F.A.Q - BankData for Accountants
Introduction
General Questions
Getting Started
Feed Collection & Bank Feeds
Using BankData
Introduction
What is BankData?
APS BankData for Accountants provides connectivity to bank accounts and enables a smooth, seamless coding experience for efficient processing and direct integration with XPA.
It enables a user to leverage the power of Xcede reporting to provide a consistent reporting output from a single application.
How do I get BankData?
BankData for Accountants is available for all our clients using our APS XPA product. If you are currently running XPA 11 or above and have APS Cloud services installed and running you can start using BankData. Please read through our Getting Started with BankData guide for more information on how to switch on BankData for your firm.
What is the cost of BankData?
You will only be charged for active BankData feed collection on a monthly basis, users will be notified that there is a cost involved when setting up the feed collections.
Learn more about costs here
What is a Direct Bank Feed?
A direct Bank Feed is a secure direct connection between your Bank and APS to send transactions from your bank account to the APS XPA product.
What is a feed Collection?
A Feed Collection is a collection of bank account feeds.
Which Financial institutions are available?
We have a list of available banks and financial institutions available in this knowledge article.
General
Can I access all my bank accounts through Feed Collection?
No. Accounts that are not accessible may vary from bank to bank, so you should consult your Bank Relationship Manager for a full list of which type of accounts that can and cannot be accessed. Generally, transactional accounts without special conditions are accessible by BankData.
Accounts not accessible include:
- Credit Card Accounts
- Any account that does not have a BSB (Bank State Branch) – for instance Home Loan Accounts
- Special Condition accounts – like Loan Accounts, High Interest Savings Accounts
How do I request a Bank Feed?
A Bank Feed is requested through the BankData application, select to add a new Bank Feed and you will be prompted to download a form to sign and email back to Reckon. Some banks may have electronic online request forms, users will be prompted with this form when requesting access to the account, follow the prompts to complete the form.
Who can sign the “3rd party access” form?
All applications to the bank must be signed in accordance with existing authorities held by the bank. Accountants, Bookkeepers and Consultants should take special care that forms are signed by their clients and not themselves. In some cases the name on the bank account may be different to the name of the Business and the client name in APS Practice Management.
Can I add more accounts to the “3rd party access” form?
The “3rd party access” form is populated for the details you entered in your BankData signup. Yes, you can add more accounts to the form you receive, but you must add these accounts to your BankData record.
How long does it take from sign-up to being activated?
The length of actual time will depend on the speed at which you deliver signed forms to APS and whether there are any irregularities with the “3rd party access” authority form. Where the bank is not satisfied with the form they may refer the form to the local branch for clarification and contact with the account holder. Under normal conditions you should allow 10 days.
How many bank accounts can I add to my XPA Ledger?
You can have as many accounts as you like, from any number of financial institutions.
Can I import data from Banklink?
If you would like to backfill data from Banklink into BankData for coding, you can download a .qif file from Banklink and import into BankData for coding
Getting Started
How do I add more accounts on to my Feed Collection?
On the Manage Feed screen, click on Add Feed and follow the on screen prompts. Depending on the account, you many need to submit a “3rd party access” form for this account signed in accordance with the authority held by the bank on this account.
What setup do I need to do to access BankData?
See our Getting Started with BankData for Accountants guide
From what date can I import transactions?
Bank transaction availability are available from the day your Bank activates your bank account for direct Bank feeds – that is after they have received and accepted your “3rd party access” authority.
Subsequent BankData imports will give you transactions entered into your bank account since the last import was done.
Do I have to import all transactions into XPA in one session?
No. You can define a smaller date range to import.
What Account Types aren't available via BankData?
Non-standard accounts such as Home Loans, Term Deposits and any Accounts with restrictions aren't available via BankData. There is an initiative in Australia and New Zealand called Open Banking due to start in 2020 which will enable banking customers to get Feeds from any account types. We will provide more information around Open Banking closer to the time.
Feed Collections & Bank Feeds
Can I move a Bank Feed to another Feed Collection/ledger?
Yes. Open the Feed Collection screen in File details > Select the feed collection you wish to change to for that ledger.
How do I cancel my BankData subscription?
You will need to delete all your bank Feeds within Bank Feed Management screen and cancel directly with the bank.
Can I edit a feed collection name?
Editing a feed collection name is not possible in the current release
Can I delete a feed collection?
This can be requested via Support. An improvement request has been logged for this to be available for users to do themselves in XPA. Reference BDFA-847
Can I delete a Bank feed?
Review KA-04478 for steps on how to delete a bank feed
What happens if I cancel a bank Feed with the bank but not in XPA?
The feed will appear active in XPA but not receive any new transactions
Can a Bank Feed belong to multiple Ledgers?
No, a bank feed can only exist against 1 feed collection/ Ledger
Why am I still getting charged for a feed collection?
The bank feed has not been cancelled / deleted in the XPA ledger.
What email address do I use when creating an ANZ AU feed?
You can use any email address for this field.
Using BankData
Why can’t I transfer the transactions?
Transactions can only be transferred for the selected date range if:
-
All transactions in the selected date range are coded
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The bank account has a general ledger account code.
Why are the uncoded unlocked transactions not included in the 'Uncoded' total?
The transaction has been coded and the XPA ledger subsequently updated to delete / translate the account code. When these transactions get transferred, the import process will add the codes they were coded to.
Why do locked transactions have no account code?
The account code that was used to transfer the transaction into the XPA ledger no longer exists.
Can I change the XPA bank code for a Feed collection?
Yes, you can do this by reselecting the Feed Collection XPA > File Details > Ellipses > Link Feed collection, the Account prompt will appear on screen