Bank Feed
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      Bank Feed Transactions

      How to download, link, or create bank feed transactions

      The optional Bank Feed feature allows the user to download bank transactions into EBMS. Periodic downloads from a credit card account can save a lot of data entry. Expense invoices, journal entries, and other documents are conveniently created using the information downloaded from the bank.

      This article contains instructions for downloading bank transactions, connecting them to EBMS transactions, and creating any missing transactions.

      Open the Bank Feed feature by selecting Financials > Bank and Manual Feed from the main EBMS menu. If the optional bank feed module is not available in the user's version of EBMS, the following message will appear: "The EBMS Bank Feed module securely downloads banking transactions from your financial institutions, with a guided matching process to reconcile with your EBMS transactions. Please contact your EBMS Account Manager to request this module."

      If the module is available, the Bank Feed page will open. (See image below.) For a selected Bank Account, Bank Transactions and Unlinked EBMS Transactions are displayed in separate tables on the same page.

      Jump to: Bank Feed Transaction Connections | Downloading Bank Transactions | Linking Multiple Bank Transactions to Multiple EBMS Transactions | Creating Missing Transactions

      Bank Feed Connection Information

      The Bank Feed dialog attempts to import bank transactions each time the dialog is opened. The import is based on the Bank Feed Connection information. To set up the bank feed connection information, go to Expenses > Bank Accounts and select a bank account. Double-click on the account in the list to open the Bank Account record and fill out the Bank Feed Connection fields on the General tab. This will require the API Token, User, and Last Download.

      A bank feed can be configured for multiple bank accounts.  Review Configuring Bank Feed and Plaid Integration to configure a bank account connection. The first-time transactions are downloaded from a specific bank account.

      Downloading Transactions

      The goal of this process is to download and match all bank transactions with the EBMS transactions. Transactions are matched using one of the following states:

      •  Has Matches: Some of the transaction information matches. This state is a link recommendation for the user.

      •  Linked: The link between transactions has been verified. The bank transaction and EBMS transaction are linked to each other.

      •  Duplicate: This represents a duplicate transaction.

      • Plain text: The transaction has been downloaded but not matched.

      Complete the following steps to download bank transactions from the company’s financial institution online bank account:

      1. Open the Bank Feed dialog by selecting Financials > Bank and Manual Feed from the main EBMS menu. If this module is available, the following Bank Feed page will open.

      2. Select the desired Bank Account. The Bank Feed will download existing bank transactions from the selected account since the Last Download date or the Last Reconcile Date.

      3. Click the Update List button to refresh the download. Review Reconciling a Bank Account for steps to view or change the Last Reconcile Date.

      4. Highlight a bank transaction and click the Transaction Details button to view the detailed transaction description downloaded from the bank. Some of the helpful information fields in this description include account_id, amount, authorized_date, check_number, merchant_name, pending, and transaction_id. All of these fields help the user understand and identify a specific bank transaction.

        BF Transaction Details

      5. Click Source or Find in List to locate a matching EBMS transaction to link to the bank transaction.

      6. Scroll through transactions and match Bank Transactions in the upper table with matching Unlinked EBMS Transactions in the lower table.  Select both transactions using a mouse and click Link to associate transactions and turn them green.  Linked EBMS transactions are removed from the lower pane. Click the Open Reconciliation button to view linked EBMS transactions.

      7. Do not use the Skip button unless a bank transaction must be removed. The user should link all Bank Feed transactions to verify that all EBMS transactions exist and match the bank.

      8. Click the Create New Transaction button if an EBMS transaction is missing. (Continue with the next section for instructions to create missing transactions.)

      9. Transactions that are selected within the bank account reconciliation will not show on the bottom pane. Click Open Reconciliation to view the selected bank account reconciliation transactions.

        Note: The Bank Feed process should not be used to reconcile bank accounts. Review Reconciling a Bank Account for instructions to reconcile a bank statement with EBMS.

      Linking Multiple to Multiple Transactions

      The need to link many bank feed transactions to a single EBMS transaction or a single bank feed transaction to multiple EBMS transactions may happen in the following scenarios:

      • One bank transaction to Multiple EBMS transactions
        • The company made 3 credit card sales yesterday.
        • The company's credit card processor disbursed the three payments in one transaction.
        • The transactions look like this:
          • Payment 1 to account 01100-000 from a sale of 2,300.
          • Payment 2 to account 01100-000 from a sale of 1,200.
          • Payment 3 to account 01100-000 from a sale of 3,400.
          • A single deposit from the credit card processor to the bank: 6,900.
      • Multiple bank transactions to one EBMS transaction
        • An Amazon purchase was made which created multiple credit card charges when items ship separately on an order. A single expense invoice was made when the purchase was made, and you want to match up all the payments once the order has shipped in full.

      Complete the following steps to link multiple transactions together:

      1. Open the Bank Feed dialog. If the Selected column does not show up on the list, right-click on the header line to see which columns are available. Make sure the Selected column name is highlighted in both tables.
        ​Bank-Feed-Multiple-transactions

      2. Expose the Selected column in the Bank Transactions list.  Review Column, Tab, and Dialog Appearance for steps to show or hide a column.

      3. Expose the Selected column in the Unlinked EBMS Transactions list.

      4. Select one or more transactions on each list and click the Link button to the right of the Bank Transactions table.

      5. The transaction totals must match in order to link.  If the bank transactions and EBMS transactions do not match, a message will appear requiring identical amounts.
        ​Bank-Feed-Mulitiple-Warning

      Creating Missing Transactions

      Various transactions may be missing from a Bank Feed. Complete the following steps to create transactions to match the existing Bank Feed transactions:

      1. Click the Create New Transaction button to the right of the Bank Transactions table.

      2. Select one of the payment types:

        • Payment to Vendors: This option will create an expense invoice and apply a vendor payment.

        • Payment to Loans: This option will create an expense invoice and apply a vendor payment.

        • Payment from/to Customer: This option will create a sales invoice and apply a customer payment.

        • Bank Charge (Debit)

        • Bank Interest (Credit)

        • Transfer

        • Petty Cash

      3. Enter the additional payment information needed to create the payment transaction.

        Enter the Vendor or Customer, Payment Type, and Control No. that will be copied to the invoice.

      4. Enable the View Invoice After option to show the invoice after it has been created and payment applied.

      5. Click either Create New Inv & Apply Payment or Apply to an Existing Invoice to create the payment and open the invoice.  Review Processing an Expense Invoice or Processing a Sales Invoice for more details.

      6. Repeat for additional missing EBMS transactions.