Bank statements and reference payments view is used to search, check and handle bank statements and reference payments that have been received to Procountor. Bank statements and reference payments are separate items that are sent to Procountor by the bank. Bank connection authorization is used for agreeing on the delivery of the bank statements and reference payments.
This article includes the following sections: First, the essential things in order to be able to receive bank statements and reference payments are presented. After this, functions of the Bank statements and reference payments view are presented. Finally, the article discusses the most common questions related to Bank statements and reference payments view.
The view is accessed by choosing Payments > Bank statements and reference payments.
Requirements for the bank statements and reference payments to arrive to Procountor
In order for the bank statements and reference payments to arrive to Procountor, the company has to fill in the bank connection authorization that is used to determine the conditions between the customer and the bank of the bank account that is going to be added to Procountor. Therefore, the bank connection authorization is a requirement for the ability to receive bank statements and reference payments to Procountor. When the bank connection authorization has been sent to the bank and the bank has received it, it usually takes some time for the bank to handle the bank connection authorization – this is why the payment functions of the account and arrival of the bank statements and reference payments are activated only after the bank has had the time to handle the bank connection authorization. There are bank-specific differences in the handling times, so questions about the handling situation and schedule should be presented directly to the bank in question.
After the bank connection authorization has been delivered to the bank, the bank account information has to be filled in to Procountor's Bank account information view (Management > Company info > Bank account information). The bank account information has to be entered to Procountor with the exact same information and determinations that are agreed on the bank connection authorization. No other determinations than filling in the bank account information to the Bank account information view have to be made in Procountor.
If a daily bank statement is in use, Procountor retrieves automatically the previous banking day’s bank statements (that contain e.g. purchase invoice payments, salary payments, travel and expense invoice payments, bank card payments and sales invoices without reference numbers) and reference payments (that contain sales invoices with reference numbers) in the morning of each business day. If a weekly or monthly bank statement is used instead, this kind of bank statement is retrieved to Procountor on the first possible banking day after the week or month in question has passed. It should be noted that empty bank statements are not read in Procountor. This is arises directly from the fact that banks do not create these kinds of empty bank statements, so no bank statements to read in Procountor exist.
- More detailed information about the reasons why bank statements and reference payments have not arrived to Procountor can be found from here.
Buttons and fields in the view
The upper section
Search button searches the bank statements and/or reference payments corresponding to the search criteria.
Clear button clears the given search criteria.
Printable ZIP package button is used to download a package containing separate bank statements and reference payments in PDF format. It is also possible to download a package that includes the possible attachments from the accounting pages of the bank statements.
Request new balance opens a new window for selecting which bank accounts are to be included in the request:
If one of the bank accounts was selected in the Bank accounts drop-down menu, this will be selected by default.
Successfully requested balances are updated to this view. If an error occurs during the request, a separate notification will be shown. More detailed information about these errors is shown on the History of requests tab of the Real-time bank account balance view.
Bank statement entry reconciliation -button takes you to the view, where you can allocate unhandled bank statement entries to 1 appropriate matching cost receipt. The button activates when you select applicable statement entry.
Previous bank statement and Next bank statement buttons are used to change the bank statements and reference payments shown in the view.
Search criteria
Starting and Ending field: these fields are used to define the search period.
Account number field: this drop-down menu chooses the account for which the bank statements and reference payments are searched. It is also possible to choose all bank accounts of the Procountor environment. After selecting a bank account, the balance and date of the most recent statement of the selected bank account are displayed below.
Latest bank statement selection retrieves the newest bank statement for the chosen account.
Sum search criterion is used to search transactions based on their sum. This search criterion is useful, for example, when a payment has not been allocated to an invoice, and the payment in question searched from the bank statements with the sum.
- When using the Sum field, a minus sign must be entered in front of the sum with the search for withdrawals.
- However, a plus sign doesn’t have to be used when searching for deposits.
Entry description field is used to search transaction with entry description.
- Entry description search criterion is useful, for example, when reconciling accounts receivable. When “710 deposit” is chosen, Procountor searches for all bank statements with payments that do not have a payment reference.
Name search criterion is used to search transactions with the name of the payee / payer.
- It is possible to use just parts of the searched text in the Name field.
Bank statement no. is used to search bank statements with the bank statement number.
- The bank statement numbers are formed by the banks, so there may be bank-specific differences in the numbering.
Reference search criterion is used to search transactions with the reference number (that is used in a sales invoice payment).
Message search criterion is used to search transactions by the message entered in the message field.
- It is possible to use just parts of the searched text in the Message field.
Group reference payments selection is used to set reference payments to groups.
Bank statements selection is used to determine if bank statements are included in the search results or not.
Ref. payments selection is used to determine if reference payments are included in the search results or not.
Search results
Preview button displays the selected bank statement in HTML or PDF format. By clicking a search result row with the right mouse button, the results can be opened also in Excel. A list of reference payments can be opened either through the right mouse button menu or by generating the Reference payment report found under Payment reports (Reports > Payment reports > Reference payment report).
Receipt button creates a printable receipt for the selected transaction row. You can choose either HTML or PDF as the format.
Accounting button opens the Accounting view of the active Bank statement or Reference payment row.
Invoice button opens the Invoice view if the payment involves an invoice.
Edit reference payment button is used to go to a separate view that is used to edit reference payments (allocating reference payments, removing allocations and marking invoices as allocated elsewhere). More information about this function can be found here.
Update accounting button updates the accounting page of the bank statement and referent payments according to current accounting defaults. This button is useful if a user creates new default postings to bank statements and reference payments and want’s to update the new default to an already existing bank statement. The default postings do not affect accounting rows retrospectively, so this button can be used to make the desired default postings for prior bank statements.
- By clicking Update accounting button, Procountor opens a window in which the to-be-updated bank statement transactions are shown.
- Update accounting button updates all the bank statement transactions shown in the window according to the determined posting defaults. It is recommended that the update is done as early as possible for the newest bank statement which does not have any manually made postings done yet.
- It should be noted that any manually made postings, that were earlier made to these transactions, will be overwritten and the posting defaults that are currently in Procountor will replace them. After updating, it is not possible to return to the previous postings.
- Correction entry will be marked if corrections have been made to the existing accounting page.
- Sum column tells the sum of the bank statement.
- Update accounting is visible if the user has all rights to accounting.
Go to bank transfer button is used to go to a separate view that includes bank transfer details.
Remove grouping when sorting button removes the bank statement categorization in the search results if the columns are sorted by columns. For example, if the search results are categorized by sum, the grouping can be reversed to bank statement specific categorization (day, week or month) by deactivating the Remove grouping when sorting selection.
Flagging rows
It is possible to "flag" rows in the Search results. This feature helps you to mark the row you should for example handle next if there is an interruption in your work or you can just point out a row that needs further attention later. Marked rows are also visible to other users.
The accounting page of bank statements and reference payments
The accounting page of bank statements and reference payments can be accessed by clicking the Accounting button of the active row or the underlined value of a specific row presented in the Sum column of the Search results section. It should be also noted that the accounting pages of bank statement and reference payment for the same day are separate, because the bank statement and reference payment material are separate items sent by the bank:
- Header of the bank statement's accounting page is Accounting: Bank statement as a receipt ... (continues with bank statement number and bank details)
- Header of the reference payment's accounting page is Accounting: Reference payment ... (continues with reference payment number)
The accounting page of bank statements and reference payments functions in the same way compared to the accounting pages of other receipt types in Procountor. More detailed description of the accounting page functions can be found from the manual article of the accounting page. Therefore, the accounting entries presented in the accounting page of bank statements and reference payments are visible, for example, on accounting reports in the same way compared to entries on other kinds of receipts. Also, the VAT determinations in the accounting page of bank statements and reference payments end up in the Tax return for self-assessed taxes through a VAT summary. Defining factor of the VAT period is the date given in the Receipt date field.
There is one exception: If the accounting page of a bank statement includes entries with Sales VAT type and 0 % VAT percent, these entries will be handled with No VAT Handling status despite what VAT status has actually been used on the entry. Therefore, if there are some entries on the bank statement's accounting page that the company would like to include in Tax return of self-assessed taxes in "Sales taxable at zero VAT rate" then these entries must be handled on invoices or with a journal entry.
Accounting entries in the accounting page are formed based on the Bank statement posting defaults and Default postings for reference payments. If manual changes to the default postings haven't been made, the accounting entries will be formed by the Procountor defaults.
If changes are made to the accounting entries in the accounting page in a way that, for example, the accounting page has more entry rows than it originally had, these kinds of changes do not affect the actual bank statement and reference payment row information that is presented in the Bank statements and reference payments view.
Side panel for editing accounting and attachments
Side panel for editing accounting and attachments can be opened by first selecting one bank statement or reference payment row. When selecting a row, the following icon appears on the right-hand side of the view:
Clicking on the calculator icon the side panel opens with the Accounting tab, whereas clicking on the paperclip icon opens the Attachments tab. When the side panel is open, it can be closed by clicking on the arrow icon.
Accounting tab
Accounting tab enables viewing and editing the accounting of bank statements and reference payment in the same way as on the accounting page. The side panel always covers the whole bank statement, so row specific changes are not possible to make. Row specific changes can made on the accounting page of the bank statement. If edits are made on the Accounting tab, the changes must be saved before moving to the next bank statement or navigating to another view. If there are unsaved changes on the Accounting tab, Procountor will give a notification about it, and then changes can be saved or cancelled before moving on.
The shortcut keys can be viewed by pressing Ctrl on computer's keyboard while being on Bank statements and reference payments view. The shortcut keys can be used when the accounting tab is opened.
Attachment tab
It is possible to add attachments and receipts that are transferred via Receipts application to bank statements and reference payments by activating a transaction row and clicking icon on the upper right corner.
- Attachments are either dragged to the attachment window or selected through Add file button.
- Attachments that have been added to the bank statements can be seen in the accounting page. Attachments that are added in the accounting page cannot be seen in the Bank statements and reference payments view.
Common questions
How can only reference payments be searched?
Only reference payments can be searched by choosing only Ref. payments under the Show header in the search criteria. By default, also Bank statements is chosen, but when Bank statements selection is taken away, the search is made only for the reference payment material. After making the search criteria determination, Search button has to be clicked in the top bar.
Why sales invoices are still not paid even though the payments can be seen on bank statements?
Bank statements and reference payments are received from the bank as separate items. If a company did not agree on the bank connection authorization that the bank is able to send the reference payment material to Procountor, sales invoices cannot be allocated as paid. Also, the receivable transactions can be seen as a sum of all receivables, not as separate rows: therefore, the sales transactions do not include a specification of the payers and the allocated sales invoices.
- The situation is fixed with the bank connection authorization. It has to be agreed with the bank that the bank will also send reference payment specification with the bank statements.
- When both bank statement and reference payment material are fetched to Procountor, the receivables can be seen row by row and it is possible to allocate the payments to the right sales invoices.
- Posting defaults of sales invoices are taken into account in the sales invoice allocation. When an automatic allocation based on the reference number is made, Procountor takes the sales invoice posting defaults into account with the accounting entries and automatically uses the posting defaults set to sales invoices.
Why the reference payments can be seen as separate rows but the invoices are still not allocated as paid?
In a situation which reference payment has not been allocated to the right sales invoice, it should be checked if the correct reference number has been used.
- If the reference number is not correct, Correct reference function can be used.
- If the reference number field is filled but the invoice is still not allocated as paid, check if the payment is surely included in the reference payment material.
- Select only Ref. payments (do not select Bank statements) from the search criteria and see of the payment is still on the list. If it is not in the list, the payment has not come as a reference payment and this is the reason it cannot be automatically allocated to the right invoice.
- If a reference number has not been used at all in the transaction, the payment can be found from the list of bank statements. The allocation should be done by using Bank statement allocation.
What are the currency rate differences on bank statements?
A currency rate difference entry will be automatically set up on the accounting page of the bank statement if there is only one payment transaction on a purchase invoice, this payment is with different amount than the payment transaction that is allocated to that invoice and the invoice is set to *Paid* status.
- The currency rate difference will be set up as a separate accounting entry row on the bank statement below the payment allocated to the purchase invoice. The entry description indicates to which purchase invoice the currency rate difference entry is allocated.
- Currency rate differences are common with payments of different currencies. Procountor fetches the currency rate of the invoice on a year-specific or a day-specific level (more detailed information about the currency rates can be found here). The bank fetches the currency rate always by the buying and selling rate on the moment of the transaction. This leads to a currency diffenrence between the invoice and the payment transaction.
The posting rule for the automated currency rate difference treatment can be set in the General account posting defaults view at Currency differences for outgoing payments.
Why the bank statement PDF printout does not have the same transactions as the search results?
Bank statements and reference payments are shown in Procountor the same way as the bank delivers the information. If the bank delivers the Bank statements and reference payments once a day, once a month or once in two weeks, the Bank statements and reference payments can be seen in Procountor in these sequences.
- Also the PDF printout will be according to these sequences.
How is the usage of a bank account ended in Procountor?
There are two options in ending the usage of a bank account in Procountor:
1. Account number can be passivated. After this, the account cannot be used in payment transactions, but the bank statements and reference payments can be seen in Procountor.
- Bank account number can be passivated in Management > Company info > Bank account information -view.
2. Account number can be deleted.
- Bank account number can be deleted in Management > Company info > Bank account information -view.
- After deleting, bank statements can still be seen in Procountor’s Bank statements and reference payments -view when choosing All from Account number -drop-down menu. Bank statements can be seen even there is no account number left in company’s environment.
- Bank account and reference payments accounting transactions are not deleted; they can be seen in the Accounting reports.
- Before the account number is deleted, it is recommended to save the old Bank statements and reference payments as a ZIP-package in Bank statements and reference payments view.
Deleting the bank account number will disable the bank transactions from Procountor. Therefore, no more further payments cannot be made. It is important to check that there are no invoices in Payment queued status in Procountor. This check can be made in, for example, in Receipt search and in Salary slip search when selecting Payment queued status as a search criterion.
- Invoices that are in status Payment sent to bank will not be allocated as paid after the bank account number has been deleted, because the bank statement that allocates the invoices will not come to Procountor anymore.
- If a bank account is going to be moved from one Procountor environment to another, the bank account has to be entirely removed from the old environment in order to be able to add it to the new environment. The same bank account number can't be used in two Procountor environments at the same time.
Is it possible to bring bank statements to Procountor retrospectively?
The possibility to bring bank statements retrospectively to Procountor depends on the way in which the bank statements are meant to be brought.
The bank account number was added to Procountor after the first bank statement was ready to be fetched:
Bank statements fetched from the bank are not allocated to any Procountor environment if the bank account number is not set to the Bank account information view. If the specific bank account number is not found from Procountor, the bank statement material is not able to conclude to which Procountor environment the bank statement in question should be read in. In this case, the bank statement material will remain in Procountor's database, but it can't be automatically read in the right environment anymore within the next automatic bank statement transfer if the bank account is added to the Bank account information retrospectively. The reason for this is that the automatic bank statement transfer fetches always the bank statements that are sent by banks as non-collected. When a bank statement has already earlier been fetched to Procountor, it is not anymore non-collected from the perspective of the banks.
However, it is possible to fetch this kind of bank statement to a specific Procountor environment retrospectively, if the bank statement has been fetched to Procountor's database earlier. Also, the bank account number (that is visible in the bank statement) in question has to be exist in the Bank account information view.
- This action is always chargeable maintenance duty priced at 150 € / h + VAT 24%. The total charges are determined by the estimated hours.
- Procountor Customer service has to be contacted in order to specify the details of the situation.
- Before contacting, please find out directly from the bank about the exact details of the bank statement in question (when has it been formed in the bank).
No bank statements have arrived in Procountor, but there is a need to request the old bank statements from the bank for collection:
It is not recommended to request the collection of old bank statements from banks. The banks may, in some conditions, be able to set few weeks or days old bank statements for collection, but there are a lot of bank-specific differences in this possibility. Therefore, the details have to be discussed directly with the bank in question.
If it turns out that the bank is unable to set the old bank statements for collection, the necessary accounting entries from these bank statements have to Procountor with a journal receipt. Journal receipts can be created with, for example, New journal receipt function or with Ledger entry tool (new).
Why did i get an empty bank statement in Procountor?
Bank does not usually send empty bank statements to Procountor if there has been no transactions in the bank statement during the period from which it was fetched (with the exception of the SEB bank, which send also empty bank statements to Procountor).