How-to
Bank reconciliation in Nefin: from statement import to a locked period
Nefin Team7 min read
Your bank statement is the one document you don't write yourself, which is exactly why it's the best check on your books. Reconciling means making every line on it agree with something in your ledger, and every bank entry in your ledger agree with a line on it. Nefin does the searching; you make the decisions.
Animation: bank statement lines are matched to Nefin transactions until nothing is left to reconcile.
- Four statement lines are imported from an OFX file.
- A 1,345.20 receipt is matched to invoice INV-1042 by exact amount and invoice number, and booked.
- A 2.50 fee is recognised from its wording and booked to 6400 Bank charges.
- A 188.80 payment is matched to the supplier's bill, and a 500.00 transfer to savings by a learned rule.
- With no unbooked lines and a difference of 0.00, the October period is locked as reconciled.
1. Import the statement
Open the bank account and import its statement. Nefin reads CSV files, with a column mapping and a preview before anything is saved, as well as OFX, QBO and QIF exports from your bank. Lines you've already imported are recognised and skipped, so importing an overlapping date range twice is harmless.
Statement import and reconciliation are included from the Professional plan up.
2. Read the suggestions
For every unbooked line, Nefin ranks what it might be and shows the best three. The signals are deliberately simple, so you can see why something was suggested:
| Signal | Example |
|---|---|
| Exact amount | A 1,345.20 receipt and an open invoice for 1,345.20 |
| Document number in the text | "INV-1042" in the bank's description |
| Contact name | "ARBERIA STUDIO" and your client Arbëria Studio |
| Fee wording | "MONTHLY ACCOUNT FEE" |
| A rule it learned from you | Every month's "TRANSFER TO SAVINGS" booked the same way |
Nefin can also run an AI pass over the open lines after an import, which catches harder cases: one payment covering several invoices, a part payment, or a payment that arrived short by a bank charge. Its instruction is to never guess, because a wrong match marks the wrong invoice paid. Every suggestion, rule-based or AI, is only a suggestion until you book it.
3. Book each line
- Payment: settles one or more invoices or bills. If the bank deducted a fee from the amount, book it in the same step; it goes to 6400 Bank charges by default.
- Bank fee: money out that is just the bank's charge. Debit 6400 Bank charges, credit the bank.
- Transfer: between two of your own accounts in the same currency. Nefin also settles the matching line on the other account's statement.
- Categorize: post the line straight to any account, for things that have no document.
- Link: the entry is already in your books (a payment recorded by hand, a payroll payout), so just tie the line to it. Nothing new posts.
- Draft payment: you know money came in but not yet what for. Park it, post nothing, and connect it to invoices later.
Every booking can be undone, with a note that stays in the audit log. And each line you book teaches the account a rule, keyed on the counterparty or on the description with dates and numbers stripped out, so next month's identical line is suggested for you. Rules only suggest; they never book on their own.
4. Reconcile and lock the period
The reconciliation report compares the balance in your ledger with the statement's closing balance and lists what explains any gap: statement lines not yet booked, draft payments, and bank entries in your books that appear on no statement line. When nothing is unbooked and the difference is 0.00, lock the period.
What a reconciled month gives you
Receivables and payables you can trust, because every receipt and payment is tied to the document it settles. Bank charges that are actually in your expenses. And a cash balance in Nefin that matches the bank to the cent, for a period that can't drift afterwards.