Teach a statement layout

Start: upload a PDF from a bank you haven’t imported before, or Payments → Templates → Teach a new layout Result: a saved template. Statements in the same layout are read without teaching from then on.

Steps

Teaching takes two steps, shown at the top right: The table, then Balances.

The table

1. Click the header row, the line with the column headings (Date, Description, Amount, Balance…). It’s outlined when you point at it. If the headings are printed over two lines, click either. This tells Domi Vera where the transactions start, on every page. If the transactions start on page 2, go to that page first.
2. Check the columns. Each column is shaded and has its own left and right edge: drag either to fit the column exactly. Anything outside every column is ignored. With the keyboard, focus an edge and use the arrow keys. Add a column if one is missing, or remove one with its ×.
3. Name each column with the dropdown above it. Use Ignore for a column you don’t need, such as a second date.
4. Check the formats: how dates look (each option says how many of this statement’s dates it reads, and one that reads none is flagged with a one-click fix), how the bank shows money in and out (separate columns, a “Cr” marker, a minus sign, or no sign at all, in which case it’s worked out from the balance), and whether the balance is money in the account or money owed (a credit card).
5. Watch the preview. When it says Adds up, the layout reads this statement correctly. Choose Next: balances.

Balances

6. Check the opening and closing balance. Domi Vera finds them next to their labels. If it picked the wrong figure, choose Pick on statement and click the right one; it can be on any page, such as a summary box on page 1.
7. Give the template a name you’ll recognise and save it.

Lines that aren’t transactions

A line without a date, such as a Card Total, is never counted. Some statements put dated lines such as Balance brought forward inside the table. Add the start of the line under Lines to skip. Keep the phrase specific: skipping every line that starts with “balance” would also skip a deposit described as Balance of rent. The balance check would catch that, but it’s easier not to cause it.

Re-teaching

When a bank changes its statement design, the check fails on the first import in the new layout. Choose Re-teach the layout from the review screen, or Re-teach on the Templates tab. Saving replaces the template and bumps its version. Imports you’ve already recorded keep a note of the version that read them.

Levy statements

A body corporate’s levy statement is taught on the same screen, for one unit, from the unit’s Levy template tab on Properties (import a levy statement). The columns are named Charges and Payments, the balance is money owed to the body corporate, and the second step has more to check: the account reference (the words that tell this unit apart, such as the building and the unit number: click each word, in order, then Done) and the statement’s options (one month, nothing brought forward, bill one month later). If the total is printed under its label (Total Due in a box), Pick on statement finds it there. A page that doesn’t repeat the column headings is read with the first page’s columns.

A template holds the layout only: where the columns sit, the formats and the lines to skip. It never holds any transactions, and it’s private to your company.