Zoho Books Bank Feeds and Reconciliation: A Practical Guide

How do bank feeds work in Zoho Books?

Bank feeds pull transactions from your bank into Zoho Books through a third-party provider, so you do not type them in. To connect, go to Banking, Add Bank or Credit Card, then Connect Now. Choose the provider, accept its terms, pick your bank, log in, select the account and set a start date. Zoho Books does not store your bank login credentials.

A connected feed can only fetch transactions from the last 90 days. Anything older must come in through a statement import. Your bank may not appear in the list, in which case you add the account manually and import statements.

How do you import bank statements into Zoho Books?

Statement import covers banks without feeds and history older than 90 days. Zoho Books accepts CSV, TSV, XLS, OFX, QIF, CAMT.053, CAMT.054 and MT940, depending on edition. PDF statements are supported for specific banks and card issuers, such as Chase, Bank of America, Capital One and TD Bank.

1. 1Open Banking, select the account, click the gear icon and choose Import Statement.
2. 2Upload the file and choose the amount column type: double column, single column with type, or single column with negative values.
3. 3Set character encoding and delimiter, then map file columns to Zoho Books fields. Save the mapping for next month.
4. 4Preview the lines and click Import.
5. 5If you imported the wrong file, use Undo Last Import from the gear menu.

How do transaction rules and matching save time?

Transaction rules handle recurring lines such as bank charges, rent or card processor deposits. Create them from Manage Transaction Rules on a bank account. A rule applies to deposits or withdrawals and checks Payee, Description, Reference Number or Amount, with operators such as is, contains or starts with. You then set how to record it, the account and the payment mode.

A rule can mark lines as Recognized, which pre-fills the details for you to confirm, or Categorized, which posts them automatically once you allow Zoho Books to categorize your statements. Start with Recognized and move stable rules to Categorized later.

Matching links a statement line to a transaction already in Zoho Books, such as a customer payment or bill payment. Lines tagged Match found need only a check and a click. Otherwise, open Possible Matches, filter by amount, date, contact or reference, and select one or more transactions that add up to the bank amount. The Multi-select and Match option handles many-to-many cases. If a gateway fee makes amounts differ, create the fee as a new transaction during matching.

What is the bank reconciliation workflow in Zoho Books?

Reconcile each account monthly, after every statement line is matched or categorized.

1. 1Open Banking, select the account, click the gear icon and choose Reconcile Account.
2. 2Click Initiate Reconciliation and enter the statement start date, end date and closing balance.
3. 3Click Start Reconciliation. Only matched, categorized or manually added transactions appear.
4. 4Tick the transactions that appear on the statement until the difference is zero.
5. 5Attach the bank statement as supporting evidence.
6. 6Click Reconcile, or Save and Reconcile Later if you need to investigate.

Check the opening balance first, because it cannot be edited once transactions are reconciled. To change a reconciled period, undo the reconciliation, starting from the most recent one, then fix and reconcile again.

What country differences should you know about?

Bank feed availability depends on your Zoho Books edition and your bank. Confirm your bank is listed before you promise the team automatic feeds.

• USA and Canada: Yodlee and Plaid are both listed, and PDF import works for several large US banks.
• UK and EU: Token is listed for the UK and EU data center editions, and Yodlee for the UK. CAMT and MT940 imports suit European banks.
• UAE and Saudi Arabia: Yodlee is not listed for these editions. Use direct integrations where your bank offers one, such as Mashreq in the UAE, or import statements.
• India: Yodlee is listed, and Zoho Books India documents connected banking with banks such as ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Check the current list for your bank.

What are the most common bank reconciliation mistakes?

Most reconciliation problems start before anyone clicks Reconcile.

• Recording customer payments and then categorizing the bank line as income, which doubles revenue
• Setting a feed start date that overlaps imported statements, creating duplicate lines
• Moving rules to Categorized before checking them, so errors post silently
• Using Uncategorize without realizing it deletes the Zoho Books transaction
• Reconciling with an unchecked opening balance
• Leaving undeposited funds and clearing accounts unreviewed for months

Flowpeak sets up Zoho Books banking remotely for businesses in the USA, Canada, the UK, the Gulf and India: feeds, rules, opening balances and a monthly reconciliation routine your team can run. A free scoping call is a good starting point.

Frequently asked questions