Remove a bank transaction explanation

This article explains how to remove the explanation for a bank transaction that has previously been explained in FreeAgent.

Please note that once a bank transaction explanation has been removed, it cannot be recovered. You’ll need level 6 access or above to your FreeAgent account to remove bank transaction explanations.

If your business is VAT-registered and you remove any explanations from transactions that appear on a VAT return that you’ve either filed or marked as filed, the VAT return will be locked, so FreeAgent won’t apply any changes to it. Instead, the effect of editing these transactions will be deferred to your next open VAT return.

For information on how to edit a bank transaction explanation, please see this article. For information on how to delete a bank transaction, please see this article instead.

Navigate to the relevant bank transaction

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.

You can either remove the explanation for a single bank transaction or multiple bank transactions in bulk.

How to remove an explanation for a single bank transaction

You have the following two options for removing the explanation.

Option 1: remove an explanation via the ‘Edit an explanation’ view

Select the name of the transaction and then 'More Options’ in the bottom-right corner to access the 'Edit an Explanation' view.

Next, select ‘Remove this Explanation’ in the top-right corner.

Select ‘Yes, remove the explanation’ in the pop-up window.

If there is a file attached to the bank transaction that was automatically matched to the transaction by FreeAgent, it will now automatically be moved to your Files area. If the attachment wasn’t captured using Smart Capture, you will have the option to either permanently delete the attachment or move it to your Files area manually. Choose the relevant option from the pop-up window.

The transaction will be formatted in red and labelled with a question mark to show that it’s unexplained.

Option 2: remove an explanation via the bank account view

Tick the checkbox next to the explanation that you’d like to remove. Next, select ‘Remove 1 explanation’ from the ‘Remove explanations’ panel on the right-hand side.

Select ‘Yes, remove the explanation’ in the pop-up window.

If there is a file attached to the bank transaction that was automatically matched to the transaction by FreeAgent, it will now automatically be moved to your Files area. If the attachment wasn’t captured using Smart Capture, you will have the option to either permanently delete the attachment or move it to your Files area manually. Choose the relevant option from the pop-up window.

The transaction will be formatted in red and labelled with a question mark to show that it’s unexplained.

Regardless of which method you choose, a record of the explanation being removed will appear in your Audit Trail report.

How to remove explanations for multiple bank transactions

Tick the checkboxes next to the explanations you’d like to remove. Next, select ‘Remove X explanations’ in the ‘Remove explanations panel’ panel on the right-hand side.

Please note, you can remove multiple ‘money in’ explanations or multiple ‘money out’ explanations at the same time, but you can’t remove a combination of the two. Instead, you'll need to remove one type of transaction first, then the other.

Select ‘Yes, remove the explanations’ in the pop-up window.

If there are any files attached to the bank transactions that were automatically matched to the transaction by FreeAgent, they will now automatically be moved to your Files area. If the attachments weren’t captured using Smart Capture, you will have the option to either permanently delete them or move them to your Files area manually. Choose the relevant option from the pop-up window.

A record of the explanations being removed will appear in your Audit Trail report.