Bank transfer handling (different dates)

I have a minor irritation when handling transfers between two accounts which both have automatic feeds.

The normal process is that one tags a transaction as a bank transfer, QF shows a lits of accounts, and if the account chosen has a matching transaction, a dialogue is displayed that allows the user to select the matching transfer and the two are linked up and tagged.

When this works, it’s great. Perhaps not the slickest flow, but good enough.

However. If it doesn’t work, it’s a real problem. I’ve noticed recently that transfers from my NatWest Current account to my Starling Current account are not matched up. Trouble is, QF then immediately creates a new transaction in the target account, without confirming with me that this is what I mean to do.

Could the flow be changed so that I can tell QF that there is definitely a transaction to match up with, to avoid duplicate transactions being created? It seems like a fair assumption to make that any transfer between two accounts with automatic feeds should have a pair of transactions to match up.

Hi @Geoff.Campbell

Are the two transactions exact in terms of date and amount?

Amount, certainly. Dates, I’m not sure about, that’s down to the various quirks of the bank feeds (see threads passim).

If the dates and amounts don’t match, I’m afraid it’s not going to be possible to link the transactions because of the nature of double-entry bookkeeping.

OK, that’s fine, I guess I can use a Journal entry or something. A pain, but there we are.

But I think you missed my core point. As it stands, QF automatically and without confirmation creates a new entry in the target account, which is a pain to unwind. There needs to be some logic that sees that both accounts have automatic feeds, and warns the user that they are about to screw up.

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Same with the linking payments to accounts from the Receipt hub, the UX runs off and does stuff that you don’t want it to. There needs to be a step after it checks before it links/tags/creates.

We have now updated the bank transfer handling to allow for match suggestions that extend to +/- 5 days from the transaction date. This should help with those situations where the debit and credit dates differ from one account to the other.

If you select a bank transfer match that is not on the same date, the interim balance will now be posted to a balance sheet code called “Balance Sheet Suspense” (2997). This keeps those interim movements on the balance sheet as an asset / liability and makes it easier to track.

That sounds useful, thanks everso for the update.

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