Banking & Reconciliation

Who can use this: Owner, Manager, Accountant. URL / Route: Bank accounts under Chart of Accounts; reconciliation under /finance/banking. Statement import: feature:tracker.import_bank_statements. Bank rules: feature:tracker.transaction_rules_auto_categorization. Permissions: banking.view, banking.reconcile, banking.import, banking.rules.manage.

Purpose

Banking keeps your Solabooks cash and bank balances in step with reality. You import or enter bank statement lines, match them to transactions already in the books, categorise the rest, and run a reconciliation so the book balance and the statement balance agree.

Step by step

Bank accounts

A bank account in Solabooks is a Chart of Accounts entry of type Bank or Cash. Create one in Chart of Accounts. Each carries its own balance and feeds the Bank Summary and Cash Summary reports.

Import a bank statement

Feature: tracker.import_bank_statements. Permission: banking.import.

1. Open Banking ▸ Import statement.
2. Pick the bank account and upload the statement file (CSV / common bank export formats).
3. Map the file's columns to date, description, amount, and reference.
4. Review the parsed lines and confirm the import. Imported lines land in the bank account's review queue.

Bank rules — auto-categorisation

Feature: tracker.transaction_rules_auto_categorization. Permission: banking.rules.manage.

Bank rules match incoming statement lines by description, amount, or reference and automatically assign an account, contact, or category. Set them up under Settings ▸ Bank Rules so repeated transactions (bank fees, standing transfers) categorise themselves on every import.

Reconcile

Permission: banking.reconcile.

1. Open the bank account's Reconcile screen.
2. Enter the statement's closing date and closing balance.
3. Tick each statement line against its matching book transaction. Solabooks suggests matches.
4. For unmatched lines, create the missing transaction (a payment, expense, or transfer) on the spot.
5. When the difference reaches zero, finish the reconciliation. The period is marked reconciled.

The Reconciliation Status and Reconciliation Discrepancies reports show progress and any gaps.

Common mistakes

• Duplicate import. Re-uploading a statement that overlaps a prior import creates duplicate lines. Solabooks flags suspected duplicates by matching on date + amount + reference. Skip the flagged ones rather than re-importing the whole file.
• "Statement balance is off by an unposted draft." Drafts don't count toward the book balance. If your reconciliation difference looks like a specific draft document, post it (or void it) before finishing.
• Wrong bank rule fired. Bank rules run in order. If a high-priority rule mis-categorised a line, edit the rule's conditions or re-order rules in Settings → Bank Rules.
• Source-kind filter on Payments. When matching statement lines, open Payments with the Source kind filter set to All — otherwise you may not see the receipt / payment you're trying to match.
• Multi-currency bank account. Imports must be in the bank account's currency. The statement's base-currency conversion is computed at line save time using the rate on the import date — confirm via Multi-currency.

Tips

• Set up bank rules for recurring lines (bank fees, payroll outflows, standing transfers) so they auto-categorise on every future import.
• Reconcile monthly, not yearly. Catching a discrepancy in last month's statement is much easier than tracing one across the whole year.
• The Reconciliation Status report under Reports tells you which months are reconciled and which still have gaps.

Behaviour and rules

• Reconciliation does not post journals — it confirms existing transactions. Creating a missing transaction during reconciliation does post.
• Import is non-destructive. Imported lines sit in a queue until you match or categorise them; nothing hits the GL on import alone.
• Period locks still apply to any transaction you create while reconciling.

Related

• Chart of Accounts — bank accounts are CoA entries of type Bank / Cash.
• Payments — match imported statement lines against payment rows.
• Bills, Invoices, Expenses — source documents for the transactions you're matching.
• Multi-currency — foreign-currency bank accounts and FX on import.
• Settings — bank-rule configuration.
• Reports — Bank Summary, Cash Flow, Reconciliation Status, Reconciliation Discrepancies.