Contents

OVERVIEW
-What is Online Banking?
-Does My Bank Do This?
-How Does It Work?
PREPARING TO IMPORT YOUR BANK TRANSACTIONS
-Checking the Set-up
-Transaction Reference Generator
-Automatic Processing
-Coding your Cheques
-Pre-coding Automatic Payments
-Pre-coding EFTPOS Transactions
IMPORTING YOUR BANK TRANSACTION DATA
-Transaction list
-Bank Code defaults
-Payee / Payer Code Edit

Transaction Import is one of the most exciting aspects of EasyBooks.  This is the feature that allows you to link with BankLink or an On-line Internet Banking System.

Online Banking is the ability to pay bills electronically and to receive the details on your bank statement electronically.  This importing of transaction data is called Transaction Import.  Internet Banking allows you to download transactions.

It involves two parts (1) the Transaction Import function in EasyBooks and (2) software from your bank to provide the dial-up communication.

All the major banks offer an online banking service.

Some banks also offer Internet Banking. While the Transaction Import function can operate with many of the Internet Banks they have not yet provided an option to import direct credit batches via Internet Banks. As E-banking is developing very fast we suggest you discuss the latest available software with your bank before making too many plans in this area.

• You download your transactions from the bank using their On-line or Internet Banking system.
• From within EasyBooks you import the transactions and process them as they display on screen.
• Some banks offer code boxes on cheques and deposit forms. This means you can pre-code your transactions as you write out cheques and complete deposits.
• Even automatic payments and direct credits and debits can be pre-coded so that a very high percentage of your transaction need not be changed or further processed by you.
• EasyBooks also has a system for linking the banks own Transaction codes for chequebook fees etc so the all transaction can be automatically processed as you import them into EasyBooks Cashbook.
• The Internet Banking Downloads do not always include all the payee and payer coding options that are available within the NZ Banking System.
• PC Banking System usually always includes the code for payees and payers as well as BankLink.

This section describes the use of EasyBooks to import the details of your bank statement electronically.  To do this you must have either of the following system or services established:
On-line Banking - a PC Software System Supplied by most major Trading Banks
Internet Banking - now provided by all major Trading Banks
BankLink Services - this service can usually be arranged via your accountant
For details regarding On-line or Internet Banking please contact your Bank.
For details regarding BankLink please contact your Accountant.
Download your transaction information from your banks web site and save to a known folder, or to a disk.  The information must be in .csv (comma separated values) format,  If you need help with this, contact your bank.

In order to import the transaction details from the bank’s software you should check your set up within EasyBooks.
To do this, choose Select Source from Transaction Import from the Transaction menu on the Cashbook menu.

The system will display the following screen.

In this screen you must

• Specify the type of bank software you are using.
• Specify your bank account number.
• Turn the Transaction Reference Generator on or off.
• Turn Automatic Processing on or off.

When you are importing transactions into EasyBooks you will come across some which don’t have a reference number e.g. Bank Fees.  In these cases switching Transaction Reference Generator on will allow EasyBooks to create a reference number for the transaction. 

As you import transactions you can choose to review each one or if you switch Automatic Processing on it will cause EasyBooks to process each transaction without stopping.  EasyBooks will only stop on a transaction if it requires any further information.

If you set the Automatic Reference Generator to ON and set the Automatic Processing to On, you must be very careful and ensure that you do not inadvertently import the same transactions twice as the system will create new references for the duplicated transactions. Therefore, you should ensure that: You always have a current backup before starting to import the transactions The start date of your transaction import is consistent with the end date of your existing processed transactions.

In order for your cheques to be processed automatically you need to provide a Payee Code on the cheque when you write it.
Some banks can provide you with cheques with Code Boxes printed on them.  When you write the cheque you are allowed to write a 4-digit numeric Payee Code in the box.  When the bank processes the cheque it enters the code into your statement information.  Therefore when you import your bank statement information into EasyBooks the payee code is included and your cheques can be automatically processed.

In the same way automatic payments and direct debits should be set up with a numeric Payee Code to appear in the Code column on your bank statement.
When specifying this you should ensure that the code is aligned to the right and does not contain leading zeros.

Likewise EFTPOS transactions (ie sales) can be pre-coded so that they will automatically process when your bank statement details are imported.  This is done by setting up the Payee Code to appear on your bank statement directly into the EFTPOS machine.  If you would like further information regarding this either contact your bank or the EFTPOS helpdesk. If you set up EFTPOS merchants as Payees with exactly the same name that appears on your bank statement then EasyBooks will recognise the Merchant name and process the transaction as if it was a pre-coded cheque.

Before you can import your transaction data into EasyBooks you need to get the transactions from the bank using your bank’s software.  Having done so you need to save these transactions in a file suitable for EasyBooks to import. For Internet Banking this is usually a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file format.

Once you have saved the details to a file you can start to import them in to EasyBooks.  To do this, choose Import Transactions from Transaction Import from the Transactions menu on the Cashbook main screen.
The system will now ask you to specify where the transactions you want to import are.
You should use this screen to specify the location of the transaction file that you saved when using the bank’s software.
When you have selected the transaction file click the Open button.
The system will now display the Import Transactions screen and begin to process the transactions.
If you have turned on Automatic Processing then the system will automatically process through the transactions.  It will only stop if it finds a transaction where it requires some of the information for the transaction.
If you do find any transactions that are missing information then simply fill in the relative piece of information as if you were entering the transaction manually through Bank Statement Transactions.

As you process through the transactions you have the option to click OK to process this transaction, Skip to skip this particular transaction and Abort to halt the process.

In order that you can pre-determine how complete the pre-coding of your transactions are you can print out a listing of the bank transaction before you complete the Transaction Import.

As shown on the above menu we have also provided a system for users to link the banking system Trans Codes which all banks use with your usual ledger code for such bank initiated transactions as bank charges, interest and cheque book fees.

This function will enable you to edit the analysis or Payee / Payer codes included in the transaction data down loaded from your PC, Internet or BankLink Service. Select the download file to be edited. Enter your Payee or Payer codes, which can be selected by pressing F3 to display a code list.
If you have set up Ledger Code Defaults against the Bank Transaction Codes then the transactions will not need to be edited and will be greyed out.
For more information on Bank Transaction Codes please refer to the Bank Code Defaults Menu.
If the Payee Code is set up, the system will match and display the name of the Payee and the default ledger code(s) that the Payee is linked to.  New Payee details can be added by pressing F4 after typing the new Payee code into the Payee column on the Edit Transaction screen.  This will display the Payee Maintenance screen with the contents of the Other Party Name from the downloaded transaction.  You should adopt these details as the name for transaction recognition.

If your Payee Code field is blank on a Transaction Import, you can have EasyBooks remember a code so that the next time you download a file the Payee Code field will be automatically filled in.  This is helpful when you are importing transactions from a regular source, eg: bank charges or a utilities company.
To set up the codes, complete your import as usual.  When you get to the Transaction Edit screen, click into the blank field and type a code.  Press the F4 key to go to the Add Payee or Payer Memorisation screen.
You will see that the Other Party Name and your code are automatically loaded onto the screen, fill in any other details such as ledger codes and click on Update.
Once you have finished typing in your codes click on Import to complete the transaction process.  The next time you Import a transaction file, your Payee Code fields should automatically populate.

If the information in the Other Party Name or Particulars field varies, you may be able to achieve a better result by using a wild card, (a keyboard character that will be replaced with any characters or number of characters in your Other Party Name text), in the Name Field of the Payee Maintenance screen.  For example, if your company has an EFTPOS card, which is used, at various Shell stations, you could set up a Payee Code SHELL and in the Name field type SHELL?
Any transaction that contains the word SHELL in the Other Party Name field will be automatically processed.