How to reconcile your bank transactions

Reconciling is how you tell Prosaic what each transaction in your bank account was for: what it was, and whether GST applies. Prosaic brings your transactions in from your bank feed and suggests a category for most of them, so for most transactions you only need to check and confirm. Your accountant uses this to prepare your GST returns and your end-of-year accounts.

This guide is for clients whose accountant has given them Standard User access. If you can't see Transactions in the left-hand menu, ask your accountant to check your access.

• Find the transactions to reconcile
• Choose a category and tax rate
• How suggestions work
• Reconcile lots of transactions at once
• Split a transaction
• Attach files, add comments and tag your accountant
• Match receipts to transactions
• Match customer payments to your invoices
• Fix a mistake: undo, recode or reverse
• Keyboard shortcuts

Find the transactions to reconcile

Select Transactions in the left-hand menu. There are two tabs in the top right:

• Unreconciled: transactions still waiting for you. The orange number is how many are left.
• Reconciled: transactions you or your accountant have already done.

Each row shows the date, description and amount from your bank, followed by Prosaic's suggested Account (the category) and Tax rate. Money out is shown in red, money in in green.

If you have more than one business or bank account, use the business and bank account pickers above the table to choose which transactions you see.

Choose a category and tax rate

1. Choose the account

Click the Account cell on a row. The list opens with Prosaic's Suggestions at the top, followed by all the accounts your accountant has set up for you, grouped into income, expenses and so on. Start typing to search, for example phone  or fuel .

Hover over the ⓘ beside an account to see what it's used for. If none of them seem right, leave the transaction and ask your accountant using a comment (see below).

2. Check the tax rate

Prosaic fills in the tax rate for you based on the account you chose. Click the Tax cell to change it.

For a New Zealand GST-registered business, the options are:

• 15% GST on Expenses: most purchases from NZ businesses that charged you GST. If the receipt shows a GST number and GST amount, this is the one.
• 15% GST on Income: most sales to NZ customers.
• No GST: things GST doesn't apply to, such as bank fees, interest, wages, loan repayments, transfers between your own accounts, and most overseas subscriptions (for example software billed in US dollars).
• Zero-rated GST: mainly goods you export. Check with your accountant before using it.

3. Click OK

Click OK at the end of the row (or press Enter). The transaction moves to the Reconciled tab, and a message confirms what you chose with an Undo button in case you made a mistake.

How suggestions work

Prosaic suggests an account and tax rate for each transaction. The coloured dot in the ✨ column tells you how confident it is:

• Green dot: high confidence. Usually safe to accept.
• Yellow dot: medium confidence. Worth a quick check.
• Red dot: low confidence. Check carefully.
• Grey dot: no suggestion. You'll need to choose the account yourself.
• Rule badge: one of your accountant's rules matched (see below).
• Invoice or Match badge: Prosaic found an invoice or a receipt that matches (see invoices and receipts).

Click the dot or badge to see why Prosaic suggested that account. Suggestions come from three places.

AI suggestions

For a transaction Prosaic hasn't seen before, AI reads the description and amount and makes its best guess, with a short explanation.

Learning from what you've already done

Every time you reconcile, Prosaic remembers it. The next time a similar transaction comes through, for example your monthly phone bill, it suggests the same account and shows the earlier transactions it's based on. The more you reconcile, the more of these high-confidence suggestions you'll see.

After you reconcile a transaction, Prosaic also looks for others like it that are still waiting. If it finds any, select Show me to review them, or Reconcile to … to code them all the same way in one go.

Rules

Rules are set up by your accountant. A rule says, for example, "anything from BP goes to Motor Vehicle Expenses". When a rule matches, you'll see a blue Rule badge, and clicking it shows which rule applied.

If you find yourself coding the same thing the same way every month, ask your accountant to create a rule for it.

Reconcile lots of transactions at once

Use groups

The Groups strip above the table bundles similar suggestions together, for example all transactions suggested as Subscriptions. Click a group to show just those transactions, check them, then reconcile them together. You can hide the strip with the ✕ and bring it back later.

Select several rows

Tick the checkbox at the start of each row you want (hold Shift to select a range, or press ⌘ + A / Ctrl + A to select everything). A bar appears at the bottom of the screen:

• Reconcile … selected accepts the account and tax rate already showing on each row.
• Actions lets you give them all the same account (Reconcile to…), split them all the same way (Bulk split), or add one comment to all of them.

Split a transaction

Split a transaction when one payment covers more than one thing. For example, a single shop receipt that's partly stationery and partly a client gift, or a phone bill that's half business and half personal.

1. Click the transaction to open its details panel, then select Split.
2. Use a Common splits shortcut such as Half (50%), or select Add Line and enter the amounts yourself.
3. Choose an account and tax rate for each line. You can also give each line its own description.
4. Check Amounts are is set to Tax inclusive if the amounts you entered include GST (they usually do, because that's what came out of your bank).
5. When the total matches the bank amount, select Split Transaction and Reconcile. If it doesn't add up, Prosaic shows how much you're out by.

Attach files, add comments and tag your accountant

Click any transaction to open its details panel on the right. From here you can:

• Attach a file: select Attach file to drag in a receipt or invoice, or to choose one you've already uploaded. Files can be up to 20 MB.
• Add a comment: type in the comment box at the bottom and select Comment. You can paste or drop files straight into a comment too.
• Tag your accountant: type @ and start typing their name, then pick them from the list. They'll be notified, and their reply will appear on the transaction and on your Activity page.

Match receipts to transactions

Instead of attaching receipts one at a time, you can upload them all to Files and let Prosaic match them for you.

1. Go to Files and select Upload files, or drag files onto the page. PDFs and images (JPEG, PNG) are accepted.
2. Prosaic reads each receipt and looks for a bank transaction with the same amount and a similar date.
3. When it finds one, the transaction shows a Match badge. Click it to see the matched receipt, then select Attach. You can also attach suggested matches from the Attached to column on the Files page.

Email your receipts to Prosaic

Each business in Prosaic has its own email address. Anything you email or forward there is added to that business's Files and matched in the same way, which is handy for receipts that arrive by email.

1. Go to Files and select Copy forwarding address. If you have more than one business, choose which one.
2. Forward receipts and invoices to that address, or save it as a contact in your email.

The address looks like your-business-name-a3f8b21c4e7d9012@inbound.prosaic.works . Attachments can be up to 20 MB each, as PDF, JPEG or PNG. Files you email in show Via email in the Uploaded by column.

Match customer payments to your invoices

If you send invoices from Prosaic, money your customers pay you should be matched to the invoice rather than coded to an income account. That marks the invoice as paid, and the sale isn't counted twice (it was already recorded when you created the invoice).

When a payment matches an outstanding invoice, Prosaic shows an Invoice badge and the invoice number in the Account column. In most cases you can just click OK.

To check the match first, or to choose a different invoice:

1. Click the transaction to open its details panel. The Invoice section shows the matched invoice, how much is owing and what this payment will leave.
2. If the match is wrong, select Clear match, then use Search all outstanding invoices to find the right one by invoice number or customer.
3. If one payment covers several invoices, tick each of them. You can change the amount applied to each one.
4. Select Reconcile at the bottom of the panel.

A few things to know:

• Part payments: if the customer paid less than they owe, Prosaic records a part payment and the rest stays owing on the invoice.
• Overpayments: if they paid more than they owe, the extra is kept as credit for that customer and can be used against a later invoice.
• The account and GST come from the invoice itself. To change them, edit the invoice rather than the transaction.

Fix a mistake: undo, recode or reverse

Straight away: select Undo in the message that appears after you click OK.

Later: go to the Reconciled tab and find the transaction. You have two options.

Recode: change the account or tax rate

Change the Account or Tax on the row, then select Recode. You can add an optional note to explain the change. To recode several at once, tick them and use Recode in the bar at the bottom.

Reverse: send it back to Unreconciled

Select Reverse to undo the reconciliation completely. The transaction goes back to the Unreconciled tab so you can do it again, for example to split it or match it to an invoice instead. You can add a reason, which your accountant will see.

Keyboard shortcuts

Select Shortcuts at the bottom of the Transactions page to see them all. The most useful are:

• Enter: reconcile the row you're on
• +: copy the account and tax rate from the row above, and move down
• S: split the transaction
• ⌘ + Enter / Ctrl + Enter: reconcile everything you've selected
• ⌘ + K / Ctrl + K: open the actions menu
• ⌘ + F / Ctrl + F: search

Need help? If you're not sure how to code something, the quickest way is to comment on the transaction and tag your accountant. For anything else, use the 💬 help button in Prosaic or email help@prosaic.works.