Explain multiple bank transactions in bulk

This article describes how to bulk explain multiple bank transactions that have been imported into FreeAgent via a bank feed or uploaded from a bank statement.

Please note that you need to have level 6 access or above to your FreeAgent account to explain bank transactions.

For information on how to explain bank transactions individually, please see this article.

Identifying unexplained transactions

Navigate to the 'Banking' tab at the top of the screen and select 'Bank Accounts' from the drop-down menu.

Choose the relevant bank account from the list.

Unexplained bank transactions will be displayed in red in your business bank accounts in FreeAgent and can also be found in their own dedicated 'Unexplained' tab.

Any bank account that you haven't indicated is a personal account in FreeAgent is classed as a business bank account. Unexplained transactions in personal bank accounts are displayed in grey. You can explain them, but leaving them unexplained won’t impact your business accounts. However, they will be included in your Cashflow unless those bank accounts are excluded.

Sorting bank transactions alphabetically

You can sort bank transactions alphabetically in the ‘Unexplained’ and ‘For Approval’ tabs.

To do this, select the ‘Description’ header within the ‘Unexplained’ or ‘For Approval’ tab. Please note that it’s not possible to sort transactions alphabetically in the ‘All Transactions’ or ‘Manually Added’ tabs.

This will display the bank transactions in alphabetical order by description.

The alphabetical sorting will only apply to the most recent 1,000 bank transactions in the chosen tab. Sorting bank transactions in the ‘Unexplained’ tab will not sort the transactions in the ‘For Approval’ tab unless you also select the ‘Description’ header within that tab.

Please note that sorting bank transactions by selecting the ‘Date’ header in any of the tabs will override the alphabetical sorting in the ‘Unexplained’ and ‘For Approval’ tabs.

How to explain multiple bank transactions

When you access any of your business bank accounts in FreeAgent, you’ll see all the transactions for the current month, including unexplained transactions. You’ll also see a list of unexplained bank transactions from previous months (if applicable), along with the total number of unexplained transactions in that bank account.

The option to bulk explain transactions works with all bank account types, including PayPal accounts, and is currently available for the following types of transactions:

• 'Money In’ > ‘Sales’
• ‘Money In’ > ‘Refund’
• ‘Money In’ > ‘Money Received from User’
• ‘Money In’ > ‘Transfer from Another Account’
• ‘Money Out’ > ‘Payment’
• ‘Money Out’ > ‘Sales Refund’
• ‘Money Out’ > ‘Money Paid to User’
• ‘Money Out’ > ‘Transfer to Another Account’

You can either select a month from the drop-down menu in the 'Unexplained' transactions tab and choose multiple entries to explain, or select multiple unexplained transactions from the main view of bank transactions for the current month.

Explaining multiple transactions with the same or similar description

When you’re explaining a transaction, FreeAgent may prompt you to explain additional unexplained transactions with similar descriptions to the same category.

You will see a notification that there are matching transactions to choose from. Select the ‘Select all matching transactions’ link to view the details of the matching transactions.

FreeAgent will automatically use the search function to filter the transactions based on a similar description and tick all the boxes next to the corresponding ‘Money In’ or ‘Money Out’ transactions, depending on the type of the original explained transaction.

Use the panel on the right-hand side to choose the relevant ‘Type’, VAT rate and ‘Category’ for the selected transactions. If you choose ‘Auto’ from the ‘Including [X] VAT’ drop-down menu, FreeAgent will automatically calculate the VAT for you. Alternatively, you can select a specific rate of VAT or choose ‘Amount’ and enter a specific amount of VAT. If your business is not VAT-registered, you will still see the VAT options but FreeAgent will automatically ignore the VAT setting (unless you register for VAT in the future), so you don’t need to make any changes.

Select ‘Explain [X] transactions’ to explain all the selected transactions in the same way.

Please note that it’s not possible to explain similar unexplained transactions as the following transaction types:

• 'Invoice Receipt'
• 'Bill Payment'
• 'Bill Refund'
• 'Credit Note Refund'

Explaining multiple transactions with different descriptions to the same category

To select multiple transactions, tick the checkbox to the left-hand side of the relevant transactions and enter the explanation information in the panel to the right. This will explain all the selected transactions in the same way.

If you choose ‘Auto’ from the ‘Including [X] VAT’ drop-down menu, FreeAgent will automatically calculate the VAT for you. Alternatively, you can select a specific rate of VAT or choose ‘Amount’ and enter a specific amount of VAT. If your business is not VAT-registered, you will still see the VAT options but FreeAgent will automatically ignore the VAT setting (unless you register for VAT in the future), so you don’t need to make any changes.

Remember to include an appropriate description for the selected transactions. If you leave the ‘description’ field blank, the transactions will be given the original descriptions that came through for them via the bank feed import or bank statement upload.

Bulk explain all transactions on a page

To quickly select all the transactions on a page, tick the checkbox for one transaction and then tick the box that appears to the left of ‘Date’, just below the time period drop-down menu. This will select all the other transactions listed on the page.

Please note that you can't explain ‘Money In’ and ‘Money Out’ transactions at the same time. Instead, you'll need to explain one type of transaction first, then the other.

Once you’ve selected the relevant transactions and entered the explanation information in the panel to the right, select ‘Explain {X} transactions’ to complete the process.

A record of the bank transactions being explained will appear in your Audit Trail report.