Matching and creation rules FAQs

Rules help you save time during reconciliation. Add rules to rule sets, then assign the rule sets to bank accounts.

There are three types of rule:

• Matching rules tell Sage Intacct how to automatically match incoming bank transactions to existing Intacct transactions for reconciliation.

  Matching rules are included in rule sets.

• Creation rules tell Intacct how to automatically create new transactions from incoming bank transaction data.

  For example, you might have a transaction from the bank that needs to be recorded as a journal entry. You can set up Intacct to do this for you automatically when you import a bank file or receive transactions from a bank feed.

• Assignment rules are not used for reconciliation and are not included in rule sets.

  Use assignment rules with the Bank transaction assistant to automatically assign a customer to an unmatched bank deposit transaction.

Use rules and rule sets with any account that you want to reconcile with an import file or a bank feed. You can apply a rule set (which contains rules) to either a bank or credit card account.

Learn how to apply a rule set to an account.

Rules run in the following circumstances:

• When you access the account reconciliation page.
• When you import a bank file.
• When bank transactions arrive into Sage Intacct from a bank feed.
• Automatically every 4 hours.

If you manually unmatch a normal transaction, the rule won't run on that transaction again. Learn more about manually matching or ignoring a bank transaction. You can create a new rule to add to the rule set so that when the rule set runs again, it attempts to re-match transactions.

There are three types of rule:

• Matching rules tell Sage Intacct how to automatically match incoming bank transactions to existing Intacct transactions for reconciliation.

  Matching rules are included in rule sets.

• Creation rules tell Intacct how to automatically create new transactions from incoming bank transaction data.

  For example, you might have a transaction from the bank that needs to be recorded as a journal entry. You can set up Intacct to do this for you automatically when you import a bank file or receive transactions from a bank feed.

• Assignment rules are not used for reconciliation and are not included in rule sets.

  Use assignment rules with the Bank transaction assistant to automatically assign a customer to an unmatched bank deposit transaction.

There are two types of rule to add to rule sets: matching rules and creation rules.

Group all matching rules together and all creation rules together. Make sure that the matching rules run before any creation rules. This is because the rule set first matches existing Intacct transactions to bank transactions, and then attempts to create any new transactions within Intacct.

Within each group of rules, the most specific rule needs to run first.

Within a rule set, group matching rules first, and group creation rules last.

Matching rules

Creation rules

You might have multiple Intacct transactions that match to one bank transaction. You can use grouping within the rule to focus on matching multiple transactions to one bank transaction.

Example: A bank records a single debit for multiple payments posted individually in Intacct. In Intacct, a bank payment file is created on 4/1/2024 for three individual payments that total $10,000. A single bank debit is posted on 4/3/2024 for $10,000. In the description of the transaction, the bank has included "ACH DIRECT DEBIT".

You would create a matching rule that uses both filters and grouping:

1. Filter for Intacct transactions by description.

   When payments are created in Intacct, add a value in the description field. This description can later be used as a filter in a rule.

   1. On the Rule page in the Filter transaction by section, in the Data source dropdown list select Intacct transactions.
   2. In the Field dropdown list select Description.
   3. In the Operator dropdown list select Contains.
   4. In the Value field enter the description as it appears in Intacct.

2. Filter for bank transactions by description.

   You want to make sure the rule only evaluates bulk payment details. Look for a descriptive value in bank transactions. In the example above, this would be "ACH DIRECT DEBIT".

   1. In a new row, in the Data source dropdown list select Bank transactions.
   2. In the Field dropdown list select Description.
   3. In the Operator dropdown list select Contains.

   4. In the Value field enter the description as it appears at the bank.

      If you select Equals in the Operator dropdown list the Value field is case sensitive, otherwise it's not case sensitive.

3. Group Intacct transactions by date.

   In the Group transactions by section, for Intacct transactions, select Posting date.

4. Create a matching condition to account for the posting date variance.

   In this example, the posting date variance is two.

   1. In the Bank transaction field dropdown list select Posting date.
   2. In the Operator dropdown list select Within.
   3. In the Value field enter 2.
   4. In the Match this field in an Intacct transaction dropdown list select Posting date.

5. Create a matching condition for Amount.

   All matching rules require a matching condition for Amount.

   1. Scroll down to the Matching conditions section.
   2. In the Bank transaction field dropdown list, select Amount.
   3. In the Operator dropdown list, select Equals.
   4. In the Match this field in an Intacct transaction dropdown list, select Amount.

6. Select Save.

A filter reduces the number of transactions that the matching transaction has to consider, and improves it's accuracy. You can have a rule filter for both Intacct and bank transactions, and you can add multiple filter rows to get precise results.

Example: A restaurant company has ten locations that all share a single bank account for daily credit card deposits. The accountant wants to record the daily credit card fees by location.

1. Filter the bank transactions to only include bank fee transactions for a specific location.

   Review bank transactions and identifying a unique value by which to filter. Create a filter on bank transaction descriptions that contains that value, for example, "Merchant card fee".

2. Then, filter bank transactions by location.

   Review bank transactions and identify a unique value by which to filter. Create a filter on bank transaction descriptions that contains that value, for example location 55009.

See more examples of matching rules and examples of creation rules.

You might have transactions that post in Intacct on one day and post at the bank on another. You can set up a rule to match transactions by amount and posting date. For example, you have a transaction that posted in Intacct on the first day of the month but it shows up on your bank statement on the second day of the month. There is a 2-day variance.

To set up a matching condition for posting date:

1. Create a new matching rule, or edit an existing matching rule.
2. In the Matching conditions section, in the Bank transaction field dropdown list select Posting date.
3. In the Operator dropdown list select Within.
4. In the Value field enter 2.
5. In the Match this field in an Intacct transaction dropdown list select Posting date.

If you unmatch a transaction, it cannot be automatically matched to the same transaction using the same rule again.

However, if another transaction exists that is a match, when the rule set runs again the two transactions will match. If no other matching transactions exist, you can manually match or ignore the extra transaction. Or, you can create a new rule with the correct configurations and add that to the rule set to try to match the transaction again.