Split transactions for Bank Rules

When allocating a bank transaction, via a bank rule, can you have a transaction split based on value?

For Example:
A Telstra Bill comes in monthly at $322.48
It would be allocated to the various related accounts
Internet $79.99
Landline Phone $15.00
Landline Phone Calls $68.50
Mobile Phone $99.00
Foxtel $59.99 (Private)

Additionally, if a value is different each time, such as Phone Calls, that could overflow to a particular category that has variable billings.

No, you can’t do that. Bank rules post transactions to only one account. But after it is created, before the update is done, you can edit the transaction to add lines and split it yourself.

One also wonders whether such splitting is necessary. Why not a single telecommunications account? What useful management information is obtained? Don’t make yourself a slave to your accounting program. Is there any decision that will depend on knowing how much is spent on mobile versus landline calls, especially since you already know how they break out on a regular basis?

I think splitting would be a great thing to have. As a sole trader, my phone bill has to be split every month - personal vs business usage. I have to remember to go back to the imported transaction and amend.

And while we are on the subject of Bank Rules…can we please have the ability to assign a Tracking Code to the rule itself :sunglasses:

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I have been thinking about this myself for quite some time ,for similar reason as @clive , you need to split the transactions and it would be handy if Bank Rules can accommodate this.

eg Split drawing / Business use as mentioned
eg split non GST component / GSt Component - Phone telco if you have a mobile repayment on plan then that part is usually GST free and shouldn’t change each bill
eg rego on vehicles have non GST/ GSt split usually

These are some example when handy to have split on bank rule but as in all things, the down side of having split in bank rule is that non GST component can change each bill / renewal so one would need to edit the bank rule before recording .
This may be in part why @lubos has not implemented to date as mistakes can happen easily .
however for entries that never change eg I have a client that claims a pro-rata on rent paid as his unit is his place of business being a computer repair man and has a room strictly setup as his workshop with permission from Owner,… that split would be good to have as a bank rule as it happens weekly. The tracking code addition would be a great idea as well.

If coding to facilitate this modification to bank rules would slow the overall functionality of manager then I would not be in favor of implementing as it just means a bit more effort and attention is required by us at time of doing entry and bank recs

but still well worth considering as the program continuities to evolve for the better .

This is definitely good idea and something that has been lingering on my mind for a while. It’s something I consider important. For now, I’m putting this into ideas category. I know there are quite a few topics under ideas but be assured I’m chewing through it.

4 Likes

Hi @lubos
Sorry for not having said thank you sooner. your response is much appreciated.

@lubos any news on when this will be implemented? Would also be great to be able to have the same functionally with manual entries similar to how discount works for quotes but the percentage should be a part of the total amount instead of only for the rows.

Any ETA on this feature? Using bank rules to split would be great, for instance I could have the bank rule split my cell phone or internet bill transactions into the proper percentages for personal versus business use. Doing it manually now, which isn’t a problem, but this would be a great feature for some of us.

@lubos this would be great if you could create a bank rule which would split a transaction percentage wise or a certain amount to one account and the rest to another.

@lubos, any news on this idea ? I think this would increase usefulness of bank rules, especially after the latest addition of the payee/payer field. Also Batch create of Bank rules is very powerful as the Description field in most bank statements can be used to populate bank rules.
An option to have a fixed number of accounting lines for each bank record would be a big step forward to get a more complete UI for bank rules, whether a split of amounts is included or not. Split would be nice, but I think that just getting multiple lines and with that the most used accounts for each type of bank record would save lots of manual work.
Also, such auto created multiline records would most likely always warrant a review anyhow (accounts are correct, amounts, tax, tracking codes, line descriptions etc) so if there are too many fixed lines, the emply nonused lines could be easily deleted while reviewing. Its easier to delete an empty line with one click than to add a line and then having to select the account in a dropdown list or type account name/number for that line

I agree. I don’t have many bank transactions affected by this, but I do have to edit a couple every month to split the allocation between different accounts.

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Looking forward to bank rules by having ability to split transactions.

My main use case is transactions with

  • GST 10% on most of the total

  • GST free on a small amount eg Stamp duty, Return To Work WHS (Work Health & Safety) fee

I’m not sure how is the best way of implementing this. Stamp duty on some repeating costs are a constant percentage (insurance) but others vary by a small amount (WHS Fee).

  • For seemingly randomly variable percentage manual editing would be required. Ideally with Manager prefilling what is constant (multiple line items and tax codes) but flagging the transaction as still needing editing. User interface options for which include not selecting such transactions when the select all checkbox is ticked so leaving them in suspense. Trigged perhaps if more than on line item being entered in a bank rule or “suspense” entered as the amount. For these approaches to work, the edit button on a transaction should first apply the bank rule changes. The user can then refine the bank rule output rather than redo it then incorporate the edits.

  • For transactions with a constant distribution (percentage split between line items, or fixed amount to one line item and remainder to another) then some form of data entry user entered formula would be required. I suspect that would best be done when similar functionality is added else where in Manager (eg Automating calculations in Payslips, Cost Price Sale Price Markup Field Idea, Tax Withholding Percentage, Worksheet to batch update prices based on cost formula)

Added to the latest version (21.5.40)

There are some changes I need to go through.

Bank rules are no longer called bank rules. Instead, Receipts tab has its own Receipt Rules and Payments tab has its own Payment Rules. This will allow to create separate set of rules for each transaction type.

In order to access your list of Receipt Rules, go to Receipts tab then click on Receipt Rules in bottom-right corner.

image

When you have uncategorized receipts, you will see an alert at the top of Receipts tab screen which will prompt you to categorize your uncategorized receipts using receipt rules.

When you create new (or editing existing) receipt rule, there is new button Add Line on the form.

image

Clicking this button will allow you to define split rule.

For example, you can define receipt rule which will split receipt in two equal line items

However, you can change the Percentage to Fixed amount on any line item to specify fixed amount.

The way splitting works is that Manager will first allocate exact amounts, then reminder will be split by percentage. The rules support negative amounts too.

2 Likes

That looks excellent.
It should work really well when I can work out the formula the supplier uses to split the cost.

When I can’t work out the formula but I do know the components, accounts and tax code it maybe more difficult to take full advantage of this. What is the recommended approach when user review is required?

An idea I was wondering about was to have options of

  • Exact amount
  • Percentage
  • User specified

The last category would

  • have zero allocated to it automatically
  • Prevent automatic selection when “Select all is specified”

So to use the feature

  • most transactions could be processed by clicking select all (which skips transactions with no rule or a rule containing “User specified”) then click on “batch update”.
  • clicking on a transaction with a “User specified” amount would prefill the rule accounts, amounts and tax codes, leaving the user to only enter the user specified adjustment, then update

What is the benefit of your “User specified” category over “Exact amount?” You already know you need to edit the transaction. Why not just edit it before the bulk import? For that matter, in such a situation, it would not seem to matter whether your rule was for a percentage or an exact amount. You would still need to edit.

I know I need to edit each transaction when I set up the rule.
That is different to remembering to edit a particular transaction when later doing a bank import.

In summary the feature being suggested is

  1. An alert at time of processing particular transaction indicating user intervention is required
  2. Rule application prior to user editing, so only incremental changes need be added.

Use case
Repeated multiline transaction where the exact distribution can not be readily encoded with Managers new multiline import formula.

Would it be possible to add “Line description” option for bank rules?

Use case:
When a payment or receipt is split I find it increases the clarity of the transaction if the reason for each line item is documented such as

  • Stamp duty
  • WHS – Work Health & Safety fee

Having the option to set this up in the bank rule would increase work efficiency and accuracy.

A work around is to

  • Create a new tax code “Go GST Free” of 0%

  • In bank rules where the GST Free component can’t be worked out, use this temporary tax code

  • Use the “Tax Summary” report or create a custom report or which finds any transactions which still have this temporary tax code. Drill down on “Go GST Free” (even if the total is zero or “-” and manually correct the transaction (change “Go GST Free” to “GST Free” and enter the correct amount, subtracting the same from the earlier line

2 Likes

These new rules are great for Bank Receipts however I need these same rules for Cash Account receipts.
At the moment the receipts screen requires me to continually add the Qty column and unit price. Allowing Cash Accounts to set rules would overcome this issue.

Many thanks
Peter

What you want can be accomplished by going to Settings → Form Defaults → Receipt

Thanks for the information it worked as required.
Many thanks
Peter