Bank Direct Connect - Bank Rules – Accounting Seed Knowledge Base

Overview

Bank Rules allow you to control how to auto-populate fields on source records created from Bank Direct Connect (BDC) through user-defined rules. Using Bank Rules, you can set criteria that instructs the BDC system on how to perform actions on source records created from Bank Transactions. For example, in the Description field on a Bank Transaction, the same name might display with extraneous information. Using this example, a Bank Rule could be created to automatically populate the Description field with accurate data, such as a retail store account name/number.

When creating a Bank Rule, you can select to include all Financial Institution Accounts (FIAs), a subset of FIAs, or a single FIA.

A total of up to 100 Bank Rules can be active at a time.

Important: The new Bank Direct Connect (BDC) does not support the matching and auto-population of fields from the Account or from Accounting Settings any longer. All auto-population of fields is done through Bank Rules.

Best Practice: For your most common Customer/Vendor Accounts where you know the Account name should be populated on a regular basis, you might want to create Bank Rules for these Accounts.

Execute Bank Rules

Bank Rules will automatically run whenever new Bank Transactions are created in one of the following ways:

Running the Scheduled Bank Download job or imported from a financial file.
Selecting the Scheduled Bank Download job and clicking the Run Now button on the Automated Jobs screen.
Clicking the Update All button on the Bank Transactions screen.

Note: Bank Rules will run after the new transactions are added.

Bank Rules will also run whenever the Bank Transactions screen is refreshed. Therefore, if you add or edit a Bank Rule and existing transactions should be updated to reflect the rule change(s), you can refresh the page to run Bank Rules. Additionally, when a different Financial Institution Account (FIA) is selected from the drop-down list on the Bank Transactions screen, Bank Rules will run. The spinner might display while the Bank Rules are running, as in the sample screen below.

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Priority on Bank Rules

Bank Rules are executed according to user-defined prioritization. When prioritizing the Bank Rules, if a Bank Transaction meets the criteria for a Bank Rule, then that rule is applied to it and the process moves to the next Bank Transaction. This process allows for only one Bank Rule to be applied to a Bank Transaction.

Best Practice: It is recommended to set the most detailed priority Bank Rule as the first rule rather than a much broader rule. Additionally, since only one Bank Rule will be applied to a Bank Transaction, you should consolidate information on a rule as much as possible.

Bank Rules run in ascending order by priority. The lowest number entered in the Priority field will have the highest priority.

Best Practice: It is recommended that you space out the priority numbers on Bank Rules. This will leave room to adjust or add new priority numbers, if necessary. We recommend initial increments of 5 or 10 on the Bank Rules.

Conditions on Bank Rules

Conditions on a Bank Rule start with an “if” statement for the rule. You can select to include “If any” or “if all” of the conditions are met for the rule. Up to three conditions can be included on a Bank Rule. You can select up to three of the following conditions.

Description - the written statement on the transaction to indicate the source. For example, this might include the name of a pharmacy, restaurant, etc.
High-Level Category, Master Category, or Detail Category - These three tiers of categories will only display on transactions that were downloaded from our service provider. This provides the ability to leverage the category details as criteria for creating Bank Rules.
Note: Each category is considered as a separate condition.
Note: When a financial file is imported, the category fields display blank on each transaction.
Amount - the currency amount that displays on the transaction in the Amount column. Cash Receipts display in black to indicate a positive amount and Cash Disbursements display in red to indicate a negative amount. When creating a conditions statement, if you want to include all Cash Disbursements, the operator used for Amount would be Less Than $0.00, since Cash Disbursements display as negative amounts.
Base Type - this field is included by your Aggregation Service Provider (Plaid or Yodlee) to identify how a transaction displays on the Financial Institution site. It is included on the Bank Transaction record. From the Unmatched Bank Transactions tab, when you click the arrow to expand the drawer on a Bank Transaction line/row, a hyperlink will be available in the Bank Trx Name field. Click the hyperlink to display the Bank Transaction record to view the Base Type field.

The Base Type can only be a Debit or a Credit. When setting up the Conditions on a Bank Rule for Base Type, keep in mind that the value tested for (Debit or Credit) will be based upon whether the account is a bank account or a credit card account. If the transaction is from a bank account, the Base Type will be a Debit for cash withdrawals/Cash Disbursements and a Credit for cash additions/Cash Receipts. If the transaction is from a credit card account, the Base Type will be a Credit for vendor payments/Cash Disbursements/increases to credit card liability and a Debit for payments to the credit card company to decrease the credit card liability/Journal Entry.
Type - this field is included by your Aggregation Service Provider (Plaid or Yodlee) and is included on the Bank Transaction record. It describes the nature and intent for the transaction. Examples might include types such as payments, purchases, charges and fees. From the Unmatched Bank Transactions tab, when you click the arrow to expand the drawer on a Bank Transaction line/row, a hyperlink will be available in the Bank Trx Name field. Click the hyperlink to display the Bank Transaction record to view the Type field.

Important: The Type field on a Bank Rule, which is the Type field on the Bank Transaction record from your provider (Plaid or Yodlee), is NOT related to the Type drop-down list that displays on the expanded drawer with selections such as Cash Receipt, Cash Disbursement, or a Journal Entry.

One of the following operators can be selected to include on a Bank Rule:

If Description, High-Level Category, Master Category, Detail Category, or Type is selected as part of the “if” statement, operators include:

Contains
Does Not Contain
Equals
Is Blank
Starts With

If Amount is selected as part of the “if” statement, operators include:

Equals
Greater Than
Less Than

If Base Type is selected as part of the “if” statement, Equals is the only operator that can be selected.

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Actions on Bank Rules

As mentioned above, conditions identify the “if” part of the statement. Therefore, actions represent the “then” portion of the statement. For example, the first part of the statement might be “if” all of the following conditions are met (Description equals Green Township and the Amount is greater than $500.00). The second half (then) of the statement or the actions will determine what should be done (set the Customer name to “Mike Brown” and set the Credit GL Account to “4000-Product Revenue”).

The first part of the Actions statement includes the ability to “Set the Source Record Type.”

Note: The types that are available will display based upon the rule selection of Cash In or Cash Out. In the example below, Cash In was the rule selection.

The second part of the Actions statement has a drop-down list, which includes all of the fields that are available and can be edited from the expanded drawer on the Unmatched Bank Transactions tab.

Best Practices for Actions

When creating the actions (then) part of the statement on a Bank Rule, any GL Account can be selected. However, there are some GL Accounts that should not be used based upon the record type, which include the following:

A Cash Receipt Credit GL Account should not be set to:
- - AR/AP Control GL Account
  - Bank GL Account
  - Current Year Earnings
  - Vouchers Payable
A Cash Disbursement Debit GL Account should not be set to:
- - AR/AP Control GL Account
  - Current Year Earnings
A Journal Entry GL Account should not be set to:
- - Current Year Earnings
  - AR/AP GL Account (if the Account is populated, the GL Account can be set to AR/AP)

Available Actions for a Bank Rule

Up to 10 of the available Actions per Bank Rule can be selected to include as part of the “then” statement:

Cash Flow Category - automatically displays on downloaded Bank Transactions or on transactions from the Financial File Import. The Cash Flow Category is used to categorize records in the Cash Flow Statement.
Credit GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Receipt.
Note: The Credit GL Account must be populated in order for a Cash Receipt to be automatically added as a source record.
Customer - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Receipt.
Debit GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Disbursement.
Description - automatically displays on downloaded Bank Transactions or on transactions from the Financial File Import. However, you can use the Action statement on a Bank Rule to add a description or change the displayed description.
GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Journal Entry.
GL Variables 1-4 - identifies General Ledger segments that are used to report business units such as division or department.
Project - encompasses everything that needs to be completed in order to reach a specific outcome on an engagement or event.
Project Task - a single element or component of work that needs to be accomplished within a Project.
Note: On a Cash Receipt or Cash Disbursement a Project Task will not function correctly on a Bank Rule unless a Project has been selected.
Product - identifies the item or service that is associated with the Bank Transaction.
Vendor - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Disbursement.

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Create a Bank Rule

Navigate to Accounting Home and click the Create Entries tab. Then, under the Banking menu, click Bank Direct Connect.
Click the Bank Rules tab.
Select one of the following tabs:
1. 1. Cash In Rules
  2. Cash Out Rules
To create a new rule, click Create. The Bank Rules dialog box displays.
Enter a name for the new Bank Rule in the Name textbox.
Note: Directly below the Name, the Type field will automatically display as Cash-In or Cash-Out based upon your selection on the previous screen. This field cannot be changed.
Enter a Priority number.
Best Practice: It is recommended that you space out the priority numbers on Bank Rules. This will leave room to adjust or add new priority numbers, if necessary. We recommend initial increments of 5 or 10 on the Bank Rules.
Note: The Active checkbox under Priority automatically defaults to checked/selected. A total of up to 100 Bank Rules can be active at a time. This checkbox should remain selected if you want the new rule to be activated.
(Optional) Enter a Description for the new rule.
Click the Select All Financial Institution Accounts checkbox to include all of your Financial Institutions in the Bank Rule. Otherwise, select one or more Financial Institution Accounts (FIAs) from the Available list. Then, click the right arrow to move the selected FIA(s) to the Selected list.
Note: When you use the Select All Financial Institution Accounts checkbox, any new accounts added in the future will be automatically selected.
Select Any or All from the first part of the “If” Conditions statement.
Select one of the following:
1. 1. Description - the written statement on the transaction to indicate the source. For example, this might include the name of a pharmacy, restaurant, etc.
  2. High-Level Category, Master Category, or Detail Category- These three tiers of categories will only display on transactions that were downloaded from our service provider.
    Note: Each category is considered as a separate condition.
    Note: When a financial file is imported, the category fields display blank on each transaction.
  3. Amount - the currency amount that displays on the transaction in the Amount column. Cash Receipts display in black to indicate a positive amount and Cash Disbursements display in red to indicate a negative amount. When creating a conditions statement, if you want to include all Cash Disbursements, the operator used for Amount would be Less Than $0.00, since Cash Disbursements display as negative amounts.
  4. Base Type - this field is included by your Aggregation Service Provider (Plaid or Yodlee) to identify how a transaction displays on the Financial Institution site. It is included on the Bank Transaction record. From the Unmatched Bank Transactions tab, when you click the arrow to expand the drawer on a Bank Transaction line/row, a hyperlink will be available in the Bank Trx Name field. Click the hyperlink to display the Bank Transaction record to view the Base Type field.
    
    The Base Type can only be a Debit or a Credit. When setting up the Conditions on a Bank Rule for Base Type, keep in mind that the value tested for (Debit or Credit) will be based upon whether the account is a bank account or a credit card account. If the transaction is from a bank account, the Base Type will be a Debit for cash withdrawals/Cash Disbursements and a Credit for cash additions/Cash Receipts. If the transaction is from a credit card account, the Base Type will be a Credit for vendor payments/Cash Disbursements/increases to credit card liability and a Debit for payments to the credit card company to decrease the credit card liability/Journal Entry.
  5. Type - this field is included by your Aggregation Service Provider (Plaid or Yodlee) and is included on the Bank Transaction record. It describes the nature and intent for the transaction. Examples might include types such as payments, purchases, charges and fees. From the Unmatched Bank Transactions tab, when you click the arrow to expand the drawer on a Bank Transaction line/row, a hyperlink will be available in the Bank Trx Name field. Click the hyperlink to display the Bank Transaction record to view the Type field.
    
    Important: The Type field on a Bank Rule, which is the Type field on the Bank Transaction record from your provider (Plaid or Yodlee), is NOT related to the Type drop-down list that displays on the expanded drawer with selections such as Cash Receipt, Cash Disbursement, or a Journal Entry.
Select one of the following operators from the drop-down list:

If Description, High-Level Category, Master Category, Detail Category, Type is selected as part of the “if” statement, operators include:
If Amount is selected as part of the “if” statement, operators include:
If Base Type is selected as part of the “if” statement, Equals is the only available operator.
Enter the text for the selected operator. For example, if you selected Amount Greater Than, enter an amount in the textbox.
Click New to create another Conditions statement. Otherwise, continue with the Actions (then) part of the statement.
From the Actions section, click the drop-down list to Set the Source Record Type.
Note: The types that are available will display based upon the rule selection of Cash In or Cash Out. In the example below, Cash In was the rule selection.
From the Actions drop-down list, select one of the following:
1. 1. Cash Flow Category - automatically displays on downloaded Bank Transactions or on transactions from the Financial File Import. The Cash Flow Category is used to categorize records in the Cash Flow Statement.
  2. Credit GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Receipt.
    Note: The Credit GL Account must be populated in order for a Cash Receipt to be automatically added as a source record.
  3. Customer - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Receipt.
  4. Debit GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Disbursement.
  5. Description - automatically displays on downloaded Bank Transactions or on transaction from the Financial File Import. However, you can use the Action statement on a Bank Rule to add a description or change the displayed description.
  6. GL Account - displays when the Source Record Type is Journal Entry.
  7. GL Variables 1-4 - identifies General Ledger segments that are used to report business units such as division or department.
    Note: If the Enable Global Automated Add setting is selected in Bank Settings, and the Account is included on the Bank Transaction, the GL Variables will pre-populate on the added source record automatically from the Account. However, on Bank Transactions that are manually added as source records, GL Variables will not be pre-populated from the Account. Therefore, if you want the GL Variables to be used on Bank Transactions that are manually added as source records, you might want to utilize either the Account record matching or a Bank Rule.
  8. Project - encompasses everything that needs to be completed in order to reach a specific outcome on an engagement or event.
  9. Project Task - a single element or component of work that needs to be accomplished within a Project.
    Note: On a Cash Receipt or Cash Disbursement a Project Task will not function correctly on a Bank Rule unless a Project has been selected.
  10. Product - identifies the item or service that is associated with the Bank Transaction.
  11. Vendor - displays when the Source Record Type is Cash Disbursement.
Enter information in the textbox to search for and select an option.
(Optional) Click New to add another Action.
Note: Up to 10 Actions can be included on a Bank Rule.
When all of the Conditions and Actions have been added for the new Bank Rule, click Save.