Bank Feeds - import transactions from a financial institution
With Bank Feeds, you can import transactions from a financial account (checking account, savings account, other bank account, or credit card account) into the Bank Feeds portlet of the Bank Feeds Dashboard in the application. This can save time during data entry and bank account reconciliation.
You can import transactions through a direct connection to a financial account or through a file that you download from the financial institution. The latter method is particularly helpful in cases where the financial institution doesn't support direct connection to Accounting CS or if you need to import historical transactions that fall outside the dates supported by the Bank Feeds feature.
Do the following to import transactions from a financial institution:
Open the Bank Feeds portlet in the Bank Feeds Dashboard.
Select the bank account you need.
To set up Accounting CS to automatically assign a specific value to the reference, description, type, vendor, 1099 item, and/or GL account when it retrieves transactions, select
Rules
in the lower-left corner of the screen. In this window, you can define the criteria to compare and the values to assign.
Choose 1 of the following options:
Retrieve transactions directly from the financial account:
For transactions that haven't previously been retrieved, select
Retrieve Data
. For a newly linked account, Accounting CS retrieves transactions as far back as the financial institution allows (up to 3 months for most financial institutions). For linked accounts that have already had transactions retrieved, Accounting CS retrieves transactions since the last retrieval.
For transactions in a specific date range, select
Custom Date Range
in the upper-right corner to specify the date range you want to import the transactions for. Accounting CS retrieves transactions within the date range, but only as far back as the financial institution allows (up to 3 months for most financial institutions).
note
Before you can import any transactions directly from the financial account, the account holder needs to register and link their account to Accounting CS.
Retrieve transactions from a downloaded file by selecting
Import Statement File
in the upper-right corner. In the Import Statement File window, enter the path and name of the file that contains the data to import, or browse to the file, then select
Import
.
note
If a retrieved transaction matches an existing Accounting CS transaction, the application displays
Match
in the
Status
column, disables the row, and lists the transaction in the Matching Transaction grid.
If Accounting CS doesn't find expected matches, you may want to consider changing the number in the
Number of days offset
field in the
Bank Feeds Options
window to give the application a wider range of dates to use for the comparisons.
Review the transactions in the Retrieved Transactions grid. If necessary, you can modify data in the
Reference
,
Description
,
Type
,
Vendor
, and
GL Account
columns for any unmatched transactions. You can also modify distributions for those transactions by selecting the ellipsis to open the
Transaction Distributions
window.
note
By default, all transactions in the Retrieved Transactions grid are approved for retrieval. To exclude a transaction from the import, clear the checkbox in the
Approve
column.
To view details about an existing Accounting CS transaction that matches a retrieved transaction, select the transaction in the Retrieved Transactions grid. The application displays the details in the Matching Transaction grid. You can view the original transaction record by selecting
Go To Source
. If the transaction isn't a true match, select
Unmatch
.
Select 1 of the following options:
To import the selected transactions, select
Approve
. Accounting CS imports the transaction information from the financial institution and makes those transactions available in the
Enter Transactions
screen and the
Reconcile Bank Accounts
screen.
To save any changes you've made in this portlet for later, select
Finish Later
. You or another staff member who has access to this account can return to this portlet at any time to complete the import.
Exclude transactions from the import
After you retrieve transactions from the financial institution, you may find that you don't want to actually import all of the transactions into Accounting CS. If you have retrieved (but not yet imported) a transaction that you don't want to include, choose 1 of these options:
To exclude a transaction from the import
: Clear the checkbox in the
Approve
column for that transaction. When you select
Approve
, the application ignores any transactions for which the
Approve
checkbox isn't marked.
To delete one or more transactions from the grid
: Select the row selector to the left of the
Approve
column for the applicable transaction rows. (To select more than 1 row, press and hold the CTRL key on your keyboard while you select the applicable rows.) After you've selected the transactions to delete, select
Delete
below the grid.
note
Accounting CS remembers which transactions have been imported and which have been deleted from the Retrieved Transactions grid, and it won't include those transactions in subsequent retrievals. To import transactions that have previously been deleted, import transactions with
Custom Date Range
in the upper-right corner, and specify a date range that includes the transactions to reimport. Accounting CS will retrieve transactions in that date range, whether or not they've been deleted before.