Bank feed details

Hi Sam,

Unfortunately, the transaction description in the bank feed is determined and transmitted by the bank.

As a workaround, if the bank statement export includes the transaction reference, you can manually import the bank statement instead of using the bank feed and map the reference field as the transaction description during the import.

Tommy

Ok thank you, I suspected as much.

We have the same issue - this isn't a small problem, and the work around defeats the point of the auto import.

Just had a quick read of the Plaid API that's used to get these transactions. The /transactions/sync and /transactions/get end points have request fields that would appear not to have been mapped by Clearbooks. The default response object has a huge amount of data that clearly isn't being used by Clearbooks. https://plaid.com/docs/api/products/transactions/

Yes it appears that Natwest have changed the appearance of their transaction description field - transactions appear with less information in the many name field on web / app statements now. However, the mapping between CB and - in my case Natwest - via Plaid is a Clearbooks issue - not the bank. Also this isn't a total match between banking app and Clearbooks so I'm not sure how Clearbooks has mapped this.

In any case this is a Clearbooks problem - the import mapping from Plaid needs to be updated.

Please case this be urgently escalated to the relevant person.

As this thread is marked as Solved, which I don't believe this issue is, I've created a new Problem thread here: https://secure.clearbooks.co.uk/community/problems/28928/bank-feed-details

Hi Nick,

To clarify, most of the Plaid API fields are only populated for US banks. For UK banks, while some fields are populated, they do not always contain the original data provided by the bank. In many cases, Plaid supplies synthesised or normalised values instead.

To provide transaction descriptions that accurately match customers' bank statements, we use private APIs to retrieve the raw transaction data directly. We can see the responses from both of these APIs, and Natwest are not sending through references at all.

Can I confirm if the references are appearing on your actual bank statement?

Tommy

Yes, the references are showing on our statements - it's showing as transaction type - account name - our reference - date - bank's transaction number

Hi Sam,

Thank you for confirming. In this case, when you're logged in, could you click the ? icon at the top right > Send Us a Message and include a screenshot of an example transaction showing the reference please?

As NatWest are showing references on statements and online banking, then their Open Banking API is non compliant and we can raise this with Plaid to escalate with the bank.

Tommy