Why are bank rules so important? Because the secret to making more money from compliance is automation. And bank rules are the key to automating a lot of the work in bank rec.
All cloud accounting programs use bank rules to automatically identify transactions from repeat suppliers. The typical format uses a number of conditions to filter the appropriate transactions and then assigns them to a standard account, tax code and description.
The better your rules, the fewer transactions you need to code yourself.
It is easy to set up a basic rule – one that spots a transaction from a specific supplier and automatically categorises it. Most users of cloud accounting software stop at that.
Power users take it much further. They are very good at three things:
- Defining categories of transactions that need extra attention
- Creating highly targeted bank rules that accurately catch these transactions, and
- Using tags and detailed descriptions to mark those transactions for reviewing every month or quarter, or to pull up in a report.
So how do you create highly targeted bank rules? And which categories should you target? Digital First surveyed its readers and ran a survey with the Australian Bookkeepers Network to find out the best tips for creating bank rules.
We have compiled the best of these tips into a free guide which you can download here. Use this guide to create your own rulebook on making bank rules – so you can get on with helping your clients improve their businesses.