Importing Plaid Bank Statement Details

You can import bank statement details through the Plaid bank integration process or using a CSV file.

The Plaid bank integration process, through permission-based, secure authentication, enables Accounting to import bank account transactions from your bank or other financial institution on demand.

For more information about Plaid integration, see Plaid Bank Integration Overview.

Warning:

You must run this process in single company mode.

You can import bank statements for one or more bank accounts belonging to the current company in the following ways:

  1. Click the Bank Accounts tab.
  2. Click the bank account for which you want to import bank statements.
  3. Set the company to which the bank account belongs as your current company.
  4. Click Import Statements. The Import Bank Statements window is displayed.
  5. Enter the statement date to import transactions up to that date.
  6. Click Import Statements. The import process runs in the background and you will receive a notification and an email when the process completes.
  1. Click the Bank Connections tab.
  2. Click Import in the Import Statements section.
  3. Enter the statement date to import transactions up to that date. The External Source field is automatically populated based on the bank integration process associated with the bank connection.
  4. Select the bank accounts for which you want to import bank statements. Statements will be imported for all selected accounts as long as they have an associated bank account connection record.
  5. Click Import Statements. The import process runs in the background and you will receive a notification and an email when the process completes.
  1. Click the Bank Reconciliations tab.
  2. Click the bank reconciliation for which you want to import bank statements or create a new bank reconciliation.
  3. On the Bank Reconciliation detail page, click Reconcile from Bank Statement in the Bank Reconciliations Actions section. If an eligible bank statement exists, it will be displayed. If it does not, a window for importing a new bank statement displays.
  4. Enter the statement date to import transactions up to that date.
  5. Click Import. The import process runs in the background and you will receive a notification and an email when the process completes.
Notes:
  • Bank statements are imported via the Plaid bank integration process if Plaid is specified as the external source on the associated bank account connection.
  • If the volume of bank statement line items exceeds the number specified in the Maximum Bank Reconciliation Transactions custom setting, multiple bank statements are created. You must reconcile them in order based on the numerical statement reference suffix, starting with the lowest. For example: "2020-10-07 - Plaid - 1" followed by "2020-10-07 - Plaid - 2".
  • If the Reference exceeds 255 characters, it is automatically truncated when importing bank statements.

Scheduling the Import of Bank Statement Details

The process will only import transactions for bank accounts that have a linked bank account connection. If you do not want to import for a particular bank account, do not link it to a bank connection.

Note:

In order to run the import process for bank accounts belonging to multiple different companies you must be in multi-company mode, with all the associated companies selected. For this reason we strongly recommend logging in as the dedicated Plaid integration userClosed This user is used to connect to bank accounts through Plaid. It must not be used for anything else. This is in line with Plaid’s recommendation to enable the tracking of events should an issue occur that requires support intervention. when setting up the schedule. We also suggest setting up a forwarding rule or an email group so your Accounting users are informed of the success or failure of the scheduled process.

To schedule the import of bank statements:

  1. Log in as the dedicated Plaid integration userClosed This user is used to connect to bank accounts through Plaid. It must not be used for anything else. This is in line with Plaid’s recommendation to enable the tracking of events should an issue occur that requires support intervention.. Statements will be imported for all bank accounts that belong to the dedicated user's current companies.
  2. Click the Bank Connections tab.
  3. Click New in the Import Statements Scheduler section.
  4. Select Plaid as the external source. The Name field is populated automatically.
  5. Select a schedule frequency.
  6. Select a schedule start time.
  7. Click Save. You will receive a notification and email message depending on the success or failure of the import process.
Notes:
  • The statement date will be set to the day immediately before the date on which the process is scheduled to run.
  • To amend the schedule, click Edit in the Import Statements Scheduler section on the Bank Connections tab.
  • To view or delete the ImportStatementsScheduler job, from Setup, enter Jobs in the Quick Find box, then select Scheduled Jobs.

Calculating the Start Date and Opening Balance for the Imported Statements

If this is the first statement you have imported for the bank account:

  • All transactions dated from the start date entered on the bank account connection record up to and including the statement date are imported
  • The statement's opening balance is derived from the opening balance entered on the bank account connection record

If statements already exist for the bank account:

  • The start date is the day after the statement date of the most recent statement
  • The opening balance is derived from the closing balance of the most recent statement
Note:

The statement's closing balance is a calculated value. You must check that this matches the balance in your bank's software.

Troubleshooting

You will be notified of any attempts to import a statement for bank accounts that are not configured correctly for the Plaid bank integration. Check your email for any additional information about the errors that can occur during the import bank statements process.

Check the following eligibility criteria if you do receive an error:

  • The selected bank account must belong to the current company.
  • The selected bank account must be linked to a bank account connection record.
  • The selected bank account and its associated bank account connection must share the same currency.
  • If no statements already exist for the bank account, the start date and the opening balance must be defined on the associated bank account connection.
  • The statement date cannot be earlier than the statement start date of its associated bank account connection.
  • To run the import process for bank accounts belonging to multiple different companies, you must be in multi-company mode with all the associated companies selected.