Banking and reconciliation

In one sentence

Link each bank account to a ledger account, upload the statement file your bank gives you so it becomes individual transactions, then pair every transaction with the matching journal line — once paired, you know the books agree with the bank.

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1. Why reconcile

The cash figure in your books comes from the journals you post; the bank's figure comes from the bank. In theory they agree. In practice:

Typical difference	What it means
In the books, not at the bank	A cheque was issued but has not been presented
At the bank, not in the books	Bank charges, interest, direct debits you have not recorded yet
Present on both sides but not equal	An amount was keyed wrong, or posted to a different account

Reconciliation pairs the two sides item by item; whatever cannot be paired is a difference to deal with. Finish reconciliation before closing the month — otherwise the cash figure on the reports cannot be trusted.

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2. Create the bank account first

Go to Books → Banking → Accounts & Feeds and click New Bank Account.

图 01-bank-accounts

Field	Required	Notes
Account name	✅	For your own reference, e.g. "DBS operating account"
Bank	✅	DBS / OCBC / UOB / Other
Masked account no.	✅	The last few digits are enough, e.g. **** 1234; the full number need not be stored
GL asset account	✅	Which ledger account this bank account maps to — the dropdown lists asset accounts only

Currency and feed status are not on the form

Currency is fixed at SGD and feed status defaults to Manual, so neither appears in the form — transactions arrive by file import today, not through a bank API.

The GL asset account decides what the right-hand column shows during reconciliation: the "Book entries" panel is drawn from cash journal lines on that account. Map it to the wrong account and the panel comes up empty.

A client can hold several bank accounts, each mapped to its own ledger account (1010 operating, 1020 savings, and so on).

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3. Importing transactions

Go to Books → Banking → Statement Import. There are two steps, and the second one catches most people out the first time.

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Pick the bank account first, or the parse button stays disabled

图 02-import

Step one: upload the file

Drag the statement file you downloaded from internet banking into the dashed area, or click Browse Files.

• .csv and .ofx are accepted
• Several files can be selected at once
• On completion you see "Uploaded N file(s)" and the files appear in the import history table below

This uploads a file — it is not a paste box

There is no field for pasting CSV text. Download the statement file from your bank and upload it.

Step two: pick the bank account, then parse

Uploading only stores the file; it is not yet a set of transactions. In the import history area, select the bank account in the top right, then click Parse into transactions on the file's row.

Without a bank account selected, the button is disabled

The system has to know which account the statement belongs to before it can file the transactions correctly.

Parsing reports something like "Imported 12 transaction(s); skipped 2 row(s)":

• Imported — rows successfully read as transactions
• Skipped — headers, blank lines, and rows in a format it could not read

Every parsed transaction starts as Unmatched; the reconciliation page is where you work through them.

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4. Reconciling

Go to Books → Banking → Smart Reconciliation and choose the bank account at the top. The page has three columns:

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Choose the bank account you are reconciling

图 03-reconciliation

Column	Contents
Left — Bank transactions	Every Unmatched transaction on this account, each with a radio button
Middle	The Match button
Right — Book entries	Cash journal lines on the ledger account this bank account maps to, also single-select

How to pair

1. Select a bank transaction on the left
2. Select the corresponding book entry on the right (check amount, date and description)
3. Click Match in the middle

Match stays disabled until both sides are selected

Matching pairs exactly one transaction with one journal line, so both sides must be specified.

Once matched, the transaction leaves the left column and appears under Matched transactions below.

The three statuses

Status	Meaning	How it gets there
Unmatched	Freshly imported, not yet paired	Initial state after parsing
Matched	Paired with a journal line	Click Match
Excluded	Deliberately marked as out of scope	Click Exclude

Where Exclude fits: bank charges, interest and similar sundries you have not recorded yet, or rows that were imported twice. An excluded row leaves the pending list and the page shows "N excluded transaction(s)".

Every action is reversible

Each row under Matched transactions carries an Unmatch button that returns it to Unmatched so you can pair it again. Match, unmatch and exclude all take effect immediately with no confirmation dialog — but all are reversible, so there is nothing to be nervous about.

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5. When something will not reconcile

Situation	What to do
At the bank, not in the books (charges, interest)	Enter a manual journal for it, then come back and match — or simply exclude it
In the books, not at the bank (unpresented cheque)	Leave it; pair it when next month's statement arrives
Amounts differ slightly	Usually the original journal was keyed wrong. Posted journals cannot be edited — reverse it and enter a correct one
The same line imported twice	Exclude the duplicate

The finish line is unglamorous: the left column is empty, or whatever remains is a reconciling item you can explain.

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Next: Period close and locking →