Create bank rules

Use bank rules with bank accounts connected to a bank feed or when you import a statement.
Create bank rules before or after receiving transactions via a bank feed or statement import.
Manage bank rules any time from a centralized location on the Banking page.

Create bank rules

Before receiving transactions

Select Banking, and then select:

Manage bank rules. To open the Bank Rules page, showing rules for all accounts.

or a

Actions, Manage bank rules. In the bottom right-hand corner of a specific account to open the Bank Rules page, showing rules for only that account.

If necessary, select an account in the Bank accounts field. Select Create rule.
Enter a name for the rule and select whether it applies to Payments (money paid out) or Receipts (money coming in).
Select Activate this rule when saving to make the rule active. If you decided not to use this rule later, deselect this option to deactivate it.
Set the conditions that the bank transaction must have to match the rule.
Set the transaction details to tell Accounting Start how to create a transaction.

After receiving transactions

On the Incoming Transactions page:

Select Rules, and then New rule.

or
Select Create a rule on a transaction. The transaction details will automatically display in the corresponding fields on the New rule window.

Give the rule a Name and specify whether it's used for Payments(money paid out) or Receipts (money coming in).
Review and if needed, edit the rule and then select Save.

Explanation of fields

More information about the fields on the Create Rule window.

Field	Description
Conditions
Field	Choose the information that you want to use to recognize the imported transaction. This could be the Reference and Date or Reference and Amount for example.
Value	Set the conditions to use and the value you want to match such as the amount of transaction.
Equals	The imported transaction will have to exactly match the values. Use this for transaction such as direct debits where the amount or reference never changes.
Contains	The imported transaction will only have to contain part of value you set. This is useful for reference field. For example, the reference on a transaction might contain the vendor name plus a unique number for the transaction. By using Contains, you can always match the transaction to the correct vendor.
Does not contain	You might want to use this where you want to deal with exceptions to a more general rule.
Transaction details
Transaction type	For: Bank Transfer. To avoid duplicates, you only need to set up this up in one of the bank accounts that's part of the transfer. In the other bank account, select Match against the incoming or outgoing transfer to or from the other account. Money Out and Money In. The Ledger Account and Tax rate are mandatory.
Vendor	The vendor that you paid or who paid you.
Method	The payment method of the transaction such as Credit/Debit Card or Cheque.
Reference	Optionally, enter a reference to use when creating this type of transaction.
Description	Optionally, enter a description to use when creating this type of transaction.
Ledger Account	The ledger account you want to debit or credit with the amount of this transaction.
Tax Rate	The tax rate that applies when creating this type of transaction.

When transactions are being downloaded or imported, only one bank rule is applied to each transaction. If you have only one bank rule, you don't need to worry about prioritization. However, if you have more than one, you'll need to prioritize them so that they are applied in the right order.

Your most specific bank rules should always be set to the highest priority. For example, if you have a rule where one of the conditions is set to specific amount, it should come first in the order. Bank rules with non-specific, general conditions are of lower priority.

Go to the Apply the rule in this order section.
From the Priority drop-down list, select:

First. To make this the first rule in the list, giving it top priority.
Below. If this isn't a top priority rule. Select which bank rule it should follow in the order.

Select Save.

Your new bank rules will be applied in order to transactions the next time you bring transactions in from your bank. If you have pending transactions, select Apply rules to pending transactions for the new transactions to apply them.

Apply bank rules to incoming transactions

Example bank rule

Every month, Wonderland Cakes pays $199 for their utility bill to County Utilities Company via direct debit. Since the amount and vendor are always the same, the business owner wants to set up a bank rule. This way, the transaction will be automatically created when it comes in from their business account at National Bank. Bank rules work with bank feeds and when importing a statement, so the business owner can be sure that the same transaction will be created, regardless of how it comes in.

When creating the bank rule, the business owner sets the conditions to:

Field	Values	Description
Reference	Equals	Utilities
Amount	Equals	199.00

Since it's a payment, the business owner sets the transactions details to:

Transaction type	Money Out
Vendor	Utilities
Method	Credit / Debit Card
Reference	Country Utilities Company
Description	Utilities direct debit
Ledger Account	Electricity (7200)
Tax Rate	Rate 5%

What's next?

Manage bank rules

Create bank rules