How to Use Bank Accounts & Transaction Feeds

Q: What is the difference between "Post" and "Match"?

Post creates a new journal entry from a bank transaction. Match links a bank transaction to an existing journal entry, invoice, or bill without creating a duplicate. Use Post for most day-to-day transactions. Use Match when the corresponding entry already exists in your books (e.g. an invoice payment you already recorded manually).

This guide walks you through every step of setting up and managing bank accounts in Awditify — from connecting your bank for automatic feeds, to categorizing transactions, creating rules, matching documents, and posting to your general ledger.

Getting to the Banking Page

Open the client you want to work with from your dashboard.
In the left sidebar, under the Bookkeeping section, click Banking.

You will see the Bank Accounts page. This is your central hub for all bank accounts connected to this client.

The Bank Accounts Dashboard

What you see at a glance

At the top of the page, four summary cards give you an instant picture of your banking health:

Total Balance — the combined current balance of all your bank accounts.
GL Variance — any difference between your bank balance and your general ledger balance. A zero or near-zero variance means your books match the bank.
Uncategorized — the number of transactions that still need a GL account assigned.
Unreconciled — the number of items not yet matched in a bank reconciliation.

The account list

Below the summary cards, your bank accounts are listed in rows. Each row shows:

The account name and type (Checking, Savings, Credit Card, or Line of Credit).
Whether it is Connected (automatic bank feed via Plaid) or Manual.
The bank or institution name and the last four digits of the account number.
The linked GL account number — if missing, you will see a red "No GL" warning.
The last sync time for connected accounts.
Bank Balance — the balance reported by your bank.
GL Balance — the balance in your general ledger for this account.
Variance — the difference between the two. A non-zero variance is highlighted in amber.

Click on any account row to open its transaction feed.

Adding a Bank Account

You have two ways to add a bank account: connect automatically through Plaid, or add one manually.

Option 1: Connect Your Bank (Plaid)

Click the blue Connect Bank button at the top right. This opens a step-by-step wizard.

You will see a disclosure explaining how Awditify uses Plaid to securely access your bank data. Key points:

Your bank login credentials are never stored on Awditify servers.
Access is read-only — we cannot move money or make changes to your bank account.
You can disconnect at any time.

Check the consent box and click Select Your Bank. Plaid will open a secure window where you:

Search for your bank or credit union by name.
Enter your online banking credentials on your bank's own login screen.
Complete any two-factor authentication your bank requires.

✓ Tip: Plaid supports thousands of U.S. and Canadian financial institutions. If your bank is not listed, use the manual add option instead.

Step 2 — Select Accounts

After connecting, you will see a list of all accounts available at that institution (checking, savings, credit cards, etc.).

Check the boxes for the accounts you want to import into Awditify.
Your plan may have a limit on how many bank connections you can have. The page shows your current usage and remaining slots.
If you already have accounts from the same institution, the system warns you about duplicates.

Click Continue to proceed.

Step 3 — Configure GL Mapping

For each selected account, choose how to map it to your chart of accounts:

Auto-create — Awditify creates a new GL account automatically, with the correct account type (asset for bank accounts, liability for credit cards and lines of credit).
Select existing — Pick an existing GL account from your chart of accounts.

Click Confirm and Save.

Step 4 — Syncing

Awditify now imports your transactions from the bank. You will see a progress bar and a status message as each account syncs. This usually takes 30 seconds to a few minutes, depending on how many transactions your bank has.

When all accounts show as synced, click Go to Banking to return to your dashboard.

ℹ Info: The initial sync pulls up to 12 months of transaction history. After that, new transactions are imported automatically.

Option 2: Add Manually

Click the Add Manual button on the Bank Accounts page. Fill in:

Account Name (required) — e.g. "Business Checking" or "Petty Cash".
Account Type (required) — Checking, Savings, Credit Card, or Line of Credit.
Bank / Institution Name — e.g. "Chase", "TD", "RBC".
Last 4 Digits — the last four digits of the account number, for quick identification.
Currency (required) — defaults to your home currency.
Routing Number — optional.
Opening Balance and Opening Balance Date — set your starting balance as of a specific date.
Notes — any internal notes about this account.
Chart of Account — pick an existing GL account, or leave blank to have one created automatically. The list is filtered by type: asset accounts for bank accounts, liability accounts for credit cards and lines of credit.

Click Create Account. The account appears in your list with a "Manual" badge.

Viewing and Managing Transactions

Click on any bank account to open its transaction feed. This is where you review, categorize, and post every transaction.

The transaction header

At the top, you will see:

The account name and bank.
The current balance displayed prominently.
Action buttons: Add, Import, Bulk (appears when you select transactions), Re-run matching, Documents, and Categorize.

Summary stats

Four cards summarize the transactions in this account:

Total Transactions — the total count of transactions in the feed.
Uncategorized — transactions that still need a GL account assigned.
Total Spent — the sum of all money going out (debits).
Total Received — the sum of all money coming in (credits).

Workflow tabs

Below the stats, tabs let you filter transactions by their workflow status:

Tab

What it shows

Uncategorized

Transactions that have no GL account assigned yet. Start here.

Ready to Post

Transactions that have a category but have not been posted to the GL.

Review Matches

Transactions with suggested matches to invoices, bills, or journal entries.

Posted / Linked

Transactions already posted to the general ledger or linked to an existing entry.

All

Every transaction, regardless of status.

Searching and filtering

Use the search bar to find transactions by description. Use the Type filter to show only money spent (debits) or only money received (credits). Click Clear filters to reset.

Click any column header — Date, Description, or Spent — to sort transactions. Click again to reverse the sort order.

Understanding the transaction rows

Each transaction row has a colored bar on its left edge:

Amber — uncategorized. Needs your attention.
Blue — categorized but not yet posted.
Violet — has a suggested match to an invoice, bill, or journal entry.
Green — posted to the general ledger or linked.

Each row shows:

A checkbox for bulk selection.
The transaction date.
The description as it appears on your bank statement. A purple sparkle icon means it was auto-categorized by a rule.
Spent (red) — the amount if this is a debit.
Received (green) — the amount if this is a credit.
Tax — a dropdown to assign a tax code directly from the row.
From / To — a dropdown to link the transaction to a supplier or customer.
Category — the assigned GL account.
Balance — a running balance after each transaction, computed from your current bank balance backward.

✓ Tip: The tax code and supplier/customer dropdowns work inline — you can change them without opening a separate dialog.

Categorizing a Transaction

Categorizing means assigning a GL account to a bank transaction so it can be posted to your books.

Quick categorize

Find an uncategorized transaction (amber left border).
Click the Category cell for that row.
In the popover, select a GL account from your chart of accounts.
Optionally set a Tax Code, Supplier, Customer, Location, or Class.
The transaction is saved immediately.

The row border turns blue, and the transaction moves to the Ready to Post tab.

Split a transaction across multiple accounts

If a single bank transaction covers multiple expense categories (e.g. one payment from a retailer that includes both office supplies and software), you can split it:

Click the three-dot menu on the transaction row and choose Split.
In the split dialog, each line represents a portion of the transaction:
- Choose a GL Account for each line.
- Enter the Amount for that portion.
- Optionally add a Description, Tax Code, Supplier, or Customer per line.
Add or remove lines as needed. The total of all lines must equal the original transaction amount.
Click Split Transaction.

Each split line creates a separate journal entry line when posted.

Matching Transactions

Awditify can automatically match bank transactions to your existing invoices, bills, and journal entries. This saves time and ensures your receivables and payables stay in sync with your bank.

How matching works

When you open a bank account's transaction feed, Awditify automatically scans for matches in the background. It looks for:

Journal entry matches — existing GL transactions with similar dates and amounts.
Invoice matches — unpaid customer invoices that match incoming deposits.
Bill matches — unpaid supplier bills that match outgoing payments.

Reviewing suggested matches

Transactions with suggested matches appear in the Review Matches tab. Each matched transaction shows a colored banner:

Purple banner — possible GL journal entry match. Click Accept to link, or Reject to dismiss.
Blue banner — possible customer invoice payment. Click Confirm to record the payment and close the invoice, Review to see more options, or Dismiss to ignore.
Green banner — possible supplier bill payment. Same actions as invoices.

Manually finding a match

If the automatic suggestions do not find what you need:

Click the three-dot menu on a transaction and choose Find Match.
Search for a journal entry by ID, date, amount, or description.
Select one or more journal entries to link.
Click Link to connect them.

Matching to invoices or bills manually

Click the three-dot menu and choose Match Invoice or Match Bill.
A dialog shows open invoices or bills for that customer or supplier, sorted by how well they match the transaction amount.
Select the correct document and confirm.

Bulk scanning for documents

Use the Documents dropdown in the header to scan all uncategorized transactions at once:

Scan customer invoices — matches incoming deposits to open invoices.
Scan supplier bills — matches outgoing payments to open bills.

Re-running matching

Click Re-run matching in the header to re-scan all unmatched transactions against your journal entries. This is useful after you have created new journal entries that might match older bank transactions.

Posting Transactions to the General Ledger

Posting creates a journal entry from a categorized bank transaction, recording it in your general ledger.

Post a single transaction

Make sure the transaction is categorized (has a GL account assigned).
Click the three-dot menu and choose Post.
A journal entry is created and linked to the bank transaction. The row turns green.

Bulk post

Check the boxes next to the transactions you want to post. All selected transactions must be categorized.
Click the Bulk button that appears in the header.
Choose Post All Selected to GL.
All eligible transactions are posted at once.

⚠ Warning: Posting is permanent. Once a transaction is posted, the journal entry is created. If you need to undo it, use Reverse instead of deleting.

Reversing a posted transaction

If you posted a transaction by mistake:

Find the posted transaction (green left border).
Click the three-dot menu and choose Reverse.
The linked journal entry is deleted, and the transaction returns to its categorized (blue) state.

Creating Auto-Categorization Rules

Rules let you automate categorization. When a new transaction arrives, Awditify checks your rules and assigns the correct GL account automatically.

Creating a rule from a transaction

The fastest way to create a rule:

Categorize a transaction as you normally would.
In the categorize popover, before saving, check Create a rule from this categorization.
Give the rule a name.
Choose the match type — usually contains is best for descriptions.
Set the priority (lower numbers run first).
Click Create Rule.

Managing rules

Click Auto-Rules on the Bank Accounts page, or use the Categorize → Manage Rules dropdown in any transaction feed.

The Rules page shows:

Total Rules — how many rules you have created.
Active Rules — how many are currently turned on.
Total Applied — how many times your rules have categorized transactions.

Each rule in the table shows:

Priority — rules run in order from 1 (highest) up.
Rule Name — a label you choose.
Condition — what field it matches on (description, amount, merchant, category) and how (equals, contains, starts with, ends with, regex).
Category — the GL account it assigns.
Type — whether it applies to debits, credits, or both.
Applied — how many times it has been used.
Active — toggle to turn the rule on or off.

Creating a rule from scratch

Click New Rule on the Rules page. Fill in:

Rule Name (required) — e.g. "Amazon Purchases".
Match Field — what to look at. Usually Description.
Match Type — how to compare:
- Exact Match — the field must be exactly equal.
- Contains — the field must include the value anywhere.
- Starts With / Ends With — matches the beginning or end.
- Regex — for advanced pattern matching.
Match Value (required) — the text or pattern to match.
Transaction Type — debit only, credit only, or both.
Priority — 1 (highest) to 10 (lowest). If two rules could match the same transaction, the higher-priority rule wins.
GL Account (required) — the category to assign.
Tax Code, Supplier, Customer, Location, Class — optional, set defaults for matching transactions.

Click Create Rule. The rule runs immediately on existing uncategorized transactions.

✓ Tip: Start with broad "contains" rules for recurring merchants (e.g. "Amazon", "Stripe", "Shopify"). Then add more specific "exact" rules for one-off vendors at higher priorities.

Applying rules to existing transactions

To run your rules on uncategorized transactions that are already in the feed:

Open any bank account's transaction feed.
Click Categorize → Apply Rules to Uncategorized.
All matching transactions are categorized automatically.

Adding Transactions Manually

If you need to record a transaction that did not come through your bank feed:

In the transaction feed, click the Add button.
Fill in:
- Transaction Date — when the transaction occurred.
- Description (required) — what the transaction was for.
- Amount (required) — the dollar amount.
- Type — debit (money spent) or credit (money received).
- Reference Number — optional, for your own tracking.
Click Create Transaction.

The new transaction appears in the feed as uncategorized. Categorize and post it like any other transaction.

Importing Transactions from a File

If your bank does not support Plaid, or you have transactions from another source, you can import them from an Excel or CSV file.

In the transaction feed, click the Import button.
Upload your file (.xlsx, .xls, or .csv).
Map columns — tell Awditify which column contains each piece of data:
- Date (required) — the transaction date column.
- Description (required) — the transaction description column.
- Amount (required) — the dollar amount column.
- Type — if your file has a separate column for debit/credit, map it. Otherwise, Awditify auto-detects the type (positive = credit, negative = debit).
- Reference — optional reference number column.
Preview — review the first few rows to make sure the mapping is correct.
Click Import.

Imported transactions appear as uncategorized in your feed. You can then categorize them, apply rules, or match them like any other transaction.

Managing Bank Account Connections

Syncing transactions

Connected accounts sync automatically. To manually trigger a sync:

On the Bank Accounts page, open the three-dot menu for an account and click Sync.

Refreshing (getting the latest data)

A refresh pulls the very latest transactions from your bank outside the normal schedule:

Open the three-dot menu and click Refresh.
Confirm in the dialog that appears.

⚠ Warning: You can only refresh 2 times per month per account. Regular automatic syncs are not limited — use refresh sparingly, only when you need up-to-the-minute data.

Re-linking a disconnected account

If your bank connection shows an error banner (e.g. "login required" or "connection expired"):

Click the Re-authorize or Re-link button on the error banner.
Plaid will open and walk you through re-entering your credentials or resolving the issue.
Once re-linked, the connection resumes normal syncing.

Disconnecting an account

To revoke Awditify's access to your bank:

Open the three-dot menu and click Disconnect.
Confirm the action.

Your existing transactions are preserved. Only automatic syncing stops.

Deactivating or reactivating an account

If you close a bank account but want to keep its history:

Open the three-dot menu and click Deactivate.
The account moves to the Inactive section at the bottom of the page.

To restore it, click Reactivate.

Deleting an account

You can only delete a bank account that has no transactions. If you need to remove an account with transactions, deactivate it instead.

Understanding the Bank Balance vs. GL Balance

On the Bank Accounts dashboard, each account shows three numbers:

Balance

What it means

Bank Balance

The current balance reported by your bank (or the balance you entered for manual accounts).

GL Balance

The balance of the linked GL account in your chart of accounts.

Variance

Bank Balance minus GL Balance.

A zero variance means your books match the bank perfectly. A non-zero variance usually means:

You have uncategorized or unposted transactions in the feed.
There are journal entries posted directly to the GL account that did not come through the bank feed.
Transactions are missing from one side or the other.

✓ Tip: To resolve a variance, start by categorizing and posting all transactions in the feed. Then check the GL account for any manual journal entries.

Bank Reconciliations

Once your transactions are categorized and posted, you can reconcile your bank account. Reconciliation is a separate workflow accessed from the sidebar under Banking → Reconciliations. It lets you:

Match bank feed transactions against your bank statement.
Mark transactions as cleared.
Generate reconciliation reports.

For a full guide, see the Reconciliations documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far back does Plaid import transactions?

The initial connection imports up to 12 months of transaction history. After that, new transactions arrive automatically, typically within a few hours of posting to your bank.

Can I connect multiple accounts from the same bank?

Yes. When you connect via Plaid, you can select multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit cards) in a single connection. Each appears as a separate account in Awditify.

You may see a banner on the affected account asking you to re-authorize. Click the banner to go through Plaid's re-link flow. Your data is preserved during this process.

Can I edit a transaction description or amount from the bank feed?

No. Transactions imported from your bank feed are read-only to maintain an accurate record of what your bank reported. If you need to adjust the accounting treatment, use the Split feature or post it to a clearing account and create a correcting journal entry.

Why can't I delete a bank account?

You can only delete an account that has no transactions. This protects your financial data integrity. If you no longer use an account, deactivate it instead — this hides it from the active list while preserving all historical transactions.

How do rules interact with existing categories?

Rules only apply to uncategorized transactions. If you manually categorized a transaction, rules will not override your choice. You can always re-categorize a transaction manually after a rule has been applied.

What is the difference between "Post" and "Match"?

Post creates a new journal entry from a bank transaction.
Match links a bank transaction to an existing journal entry, invoice, or bill without creating a duplicate.

Use Post for most day-to-day transactions. Use Match when the corresponding entry already exists in your books (e.g. an invoice payment you already recorded manually).