differs from the ledger.
• n to review — how many imported bank lines still need an answer.

Add a bank or card account

1. Choose New account.
2. Fill in the New bank account window:
   • Name — for example "TD Chequing …4021".
   • Bank — the bank's name.
   • Last 4 digits (display only) — shown on the card to tell accounts apart.
   • The type: Chequing, Savings, Credit card or Line of credit.
   • Opening balance (statement balance at start of books) — the balance on the bank statement on the day your books start. This becomes the Beginning Balance of the first reconciliation.
3. Choose Create.

A matching ledger account is created in the Chart of Accounts, and the bank account reconciles against it. If the name is empty, SeroBooks says The account needs a name.

Import a statement

Download a statement file from your online banking and import it into the account it belongs to. SeroBooks reads QFX, OFX and QBO files (the formats banks offer for QuickBooks), and CSV or TXT exports.

1. On the account's card choose Import and pick the file.
2. The Import into … window reads the file and shows a DRY RUN — nothing has been written yet: the number of Rows, the Money in, the Money out, how many rows were Unparsed, and the first transactions.
3. For a CSV or TXT file, check the layout drop-down beside the file name. Auto-detect recognises the layouts of RBC Express, RBC, TD, CIBC, Scotiabank, BMO and Tangerine and says Recognised as: …. You can also pick one of those, Other — one signed amount column, Other — debit and credit columns, or Map columns myself.
4. With Map columns myself, a MAP THE COLUMNS panel shows the first rows of the file. Choose the number of Header rows, the Date column and its Date format (Work it out, YYYYMMDD, YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY), the Description and More description columns, the Cheque no. column, and how Amounts are laid out: One column, − for money out; Separate debit and credit columns; or One column + an in/out flag column (with the Flag value for money IN). The dry run updates as you change it. Your own mapping is remembered for this account.
5. When the dry run looks right, choose Import.

SeroBooks reports how many lines were imported, how many were already known (duplicates are skipped), how many were coded by rules and how many were matched, and opens the review.

A few unparsed rows are usually headers or footer totals. If most of the file is unparsed, choose the bank's layout or map the columns yourself. If the statement is in a different currency from the account, the dry run says so in red: import it into the account in that currency instead.

Review imported lines

Review opens the account's bank lines. The filters at the top show To review, All, Reconciled or Excluded lines.

Each line shows the date, the bank's description and the amount (money out in red, money in in green). Under a line SeroBooks has a suggestion for, a coloured strip shows it — a match to a transaction already in your books, a transfer, a rule, a reference — with the dates and amounts behind it. Green means a confident match; not certain — check it marks a weak one.

When everything is answered, the review says Nothing to review — every bank line is answered.

Bank rules

Rules categorize lines from payees you see every month — the hydro bill, the phone company, the bank's monthly fee.

• From a line in the review, the rule icon opens Always categorize this payee: When the payee contains… (the text to look for), Categorize to account, and Categorize without asking. Choose Create rule; it is applied at once to the matching lines waiting.
• Rules at the top of Bank Feeds lists every rule with what it looks for, the account, and how many times it has been applied. New rule and Edit open the rule with: Name (e.g. Hydro bill), When the payee contains…, the direction (In or out, Money out or Money in), Categorize to account, Memo (optional) and Categorize without asking. The delete icon removes a rule after asking.

With Categorize without asking off, the rule only suggests and you confirm each line. Turn it on only after watching the rule be right a few times: from then on it categorizes and writes the entry without asking.

Connect a live feed

1. Choose Connect live feed.
2. A browser window opens. It asks for a 6-digit code SeroBooks emails you, then takes you to your bank to sign in and choose the accounts to share. Your bank sign-in details are typed at the bank; SeroBooks never sees them.
3. The Waiting for your bank window in SeroBooks updates by itself when the connection is made. If the browser did not open, use Copy link and paste the link into a browser.
4. When connected, choose Link accounts and, for each account the bank shared, choose the account in your books it belongs to, or ＋ Create this account. Anything left Not linked yet is simply not pulled.
5. Choose Done.

If live feeds are not available, SeroBooks says Live bank feeds are not switched on with the reason. If the window times out or the sign-in did not finish, nothing is saved; press Connect live feed again.

The Live feeds card lists each connection with its status, when it was last pulled, and how many accounts are linked:

Feed check

Feed check is for businesses that bring every bank line in by feed or import. Enter the Statement date and Statement closing balance, and it shows the Ledger balance, Statement balance, Difference, Unmatched lines in period and Lines this will lock. Reconcile is only available when the difference is 0.00 and no line is left unanswered; it then signs the statement off and says Reconciled to the cent.

Remove an account

Remove asks first. It deletes the bank account with its imported transactions, statement imports, rules and reconciliations. The ledger account in the Chart of Accounts is kept and marked inactive, because reports and closed periods refer to it. Removal is refused while any ledger line still sits on the account; the message says how many.

Permissions

Related articles

• Reconcile a bank or credit card account
• Previous Reconciliation and undoing a reconciliation
• Transfer Funds
• Roles and permissions explained