Introduction
You can set up Bank Accounts for any of the following:
- Banks (Current Account, Deposit Account, Foreign Currency Accounts)
- Credit Card Companies
- Leasing Companies
- Finance Houses
- Petty Cash Boxes
- Employees and Directors to whom you sometimes advance Cash or Foreign Currency
To get an overview of all your Bank Accounts, go to Bank > Bank List.
Corresponding Control Accounts
Each Bank Account must have its own General Ledger Control Account. You can create this in advance and subsequently allocate it to the Bank Account. It must be unique to that Bank Account. If you do this, or use an existing GL Code for the Bank Control Account, the GL Account that you set up must initially have a Posting Type of P, not B. The process of setting up the Bank Account will change this to B and then this Control Account cannot be used again for any other purpose.
See:
Cash and Bank Overview (6A.0) - AIQ Academy
Add / Edit Bank Accounts (6A.1) - AIQ Academy
Bank Receipts and Payments (6A.3) - AIQ Academy
Bank Transfer (6A.5) - AIQ Academy
How do I Carry out a Bank Reconciliation?
How do I Use the Bank Import Facility to assist with my Bank Reconciliation?
Setting up a new Bank Account
Option1: Set up GL Control A/C Code first
You can set up a GL Control Account Code before setting up a new Bank Account. This account will hold the Bank Balance and associated transactions.
- Go to General > General Ledger Accounts > New GL Account.
- In the Type field, select P - Posting. Later in the Bank setup process, this will automatically change to Posting Type B.
- Complete all other relevant details.
- Click Process.
Option 2: Set up GL Control A/C Code during Bank setup
Instead of creating the GL Code in advance, you can create a new GL Control Account Code during the Bank setup process.
- Go to Bank > Bank List > Add New Bank.
- In the Select a GL Account field, select your account.
- In Select a GL Account, click Create new GL Account. It doesn’t matter whether you assign a Bank or Posting account type to the GL Code. When you save the bank details the GL Account type will automatically be set to a B type.
- Complete the appropriate details. The Online Banking fields are used in the Supplier’s (Vendors) Bulk Payments program:
- Type: This field determines the file format for your Bank. If yours isn’t listed, then contact your System Provider who will add your Bank’s file format.
- Group Online Payments allows you to group many generated online Supplier (Vendor) Payments into a single entry in your system’s Bank Reconciliation.
- Click Save.
- In Bank List, click refresh to view your account in the grid. To edit a Bank Account’s details, Click A/C Details against the appropriate Bank Account.
Using Bank Account Actions
- Go to Bank > Bank List.
- Under Actions, note the following options:
- Sundry Payment: Use this to make Payments from the relevant Bank Account to organisations, agencies, and people who are not recorded in the Creditors (AP) Ledger, such as VAT (Tax) Payments, NI Deductions, Credit Card Companies.
- Sundry Receipt: Use this to deposit transfers from organisations that are not part of the Debtors (AR) Ledger, such as the occasional sale of an Asset, Insurance Claim, and repayment of Employee Cash advance.
- Bank Transfer: This is not to be confused with your live Bank’s Online-Banking System transfers. Use it to record transfers you make between the Bank Accounts you have set up and manage within this system. In the case of transfers from Foreign Currency to another Currency, you can either supply the Rate of Exchange or the equivalent amounts.
- Debit Journal, Credit Journal: Use these to make adjustments to the Bank Account, such as bounced Cheques, Credit Card refunds, Sundry Bank Charges, and errors. Use the template facility to create and post regular bank transactions for items such as Finance Leases, Rental Agreements, Loan Account payments, and Deductions.
Bank Account Transactions
Viewing transactions: Option 1
To view Transactions relating to the Bank Account:
- Go to Bank > Bank List and find your account.
- In the Current Balance column, click View Transactions option shown. This opens the Transaction Browser where you can select various transaction ranges. The transaction browser selects those transactions relating, in this case, to the particular Bank Account.
- Click any of the items highlighted in blue to examine the source of the transaction, such as Customer or Supplier (Vendor) Account), or its allocation against other transactions in the system, and opposing posting to the General Ledger.
- Use the Select an action dropdown to print or re-print Remittances, and Reverse transactions.
- Click Edit if you need to make any changes.
Viewing transactions: Option 2
Alternatively, to view transactions:
- In the blue banner, go to General > Add/Edit GL Accounts.
- Examine the transactions posted against the GL Account Code that you set up for this particular Bank Account. Make corrections if necessary.
- You can attach paperwork to the Bank Account or any of the Transactions by clicking the Paperclip symbol.
See:
How do I Use & Customise the Transaction Browser?
How do I Add Notes and Images to Documents?
Using Templates for Standing Orders and Direct Debits
In your live Bank Account, you will have set up Standing Orders for regular Bill Payments covering items such as Rent, Rates, and Web Hosting. These might not go through the Creditor's (AP) payment system. You might also have Direct Debits for regular receipts which don’t go through the Debtor's ledger.
These types of Receipts and Payments can be set up in the system as Debit or Credit Journals using the Template facility in Bank Journal entry. You can create several different templates for differing purposes:
- Go to Bank > Bank List > Reconcile Now > Current Reconciliation.
- Under Create Transactions, select Bank Credit Journal/Bank Debit Journal.
- Prepare the Bank Journal as you would normally.
- Under Template, select New.
- Click Process.
- Every month, or periodically, you can recall these Saved templates, add to them, or modify them if necessary, and reuse them (having changed the dates) to post all these transactions again with their new dates.
Dealing with Company Credit Cards
- Set up your Company Credit Card as a Bank with its own General Ledger Control Account.
- When the Credit Card Statement arrives, use the Bank Credit Journal program to record the expenditure, item by item, against the various General Ledger Expense Codes (and coding any personal expenditure to the relevant employee’s drawings account).
- When you pay the Credit Card Company, use a Bank Credit Journal to post the payment from the relevant Bank GL Account to the Credit Card GL Account.
Deleting Bank Accounts
You can delete a Bank Account provided that:
- There are no related transaction records in the system
- It is no Default bank account against any Customer or Supplier (Vendor).
- Go to Bank > Bank List.
- In the Account Code & Name column, click A/C Details.
- Click Delete.