Party Ledger Import - Accounting and banking

The other party's statement of your account, loaded line by line so it can be matched against your own books.

When to use it

A customer or supplier sends you their statement and you want to agree it with your ledger. This usually happens at year end, or when a balance is disputed.

Before you start

The party's ledger must exist. If the party has more than one ledger with you, you can reconcile all of them together in one run.
Have their statement as a spreadsheet, or be ready to type the lines in.

Where to find it

Entry > Reconciliation > Party Ledger Import.

You can also reach it without leaving the reconciliation. On the Reconciliation screen, choose the party source, select exactly one ledger, and use the import button that appears.

The fields on this screen

Field (on screen)	What to enter	Required
Party Ledger	The party whose statement you are importing. Lines are matched against this account in your books.	Yes
Date	Date on the party's statement line. Your entry must fall within 7 days of it to be matched.	Yes
Reference	Bill or voucher number from the party's statement. It is compared with your own voucher number.	No
Debit	Debit as it stands on the party's statement. Their side is mirrored against your books for you.	No
Credit	Credit as it stands on the party's statement. Their side is mirrored against your books for you.	No
Narration	Description from the party's statement. It is shown when you review a match but does not decide one.	No

How it works

Load the lines. Importing from a spreadsheet walks you through Upload, matching their headings to the fields here, Preview, and then Import. The preview is not a guess: it runs the real import and then rolls it back, so what it reports is exactly what committing will do. A committed import can be undone if it was wrong. You can also type lines in by hand.
Each line records which party ledger it belongs to, its date, the party's own reference, the debit or credit, and a narration.
The matching happens on the Reconciliation screen. Choose the party source and the ledgers, then Run. Each imported line is graded against your ledger entries on amount, on date, and on whether either reference contains the other. The confident ones are proposed as matches.
You confirm the matches. A confirmed line is stamped as matched and drops off the chase list. Whatever is left unmatched on either side is the difference you take back to the party.

Tips and common mistakes

Every line needs the Party Ledger and a real date. A line with no ledger is invisible to the reconciliation. A line with no date can only be matched on amount, and that is how the wrong entries get paired.
Import from the Reconciliation screen when you can. It fills in the ledger for you (a statement file almost never has one of its own). It also re-runs the matching as soon as the import lands, so the figures on screen always reflect the new lines.
If the party keeps several ledgers with you, select all of them in one run. Their statement will not follow your split, and matching one ledger at a time leaves the rest stranded.
Load the statement for one period at a time. A statement imported twice gives the matcher two identical candidates for one entry.

Reconciliation (where the matching is run and confirmed)
Bank Statement Import, Customer Ledger, Vendor Ledger