Bank Statement Import - Accounting and banking

The bank's own record of your account, brought in from the statement so it can be matched against what you have posted. It is kept apart from your own entries on purpose, because reconciling means putting the two side by side.

When to use it

Whenever a statement arrives and before you reconcile that account. For most people that is once a month.

Before you start

The account must exist in your Chart of Accounts as a Bank Account or a Bank Overdraft. Only those two kinds are offered here.
Have the statement as a spreadsheet with a heading row.
You need rights to create records here. The Import button above the list appears only if you have them.

Where to find it

Entry > Reconciliation > Bank Statement Import.

The fields on this screen

Field (on screen)	What to enter	Required
Bank Ledger	The bank account this statement line belongs to.	Yes
Date	Statement date. The matcher scores a +/-5 day window against the voucher date.	Yes
Cheque No	The matcher's only DEFINITIVE rule - an exact cheque/reference match wins outright.	No
Reference	Bank reference. Also used for grouping split entries.	No
Debit	Money OUT of the bank account.	No
Credit	Money INTO the bank account.	No
Description	Statement narration. Fuzzy-matched against voucher notes.	No

How it works

You can type lines one at a time, but the normal route is the Import button above the list. It takes the spreadsheet and lets you say which heading is the date, the amount, the cheque number and the description. It then shows you exactly what would be written, and writes nothing until you agree.
Debit is money out of the account and Credit is money in. That is the bank's wording, the opposite of your own books. If you get it the wrong way round, nothing will match.
Every line needs its bank account and its date. A line with no account is invisible to the reconciliation. A line with no date can only ever be matched on its amount.
Once the lines are in, go to the Reconciliation screen, choose the same account and the period, and run the match. An exact cheque or reference number match is decided outright. Everything else is scored on the amount, how close the dates are, and how well the statement wording fits your own note.
Confirming a match is what settles it. The statement line is marked reconciled. If the line paid a cheque, that cheque is marked cleared at the same moment, with the clearing date taken from this statement.
If a file was wrong, use Undo on the import result. It takes the whole batch back out, which is cleaner than deleting rows one by one.

Tips and common mistakes

If the bank gives you a cheque number column, map it. It is the only thing that settles a match on its own; without it, every line has to be scored.
Dates must be real dates written year, month, day. If a statement uses another order, correct it in the spreadsheet before you import.
Import one account at a time, and check the account picker before you commit. That is far easier than unpicking a batch that landed on the wrong account.
Reconciled lines stay for good, so last year's reconciliation can still be read.

Reconciliation (where the matching is done), Party Ledger Import, Cheque Clearance, Cash / Bank Account and the Bank Statement report.