Bank Rules Problem

1

I have set up a bank rule for my bank account but when I import a file of downloaded transactions, the transactions that match the rule are not being allocated according to the rule and left allocated to Suspense.

The rule is:

Bank Account: Bank Account
Description Contains: UNIVERSITY COPY
Allocate to: Printing and Stationery

An example of a transaction has “UNIVERSITY COPY OF SANTA CRUZ” in the description field (without the quotes).

This problem occurs on all the Bank Rules I have set up.

Any ideas?

2

Did you create the Bank Rule at the import view screen or via Settings - Bank Rules ?

Can you show screenshots of a bank rule and a matching transaction.

3

Created all the rules via Settings - Bank Rule. I hadn’t noticed an option to do it when importing, is there a difference?

Screenshots below although they match exactly what I posted originally.

Screenshot of the rule:

Screenshot of a matching transaction in the bank account. Note: It shows the correct account because I edited it manually.

1048×44 5.55 KB

4

Ok, when you have done the import, did you click on “View”, bank rules aren’t applied until after you have, it then provides an opportunity to review the transaction and also you will see the other option for creating bank rules. For those that are ok, tick the boxes and then Bulk Update.

5

@csmb, if you haven’t seen this Guide, you should read it: https://www.manager.io/guides/how-to/use-bank-rules-to-categorize-imported-transactions. Note particularly a paragraph near the end:

Click Bulk Update at the bottom. All selected bank transactions with matching bank rules will be recategorized and taken off the list. Bank rules you created will be saved at the same time…

6

The guide is great, thanks. My remembrance is that after clicking the Import button on the screen that shows various counts, the imported transactions appeared in my bank account with the account set to Suspense. Not sure I understand why the Bank rules aren’t applied at that point since the transactions are posted to my bank account already. but good to know that’s how it works.

I don’t have any more imports to do at this point so will check into this further next time I do one.

7

I know it’s difficult to remember exactly what you did when you didn’t know while you were doing it that remembering would be important later. :confused: There are a couple aspects of Manager’s underlying design at work in this process.

The first is that the program is pathologically opposed to losing data. Since you imported the statement, the data goes somewhere rather than falling on the floor. If the transaction is incomplete or unbalanced and can’t be fully resolved for any reason, that somewhere is Suspense.

The second is that inputs are not recorded, whether you’re working on a form, a setting, or anything else, until you click Create or Update (Bulk Update in this case). So if you’re creating new bank rules on the fly from the listing of uncategorized transactions, you’re actually still in the middle of a process. During that process, the program will show you matches of transactions to newly created rules, but doesn’t actually update them or save the new rules until you click Bulk Update.

So, what probably happened is that when you defined the bank rules, you didn’t actually create them. If this happens again, and you’re positive the rules are in existence, that suggests a mismatch in the cash account name or description, possibly through some font discrepancy or an extra space.

8

Thanks, all sounds good. I had created the bank rules via the settings/Bank Rules method prior to doing the import. It’s possible the rule isn’t set up quite right so I’ll use the recommended method next time I import (and try to remember exactly what I do!) and see what happens.