With Bank import you can load entries from your bank into Sapera and reconcile them against the entries already recorded in the accounting. The entries can be loaded either by uploading a file (.xlsx or .csv) or automatically via the bank connection Aiia. Once the bank entries are matched against the expected entries, they can be posted.
This article describes both the setting for bank import (the amount limit for matching) and the workflow with import drafts, importing entries and matching.
The setting itself is located under the setup. Open the hamburger menu in the top left corner of Sapera and select Financial. Then go to Setup → Settings → Accounting → Bank import.
If you cannot see the menu item, you probably lack permissions — contact support.
The functional bank import (drafts, file/Aiia import and matching) is opened from the menu item Bank import in the accounting part of Sapera.
If you cannot see the menu item Bank import, you probably lack permissions to access bank import — contact support.
*Note for administrators: access to the functional bank import is controlled by the permission `access.accounting.import` (AccessAccountingImportPermission).*
Under Bank import in the settings there is one field, Entries match triviality limit (the amount limit for trivial matching).
The field specifies an amount limit for how large a discrepancy between a bank entry and the expected amount may be for the entries to still be matched. If the difference is less than or equal to the limit, the discrepancy is considered insignificant ("trivial"), and the entries can be matched despite the small difference.
The limit is specified as an amount. The default value is 2. If the limit is set to 0, an exact match is required. Note: if the field is completely empty (not filled in), the limit is treated as 0, i.e. an exact match is required.
The limit controls the Match button on the bank import screen itself. Once you have selected a bank entry and a candidate (a recorded entry), the Match button only becomes active (green) if the amount difference between them is within the triviality limit. If the difference is greater than the limit, the button is disabled, and the screen shows the difference and the limit in red, so you can see that the entries cannot be matched automatically.
When you open Bank import, you see an overview of your import drafts. A draft is a reusable setup for where and how bank entries should be loaded (for example a specific bank account or a specific file setup).
For each draft, the overview shows its Name, Description, Mode (File or Aiia), Financial account, whether the draft is Connected to Aiia, and the number of Unprocessed entries.
From the overview you can create a new draft, edit or delete a selected draft, clear a selected draft (remove its loaded entries) and open a draft's entries with Show entries. The buttons to edit, delete, clear and show entries require that you have first selected a draft in the overview.
If you need to find a specific draft in a long overview, you can use search. See How to search in lists.
When you create or edit a draft, you fill in a Name, an optional Description and select the Financial account (bank account in the accounting) that the entries belong to. Under Import mode you choose between File and Aiia (shown as option buttons). The other fields depend on the selected mode.
If you choose File, you can also specify the default setup for file import, so the columns are pre-filled the next time you import. You specify the Column name for financial date (the name of the date column in the file), Column name for amount (the amount column) and Column name for description (the description column). You can also set a Default day threshold — the number of days' difference that is accepted by default when matching dates.
If you choose Aiia, you can specify Ignore entries before date, so that bank entries dated before this date are not loaded.
Regardless of mode, you can tick Show matched entries by default, which determines whether already matched entries are shown by default on the match screen.
You open the entries for a draft via Show entries. From here you load bank entries — depending on the draft's mode.
When the draft is in File mode, you click Import file to open the import window. Select the file — supported formats are .xlsx and .csv. For .csv files a field is shown to select the character set (UTF8 or UTF7); for .xlsx files this is not shown. Tick File contains header if the file's first row is column headers, and click Process file to load the file's contents.
Once the file is processed, the file's raw contents are shown on the left and the result (how the entries will be loaded) on the right. In the middle you link the file's columns to the correct fields: you select which column contains the Financial date, which is the Amount, and which is the Description. You also select the Financial account the entries should belong to (if it is not already locked by the draft) and a Culture (language/region), so numbers and dates are interpreted correctly — for example thousands and decimal separators. If you tick Update draft setup on import, the selected column setup is saved on the draft, so it is remembered for the next import.
Click OK to complete the import. The button is active when the required setup is filled in.
When the draft is in Aiia mode, the bank entries are fetched automatically from the bank connection instead of from a file. With Force Aiia synchronization you fetch the latest entries from the bank, when the connection is in order. If the connection has failed, Reconnect to Aiia is shown instead, which you use to establish the connection again.
While entries are being fetched, a spinning icon is shown. If the bank connection requires a renewed, supervised login, a warning icon is shown — then you must log in again to continue the synchronization. For Aiia drafts the bank's Closing balance and the time of the latest synchronization are also shown, as well as the Unmatched amount, so you can see how much still needs to be reconciled.
Read more about setting up and using the Aiia bank connection in the article Bank reconciliation.
Once the entries are loaded, you work on the match screen, which consists of two lists side by side. On the left, Bank entries are shown — the entries loaded from the bank or the file. On the right, Recorded entries are shown — the candidates the entries can be matched against. The candidates can be existing financial entries or draft entries, and the Type column shows which. Both lists show, among other things, Financial account, Department (organizational unit), Financial date, Amount and Description.
In the bank entry list, a checkmark is also shown when the entry has been processed (posted), a warning icon when there is a high probability that the entry is a duplicate of an existing one, and a chain icon in the Matches column when the entry is part of a match. If you click a bank entry, the candidates it is matched with are highlighted. At the top, the Closing balance is shown for both Sapera (CRS) and — for Aiia — the bank's posted balance.
You can match entries manually and automatically.
For manual matching you select one or more bank entries and the corresponding recorded entries and click the Match button. The button is only active when entries are selected on both sides, and when the amount difference is within the amount limit (triviality limit) described above. The screen shows the selected difference and — if the difference is too large — the limit in red.
For automatic matching you use the Match button with a dropdown at the top, where you select a day threshold (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 days). Sapera then automatically attempts to match bank entries with candidates if the dates are within the selected number of days and the amounts fit within the triviality limit.
Above the lists you can also narrow down the candidates. With Financial date from/to you set a date range, with Threshold in days you specify the number of days' difference that is accepted, and with the checkbox Include matched you show or hide already matched entries.
With Clear selected match you remove the match on the selected entries (active when a match is set), with Clear selection you remove your selection (active when something is selected), and with Clear all matches you remove all matches on the draft.
Once the bank entries are matched correctly, you post them with Post entries, which opens the window where the selected/matched bank entries are turned into entries in the accounting. The button is active when there are entries to process.
In file mode you can also use Delete to remove the selected bank entry (when a row is selected) and Clear draft to remove all loaded entries from the draft (when there are entries). With Drafts (back arrow) you return to the overview of import drafts.
Want to know more?
Read more in these related articles:
Bank reconciliation
Reconcile the bank's account statement against posted entries in Sapera. Supports both manual file import (CSV/XLSX) and automatic synchronization via Aiia Open Banking.
Entries
Get an overview of all posted financial entries for a specific financial account. Learn to filter, navigate to and from the chart of accounts, edit the VAT type directly in the list and apply year-end closing actions.
