The real-time bank account balance feature allows users to see the real-time balance of bank accounts directly in Procountor. This feature is available for users who have the necessary user rights to Bank statements and reference payments.
In addition to settings that need to be changed in Procountor, the feature may require some changes to the Bank connection authorizations made with the bank. Please contact your own bank to verify this.
Accountor Finago charges 0,23€ + vat per each balance request. It is also important to note that the banks charge their own fees to retrieve the account balances.
Implementation
The real-time bank account balance must be enabled separately for each bank account. User rights should also be checked and adjusted, if necessary.
Settings
Real-time bank account balance can be enabled for specific bank accounts on the Bank account information view:
The checkbox in the Real-time bank account balance column can be selected if the following conditions are met:
- The bank account is in one of the following Finnish banks:
- Nordea
- Danske Bank
- Osuuspankki
- Handelsbanken
- S-pankki
- Ålandsbanken
- DNB
- Säästöpankki, Oma Säästöpankki
- POP pankki, Bonum pankki
- Procountor Tili (The business bank account is provided by Alisa Bank)
- Bank account currency is Euro
- The bank account has a WS customer number
If all of these conditions are not met, the real-time bank account balance cannot be enabled for the bank account.
When the settings are saved, Procountor will display a confirmation, notifying the user that a paid feature has been enabled:
User rights
The following user rights are mandatory to view the real-time balance:
- To access the Bank account balance request -main view, the user must have at least viewing rights to Bank statements and reference payments and at least viewing rights to Basic company info.
- To request the balance, the user must have all rights to Bank statements and reference payments.
Main view
The real-time bank account balance has its own designated view for requesting the balance and showing the previously requested balances. This view is located in the main menu, in Payments:
This view is divided into two tabs: New requests and History of requests.
New requests tab
The New requests tab lists all the bank accounts that have the real-time bank account balance enabled in the Bank account information settings:
On this view, you can see the most recent bank account balances and request the balance for the selected accounts. Request new balance button is active when at least one bank account is selected from the list.
A confirmation window will be displayed before making the balance request, so it can be canceled if necessary:
Successful request results will be shown bolded on the list.
If the request is not successful, a separate notification will be displayed. The notification includes a link to the History of requests tab, where is more detailed information about the errors.
History of requests tab
Previously requested balances are shown on the History of requests tab:
By default, the tab lists all successful requests done in the past week for all bank accounts.
The search results can be filtered by bank account and date range. These can be used to show all successful requests from a specific time range, which in turn will help in estimating the usage and approximate costs of the service.
Failed requests can be included in the search results by clicking the include errors-button. Error message shows the reason the request failed:
The request may fail for three reasons. To view more detailed instructions for each of these reasons, click the i-button:
- Bank not supported: Real-time bank account balance has been enabled on a bank account of an unsupported bank.
- No contract: According to the bank’s error message, the bank connection authorization for real-time bank account balance is not valid. Contact your bank and check the bank contract.
- Request failed: A technical error has occurred during the request. The request can be attempted again later, and if it persists, contact customer service.
Bank statements and reference payments
The most recent balances and new requests are also available on the Bank statements and reference payments view.
The most recent balance of the selected bank account is shown directly below the Account number drop-down menu. The source of the balance can be determined as follows:
- If the most recent balance if from the bank statement, the word Bank statement and the date of the balance will be shown underneath it.
- If the most recent balance is a real-time bank account balance, the word Requested and the time stamp for the request will be shown below it.
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.
Payment views
The real-time bank account balance is shown on every payment view in the bank account drop-down menu if the balance is more recent than the latest bank statement. Along with the date, the real-time bank account balance includes the time stamp of the request.
To update the balance, request the latest balance either in Payments > Real-time bank account balance or Payments > Bank statements and reference payments.
Procountor Tili
The real-time bank account balance is included in the fixed monthly fee of the Procountor Tili service, and there is no separate charge for balance request. The Real-time bank account balance column is automatically activated when the Alisa Bank account number received during the opening of the Procountor Tili service is added to Procountor.