Bank import plugin

Foreword

In this manual will show you how to work with the Bank import plugin. The Bank import plugin allows you to bring your payment information (extracted for the Internet) into osFinancials and attach it to your documents. If you want to follow the steps of this manual a few conditions must be made. You can read about the conditions in the header ‘conditions for working with the Bank import plug-in’. It's also a possiblility to watch this video (Dutch spoken) where the use of the bankimport is shown. 

Preperation for the Bank import plugin

If you want to work with the Bank import plug-in, you will have to activate it. There are two ways of activating the bank import plug-in. You can get a trial version of the plugin or you can buy a licence. For getting a trail or a licence you have to go to our web shop. If you have purchased a licence or requested for a trail you can collect the licence codes immediately. Follow the steps of the manual Plugin activation to retrieve your licence codes.  After getting the licence code you will be able to work with the Bank import Plug-in.
Also it may be desirable to create a new bank account. To adjust your accounts, we refer to our E-book (Dutch). 

Conditions for working with this manual of the Bank import plugin

There are some conditions to make working with this manual easier.  

•    There has to be knowledge of retrieving bank statements from het Internet. 
•    The theme of the software has to be on “Classic”. (explained in heading 'Theme setting')

•    The settings of bank account(s) need to be checked. (explained in heading 'Settings of the bank account(s)')

Theme setting

This manual uses the 'Classic' theme. Therefor we reccomend to set your osFinancials software to this theme. For setting your theme to 'Classic' (or check if it is on 'Classic'), go to tab "Setup".
Then cick the button "Setup". Choose "Theme" from the pop-up list. Check or put the theme 'Classic'.

 

 Settings of the bank book(s)

First we will check the settings of the Bank book.  Open the Bank entry by clicking on the Cash/Bank entry icon (  )  in the starting bar. Then choose the ‘Bank account’ you want to import your payment information from the Internet. In this manual we will use ‘Current Bank A/C’. 

 

 Open this bank account by clicking the 'Open' button. The pop-up screen below will appear. 

 

Click on the 'Setup' icoon ( )  . The next screen will open. Check the following items: 
- The contra account is the number of your bank account in your ledger.

- The check mark "No TAX'  should be 'on'.

 

Then click on the "Advanced" tab and accept the settings as below.

Click on "OK" if the settings are entered correctly. The settings screen will close. 

 

 Different ways of keeping track of your bank transactions

You can keep track of your bank bookings in different ways, in this manual we will discuss the 2 most common ones.

1) Statement method, where you make your bookings per statement from the bank.

Benefits :
• You have a good check of the balances: the final amounts on the statement.

Cons :
• The bank balances are not "up to date", you always fall behind "today" depending on the shear frequency.
• It is possible that there are 2 statements with the same date
• In the download, you will always download all bookings from that date
• These "extra" bookings must be deleted either before importing, or immediately after the import in the screen for assigning the reference

 

2) Date method, in which you record the bookings by date.

Benefits :
• The bank balances are "up to date", you are one day behind today.
• No corrections on downloads, with bookings of the same date appearing on 2 statements.

Cons :
• None as far as known.
Enter cash / bank details according to the "statement method"
You prepare statement no. 1 to verify the data.
You now have 2 options for entering the transactions:
1) You can download the statement and process it electronically via electronic banking.
2) You can enter the statement manually.

Working with the bank import plugin

Now all settings are checked/set correctly, transactions can be imported with the bank import plug-in.
Click on the "Bank Import statements"  icon. The pop-up screen below will appear.

 

The "File type" indicates what kind of file will be imported. The type of file downloaded is different for each bank. Sometime several type of file can be downloaded by one bank. In this example, a MT940 file from the INGBank (a Dutch bank) is used. So the file type comes on: INT-MT940 (general format). The 'File type'  ill be set on: INT-MT940 (general format).

NB: If your file type is not in the list of File type, you can sent a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the request of programming your file into the bank import plugin. 

 

Then click on "Import"

 

 

Now the right file has to been searched en need to ben imported. With the installation of
osFinancials an example bank statement  “Afschrift.940” is included. You can find this file in the folder.

Click on "Open". 

 

 

With clicking on the "Open" button, the bank import plugin will import the transaction included. The bank import plug-in now shows the transactions that are in this file.

Check here if the transactions are correct. If a transaction is incorrect, this can be removed with thebutton "delete rule". If a line is yellow, there is a change this transaction has already been imported into a previous import. Check this transaction carefully!

 

 Explanation screen 

Delete line	This removes a line with is selected. For example if it has been imported before.
Splits	With this button, an amount can be split, for example, if one amount has been paid, but there are two VAT rates or one debtor payed for several other invoices. (read more about splitting further in this manual)
Merge	With this button amounts can be merged, for example if two payments are actually one invoice
Statement reference	The reference is entered here, so that the payment can easily be retrieved later. Entering the statement reference it is not necessary for continue booking
Apply	With the apply button, the reference is adjusted.

If all statements are correct, click on "Close". The screen below is displayed. In this screen you can see a statement(s) has been imported. Click “Close” again to actually record the transactions in osFinancials.

 

  

  This closes the bank import plug-in and returns to osFinancials. The transactions that were in the import have now been put in osFinancials.

   

Allocating debtors / creditors / ledgers to the transactions

In the next step each transaction must be specified with an account (debtor / creditor / ledger) wich belongs to the transaction. 
This account can be allocated in the account column. There are different ways to link a transaction to an account.

1. The account is looked up by account name.
2. The account is looked up by looking up the corresponding document
3. The account is entered automatically, because it is linked to the (bank) account number (f.e. the debtor is entered because the debtor himself and his / her bank account are linked)

1. The account is looked up by account name:
Click on the transaction where the account is to be found. It is possible to enter part of the account name to find the account.

It is also possible to search using the arrow. In the example below, the account 'Vehicles Cost' is assigned.

 

2. The account is looked up by searching for the corresponding document.
Note: This way of allocating account to the transaction is only possible if there is a document (invoice / quotation / credit note / purchase / return shipment / order). 
If the transaction belongs to a journal entry, this option cannot be used.

Right-click on the line to be linked. This creates a pop-up screen. In this pop-up screen, choose "Lookup document" or 'Lookup document with amount".
With the first option, the document screen will be opened and the correct document can be searched for.
With the second option, the program searches for a document with a corresponding amount.

In this example below, an invoice to “Painting company Smits” is linked to the transaction by using 'Look up document with amount'.

This document has already been created. When the document screen is opened, double-click on the correct document to link this document with associated debtor to this transaction.

With the double-click also the match screen immediately opens and the transaction can be directly matched. (Read more about this in the osF manual)

Note: Make sure you work in the correct "list". The correct document (invoice / purchase etc) and the status 'processed / unprocessed'. 

 

3. The account is filled in automatically because it is linked to the bank account number.
It is also possible to link an account number to debtors/creditor/ledger account.
With this, transactions in the bank import are directly linked to the correct account. This linking can be done in several ways:

1. If the number of the bank account of a debtor or creditor is known, this can be entered into the details of the relevant debtor/ledger/creditor.
    osFinancials will then handle transactions with the same bank account number enter the linked debtor / creditor in the "Account" column.

2. It is also possible to link a bank account from a transaction. Stand on a transaction. The account (debtor, creditor or ledger) must be entered here for the first time.
    Then click the right mouse button and choose "Link bank account". With the next transaction from this account, the account will be filled in automatically. 
   

The example below shows how to link a bank account to a debtor. In this case 'Rock Build Ltd".

First look up the debtor and allocate to the transaction. Then click the right mouse button and click 'Update bank account'.

Now the bank account number is liked to the debtor and transaction in the future will automatically be filled with the liked debtor/creditor/legder. 

 

Transfer the transactions

If all transactions are filled with the right accounts, the import can be posted. Click on the Post button .

 

The programm will close the Bach entry automatically. Now you can see the transaction wich are post into the database.

 

 

Spliting transactions

As mentioned earlier in this manual, amounts can also be "split". This can be useful if there is one amount in the statement, but there are several VAT rates linked to it or one amount contains multiple invoices.

For spliting a transaction, click on the amount to be split. Then click on the "Split" button

.

 The amount can then be split in the desired way by entering the amount and clicking on 'Ok'. osFinancials itself calculates the "remaining amount"

 

In the image below, the amount is split into £ 50,00 and £ 115,52

Click 'Close' to insert the transactions.

  

Merge transactions

As mentioned earlier in this manual, amounts can also be "merged". This can be useful when there are multiple payments in the statement that belong to one invoice.

First choose on the lines to be merged. This can be done using the Ctrl key. Then click on the "Merge" button.

The example below shows two amounts being merged into one amount.

 Click 'Close' to insert the transactions.

Supported formats

BE	Fortis bank	Comma separated
BE	ING	Comma separated
BE	KCB
BE	KCB	Comma separated
BE	Paypal
BE	Recordbank	Comma separated
NL	ABN-AMRO	Tab delimited
NL	Afterpay
NL	Fortis bank	Tab delimited
NL	Frieslandbank	Comma separated
NL	Icepay
NL	iDeal	Comma separated	Download from Dashboard
NL	iDeal	Comma separated	Email from dashboard (rapport)
NL	ING	Comma separated
NL	Mastercard Creditcard	TSV
NL	MCG		New
NL	MT940	General format
NL	MT940	General format	On booking date
NL	MT940 Rabobank
NL	MT940 SNS bank
NL	MT940 Triodos bank
NL	Multi Safe pay	MT940 (General format)
NL	Paypal
NL	Postbank	Comma separated
NL	Postbank	Comma separated	New
NL	Rabobank	Comma separated	Fixed length
NL	Rabobank	Comma separated	ideal payment id
UK	HSBC
UNIVERSAL	Moneybookers
UNIVERSAL	OFC [Open Financial Connectivity file]
UNIVERSAL	OFX [Open Financial eXchange]
UNIVERSAL	QIF [Quicken Interchange Format]
UNIVERSAL	Simple comma seperated	Comma separated
USA	Paypal