Importing your bank account and reconciling transactions

Bank reconciliation is an important part of the accounting cycle to ensure accurate books.

1. Add a bank, petty cash, or credit card account

First, add your bank account:

1. On the left side menu, click on Bank Accounts.
2. In the Bank Accounts list, click Add bank account.
3. Enter a friendly name, e.g. “HSBC xxx101 Primary Account”, then select the account type and the currency.
4. Click Save.

Once you’ve completed these fields, an Asset account with the same name will be automatically created in the Chart of Accounts and linked to the bank account.

Additionally, your bank account will now appear as an option in the Paid through drop-down when you’re recording an invoice, bill, credit note, payslip, or expense payment.

2. Import your bank statement

Step-by-step instructions

1. From your list of bank accounts, click on the Statement link, then click on Import a statement.
2. You will be presented with a form asking you to upload your statement in the specific csv, xls, or xlsx formats. To do this, you can either drag and drop your file or click on the form to choose it.
3. Map the column names in your file to the column names in Wafeq. As you are doing so, Wafeq will present you with a preview of your import.
4. Once you are done, click on Save in the top right corner to import your statement.

3. Reconcile your transactions

Watch this video to learn how to:

• Quickly classify transactions into accounts.
• Make advanced reconciliations to payments, invoices, bills, and expenses.
• Add adjustments to the reconciled transactions when needed.

Classifying transactions

Step-by-step instructions

To start reconciling, go to Bank Accounts in the left side menu, then click on the Statement link.

Reconciliation by directly classifying transactions

In the Classify to account column, you can easily match transactions to accounts. For example, if you have charges coming from your bank account, choose the Bank Fees and Charges account for these transactions. Wafeq will mark these expenses as reconciled and will automatically create them in your expenses sheet. Other transactions are treated similarly and can be classified to their relevant accounts.

Reconciling by matching with existing transactions

If you've already recorded a transaction in Wafeq, you can match it with your bank statement transaction during reconciliation. For example, when your customer pays you for an invoice, you can match the payment you’ve recorded in Wafeq to the transaction that you’ve received in your bank account. To do that, click on the Reconcile button of the relevant transaction, and from the reconciliation panel select the invoice payment from Wafeq, then click on the Match selected button.

The status of your transaction will change to Reconciled and a green double tick will be added next to your payment indicating that it has been matched to its specific transaction.

If your customer has paid you but you still haven’t recorded that payment in Wafeq, you can also reconcile the transaction you’ve received in your bank account to your customer’s invoice. Wafeq will automatically create the invoice payment and will mark it as Reconciled, and Paid through your bank account.

In case you find differences between your bank statement’s transactions and Wafeq’s, you can add an adjustment to your reconciled transactions. Simply click on the Add adjustment button in the Description column of the reconciliation panel, and choose the account where you’d like to record that discrepancy.

Then click on the Match selected button for Wafeq to mark your transactions as reconciled and create the transaction of the account you’ve chosen for the adjustment.

4. Check the Bank Reconciliation Report

When you've reconciled all the transactions on your statement, the balance of your bank account in Wafeq and the balance from your bank statement must match. If they don't, it means there are either additional or missing transactions that you haven't reconciled. The Bank Reconciliation Report explains differences in your bank statement balance versus your ledger balance and gives you the source of the difference.