Creating a bank rule

Creating a bank rule in FR Books enables you to automatically categorise and assign tax codes to the imported transactions which match the rule conditions you have selected.

Once your bank rule has been created, you will also have the option to 'auto confirm' any transaction to which your bank rule applies to.

Bank rules will only apply to transactions which have been automatically imported through a bank feed or file import, they will not apply to transactions entered manually into FR Books.

How to create a bank rule in FR Books
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First you will need to head to your 'Imported Transactions' screen, as seen below:

Then from the 'Check' tab you will need to click the button below, followed by 'Create Bank Rule':

FR Books will then pull information from this transaction into the rule conditions which you will use to create your 'New Bank Rule', as seen below:

You will need to enter a Name and Description for your Bank Rule, we recommend making your Description as informative as possible. This way, if you set up a number of different bank rules they will be easy to identify from the Bank Rules summary page.

You can choose to edit any part of your rule conditions to ensure they will apply to all similar transactions you wish to automatically categorise and assign a tax code to.

In this example the Description describes purchasing petrol; '5700 04NOV18 C SAINSBURYS PETROL UPTON GB - POS':

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We will change the 'Rule conditions' to look for just the keyword 'PETROL' in the Description and remove the 'amount rule condition', so that the Bank Rule will be applied to any petrol purchases, regardless of the transaction value or other words in the Description field.

If you are creating a Bank Rule for Recurring Transactions, then leave the 'amount rule condition' as it is to ensure that the Bank Rule would always apply to recurring transactions of the same value.

FR Books will automatically populate the Bank account for your imported transactions and assign the transaction a tax code (based on your previous selections for transactions of this type), as seen below:

You will then need to select the category that you want the Bank Rule to assign to this transaction and any future transactions which meet the rule conditions. In this example, the category will be 'Travel and Subsistence'.

Using this same example the Bank Rule you have just created would be as follows:

'If description includes 'PETROL' in the NatWest bank account, then assign to the Travel and Subsistence category and the Standard VAT tax code.'

Once you are happy with your rule conditions, bank account and which category and tax codes will be assigned to these transactions, click the 'Apply This Rule' button to create your Bank Rule.

You also have the option to 'auto confirm' the transactions which this Bank Rule applies to. This enables FR Books to automatically check and confirm these transactions for you, although you can still check through them later under the Confirmed tab of your imported bank transactions.

Where to view, edit and create new bank rules
After you have created your Bank Rule, you will be able to view and edit them from the Bank Rules summary page. You can also add new rules from here by clicking the 'New Rule' button:

When creating a new Bank Rule from scratch, you will be required to set your own rule conditions to control which of your imported transactions will be automatically categorised and assigned a tax code.

When selecting your rule conditions there are three initial options for you to choose from:

• Money In
• Money Out
• Description

You can see these in the image below:

Your initial selection will then provide different options for the second part of your rule condition. For example, if you had selected Money In or Money Out, you will then be able choose between the following four options to continue constructing your bank rule:

• Greater than
• Less than
• Equal to
• Not equal to

You can these in the image below:

Alternatively, if you had selected Description for the first part of your rule condition, you will then be able to choose between the following three options:

• Equal to
• Not equal to
• Includes

You can these in the image below:

For example, if you wanted to set up a new Bank Rule for all train tickets purchased from 'Trainline', select 'Description', then 'Includes', and enter 'Trainline'.

After you have set up your rule conditions to control which transactions this Bank Rule will apply to, select which Bank Account these transactions will appear in, followed by the category and tax code you want assigned to these transactions.

Using the same example, we would select our main business bank account 'NatWest', followed by the 'Travel and Subsistence' category and the'VAT Exempt or Zero-rated - 0%' tax code (as train tickets are zero-rated).

Using the same example, the Bank Rule you have just created would be as follows:

'If the Description includes 'Trainline' in the NatWest bank account, then assign to the 'Travel and Subsistence' category and the VAT exempt or zero-rated tax code.'

Once you are happy with your rule conditions, bank account and which category and tax codes will be assigned to these transactions click the 'Apply This Rule' button to create your Bank Rule.

You will again have the option to 'auto confirm' the transactions which this bank rule applies to, enabling FR Books to automatically check and confirm these transactions for you.

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