The Bank page brings together the transactions of your bank accounts. You upload a file provided by your bank and check the rows, then Bill Alps compares them with your invoices, expenses and salaries. Importing and reconciling require Write access to the Accounting module.
1. Get the statement from your bank
Bill Alps accepts these formats, up to 20 MB per file:
- camt.053 (XML file): the electronic account statement in ISO 20022 format, issued at the end of the day or the month. It is the most complete format: it provides the IBAN, the bank references and the balances.
- camt.054 (XML file): your bank's debit or credit notification. It does not contain balances.
- CSV and Excel (.xlsx): an export from your e-banking, whose columns you map in step 4.
In your e-banking, open the account concerned and look for the statement download or export, in camt.053 or ISO 20022 if your bank offers it, otherwise in CSV. The name of the menu varies from bank to bank: if you cannot find the option, ask your bank how to get the electronic statement.
2. Upload the file
- Open AccountingBank and click Import a statement.
- Drag the file into the area or click Browse.
- If an Excel file contains several sheets, choose the one to import.
A camt file goes straight to the Review step, a CSV or Excel file to the Columns step.
3. Check a camt file
There is nothing to map. For each account, Bill Alps shows the Period, the number of Entries and, for a camt.053, the Opening balance and the Closing balance. The Balance consistent badge confirms that the transactions do add up to the closing balance. Otherwise, the gap is shown.
- A batch transaction from the bank is split into one row per payment when the details match the total amount. Otherwise, it stays as a single row, with a warning.
- Pending transactions and those in an unsupported currency are skipped and reported in the warnings.
Check the New, Already imported and Warnings counters, then click Import N rows.
4. Map the columns of a CSV or Excel file
Bill Alps recognises common column titles in French, German, English and Italian, then pre-fills the mapping. Check it against the File preview.
- Make sure the option The first row contains headers matches your file.
- In Amount format, choose Signed amount (one column, negative for outgoing payments) or Debit + Credit (two columns).
- Fill in the required fields: Date and its Date format, Amount (or Debit and Credit), Description, Currency and Bank account.
- If possible, add the optional fields Counterparty and Reference, which help with reconciliation, as well as Balance and Comment.
- In Ready to import?, check the Valid, Errors and Duplicates counters, then click Import N rows.
- Currency and Bank account can come from a column (From a column) or from a Fixed value. If no column is recognised, the bank account takes the file name: replace it with the IBAN or a clear name, and always keep the same value for the same account.
- The Bank account column must contain your own account, not the payee's. Bill Alps warns you beyond 10 different values.
- If most of the dates are rejected, Fix the format takes you to the date format setting.
- Rows with errors (unreadable date or amount, debit and credit both filled in on the same row, unknown currency, empty required field) are skipped at import. The Ready to import? card gives the details.
- If accents display incorrectly in the preview, save your CSV as UTF-8 and upload it again.
5. How duplicate detection works
For a camt file, Bill Alps compares the bank reference of each transaction with those already recorded. Known transactions go into Already imported and are not imported again: you can upload the same statement twice without risk. If everything is known, the page shows All these entries are already imported and the import button stays inactive.
6. Finish the import
Stop halts the import in progress: the transactions already imported are kept. Bill Alps then starts the reconciliation and shows a summary: transactions imported, transactions already known, transactions reconciled automatically and proposals to review. Continue with Review proposals or View transactions, depending on which button is shown, or with Import another file.
7. View and filter your transactions
The Transactions tab lists the rows of the period chosen at the top of the page, 100 per page by default (50 or 200 if you prefer). Click the Date, Description or Amount header to sort. If your fiscal year spans two calendar years, the list only shows the part that falls in the year in which the fiscal year ends, and a message reminds you of this.
To filter, click the funnel icon of a column, set the filter, then click Apply. On mobile, use the Filters button.
- Date: a date range, with From and To.
- Description: a text search. Column sorting is disabled during the search.
- Bank account: one or more accounts.
- Amount: a comparison, for example Less than, with a second condition if needed. Outgoing payments are negative.
Clear all removes all the filters.
A reconciled transaction shows its document next to the description.
8. Edit a transaction and give it a color
Click a row to open Edit transaction. There you can correct, among others, Date, Amount, Description, Currency, Bank account, Counterparty and Reference, add a Comment or choose a Color, then click Save. An icon then flags the comment in the list.
The color is a simple visual marker. Click the dot at the left of a row to choose a suggested or custom color (confirm a custom one with Apply), or click Remove color to take it off. For several rows, tick them and use Color in the selection bar.
9. Delete transactions
For one row, open it and click Delete. For several, tick them and click Delete in the selection bar. Confirm in the window that opens.
Your transactions are imported: move on to the guide on bank reconciliation to review the proposals.