How do I import a transaction which is a transfer with a fee?

Question asked by Richard Cooper 10 years ago

I am using the import tool to import my bank statements.

I have two bank accounts which charge a fee for transferring money between them. This fee is not shown as a separate item in the statement, all that happens is that the amount on the "to" statement is less than the amount on the "from" statement. For example, if the fee was £1 then transferring £100 from account A to account B would show as -£100 in A's statement and +£99 in B's statement.

How should I handle that sort of transaction in ClearBooks?

The "Multiple Items" option seems to only allow multiple transactions not one transaction and one transfer.

13 Replies

Kevin

Yeah. You're probably right. But I'd like to understand Chris's approach anyway as a way of learning the ClearBooks system.

Another option I considered is to modify the statement before import to have one line for the fee and one for the net transfer. I already do a bit of automated text editing to get the statements ready for import, so it wouldn't be much additional effort. It's a bit of a hack, but then so - IMO - is inventing a fictious bank account through which to do the transfer.

I'm not sure which approach I prefer.

I suspect you may need to set up a contra bank account to handle this.

Example:

Transfer leaves account A - you mark this as a transfer to the contra account

Transfer (less fee) arrives in account B - you mark this as a transfer from the contra account.

The balances on accounts A & B will be correct, with a small balance left on contra. You'd then need to get rid of this by creating a bill to bank charges and paying said bill from the contra account. If it were me, i'd probably do this monthly or even quarterly to save repetition.

Hopefully somebody from the tech team will be along shortly to confirm if that's the best course of action.

Hi Richard and Kevin,

Kevin, you are indeed correct, that is one way to do it. We think there is a quicker way to handle this, though.

If you go to Money > Bank Acounts > All > Transfer > Money Out > Fill in details (The account it is coming out of) > Click Explain > Scroll to the bottom and fill in the fields, incl. where you are transferring to > For the Amount input the transaction fee amount > Click Add Transaction.

You will now see that the available amount will appear, less the admin/transfer fee. Essentially a transaction added to a transaction.

I hope this is clear and does what you want it to.

Many Thanks

Chris

Hi Chris.

I'm trying to follow your explanation using the Clearbooks Demo account.

  • Money > Bank Acounts > All - Takes me to https://secure.clearbooks.co.uk/demo/accounting/banking/list/
  • Click "Transfer" under the "Process money" section of the "Barclays" account.
  • You then say "Money Out". There is either a "transfer" tab or a "Money" tab. If I switch to the "Money" tab it has a "money out" field in one of the forms so I guess that's what you mean.
  • Fill in details - Ok. I filled in a test amount of £123 in the "money out" field and a description.
  • Click Explain > Scroll to the bottom and fill in the fields - I'm now looking at 4 options/tabs, "Transaction", "Transfer", "Refund" and "Multiple Items". I filled out the "Transaction" tab with the amount=£23, account="Bank Charges", to="Barclays" and clicked "Add transaction"
  • "You will now see that the available amount will appear, less the admin/transfer fee" This is where you lose me. How do I allocate the remaining £100 as a a transfer? If I switch to the transfer tab at this point then the amount reverts to £123.00.

I apologise, Richard. I may have not been clear. It's the transfer tab you want. That way it is already identified as a bank transfer (So point 3 is a mistype). Add the amount you want to transfer here and press explain. On the next page You will again have to fill in the 'To' field. At the bottom in the 'Amount' field type the admin fee itself and fill any other required fields. Add Transaction. You will then be left with an amount with fees taken off. If, for example, the fee is £1 and the transfer is £1000 you will have £999 and a list of outstanding Purchases which need to be paid off. You can allocate the money to these. If not. It will now just be in your account. You will see that you balances have been adjusted accordingly.

Sorry. I'm still not following.

"At the bottom in the 'Amount' field type the admin fee itself" - I don't see an amount field. In the transfer tab the amount is not editable. The only thing I can change is the "Transfer to" bank account.

file

You need to click on the date or the Description. This will take you into the transaction and allow you to do the rest.

"You need to click on the date or the Description" - That just opens the "transaction" tab and leaves me in the same position as I was in my first reply. I can create the transaction representing the fee but I can't then make the rest of the payment a transfer.

Here's the state of the UI after I've explained a £234.00 payment with a £34 fee. How do I now say that the remaining £200 is a transfer.

file

Hi Richard

If you're pulling these amounts off the bank statement as opposed to inputting them manually in real time, I personally believe you'll find my contra solution easier.

Richard, you can select Bank Transfer as payment method on the right-hand side. This will mark it as a transfer and if you then process the payments you will see that it comes up as two amounts totalling the whole.

If this isn't working for you then the contra is the only other alternative. Go ahead and give that a test and let me know how you get on. I hope it is more successful .

Kevin

Yeah. You're probably right. But I'd like to understand Chris's approach anyway as a way of learning the ClearBooks system.

Another option I considered is to modify the statement before import to have one line for the fee and one for the net transfer. I already do a bit of automated text editing to get the statements ready for import, so it wouldn't be much additional effort. It's a bit of a hack, but then so - IMO - is inventing a fictious bank account through which to do the transfer.

I'm not sure which approach I prefer.

Richard, your idea of having different lines sounds very good. You could have the original amount as one item and then have another line to show that a certain percentage had been taken off. If you are happy to calculate this all yourself then I think it could be a very neat option as you can see it all in one go.

You can always experiment in the demo account as no real payments/customers/transactions will be affected.

Chris

"you can select Bank Transfer as payment method on the right-hand side. This will mark it as a transfer" Um. Really? Doesn't "Bank Transfer" just mean that the payment happened by BACS, FPS or similar electronic means rather than by cash, payment card, cheque or whatever. Certainly selecting "Bank Transfer" doesn't remove the need to select a supplier, account and vat treatment nor does it present to option to choose one of the bank accounts.

I'm not trying to be rude and I appreciate you trying to help, but have you actually tested this yourself and got it working? If so I'd love to see some screenshots of the process and end result because I'm just not seeing it.

I may have misunderstood, Richard. I thought that this would create it into a bank transfer once the fee had been taken off and process it as such. As far as i could see it left £90 for you to allocate. but it doesn't actually say what it is. I am very sorry.

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