CONFIGURATION EDITOR
The Configuration Editor is divided into two parts - one for editing your Configuration, and one for previewing it and comparing it to your original transactions. A Configuration is also known as a Template.
You can use both CSV and QIF format to specify a configuration in this editor
For the majority of this help CSV is described, although it is functionally similar to QIF there are some differences, which will be described at the end.
We have provided a number of step by step examples on setting a Configuration (for both CSV and QIF):
CSV Examples: Example 1 , Example 2, Example 3, QIF Example
CSV provides you with more options when setting a configuration. CSV as a format is more often correctly implemented by financial institutions than QIF is. Sometimes QIF may contain truncated (or overly shortened) descriptions, which can make it harder to identify your transactions.
How you determine cheques and set exclude rules are the same for both formats.
SOURCE FILE & RESULTS
Allows you to preview how your Statement will Import and compare this against the raw statement/transaction file. Errors will be marked in red and require your attention. The errors will be listed in the ‘Legend’ palette, a small window that displays errors, instructions and what different colours represent.
View your transactions in the ‘Source File & Results’ tab. There are two panels. The top panel displays your raw transactions (straight from the file). The bottom panel displays how your statement will import using the setting that you specify in the ‘Configure’ tab.
Take note of any signs in front of your transaction amounts. These signs may mean different things with different account types e.g. a +$20 might indicate a credit with some accounts, whilst -$20 might indicate a credit in others.
In the following example, + indicates a credit, whilst - indicates a debit. The convention used by Budgets Get Real is that a debit is something that makes you poorer e.g. writing a cheque, bank fees and credit card purchases are debits.
Check the columns in ‘How Statement will Import’ against your raw transactions. Do the dates, Amounts and Descriptions appear correct? Budgets Get Real will try and match columns (where possible), but there are some columns that you will have to set - such as any money columns and signs.
Any errors will display in red, in both of the panels. They will also be listed in the ‘Legend’ palette. You will need to fix these errors before you can use your Configuration. You can fix these errors in the ‘Configure’ tab.
CONFIGURE
Allows you to configure the details for your transactions and how they will Import. You can view the changes that you have made here in the ‘Source File & Results’ tab. This is where you fix any errors presented to you there, and add any rules for cheques or for transactions to exclude.
FIXING ERRORS
You can repair any errors using the options available to you in ‘Configure’. These options determine how and where Budgets Get Real looks at certain information in your statements. You can switch between ‘Configure’ and ‘Source File & Results’ to view the results of any changes that you have made.
The most common error that you will have to fix is for the money column. Usually you will only need to set the signs for a debit and/or credit.
Cheque rules apply
If you can write cheques from this account you will need to set a cheque rule. Cheque rules determine how cheques are picked up and imported into Budgets Get Real.
If you write cheques from this account, check the box ‘Cheque rules apply’
Excluded rules apply
There may be a need to exclude certain transactions from being imported into Budgets Get Real. Such transactions may include payment authorizations on a credit card, or other partially processed transactions, such as Internet transfers.
If you need to exclude any transactions, check the box ‘Excluded rules apply’.
OPTIONS FOR CSV - Show Details
OPTIONS FOR QIF - Show Details
SETTING CHEQUE / CHECK RULES
A cheque rule will identify which transactions in your statement are cheques. Cheques need to be treated differently to other transactions because they do not have much of a description to identify them, only a cheque number.
Set a cheque rule by choosing to ‘Set’ a cheque rule from the ‘Configure’ tab.
In the new window that appears, enter the details that suggest a cheque:
- Nominate the column or tag that the cheque ‘description’ appears in.
This description may be something like ‘Customer Cheque 12345′. - Enter the non-unique portion of this description. Because each cheque number is different, this would be ‘Customer Cheque’
- Nominate where the cheque number appears using Action. In this case it is word 3 of Tag ‘N’.
- Nominate how you want cheques to Report or show in Budgets Get Real. Your statement may have an obscure description for your cheques that you want to change. Enter the word/s you want to appear before a cheque number.
Click here to view an example that includes setting a Cheque Rule
SETTING EXCLUDED RULES
Sometimes transactions are included in your statements even though they are only partially processed. Partially processed transactions may change when they are finalised, and appear to be a different transaction. This can cause duplicate transactions to import. Transactions like this usually appear at the end (most recent portion) of your statement, and should be excluded where possible.
To exclude specific transactions from Budgets Get Real we need to know where to find them.
Some transactions that you may want to exclude are Purchase Authorisations with credit cards and pending Internet transfers.
To add an Exclude Rule:
- Select ‘Set’ Exclude Rule from the ‘Configure’ tab.
- ‘Add New Rule’ from the new window.
- Set the details for your exclude rule by nominating the transactions that you want to exclude. Specifying where a distinctive element of that transaction can be found and what it is can do this. A distinctive element might be all or part of its description.
You can add additional criteria for your rule if needed.
Click here to view an example that includes setting an Exclude Rule
All is used when you want to include all of a word, or a number of words. e.g. “Purchase Authorisation”.
Start is used when you are looking for a string that starts with a certain word, or number of words. e.g. “Purchase Authorisation #123456″. With numbers a start rule is often necessary, because the numbers will be always be different.
Empty nominates that column as empty.
PosInt stands for Positive Integer. This allows you to nominate a number string that is not a cheque number or an amount of money. An example of when you might use this would be to nominate to position of a transaction number.
Decimal nominates the position of a decimal and number. This will usually be for money.
Money, like Decimal, allows you to nominate the position of money.
To edit a Rule, click on the Rule link.
We have included a list of things to check to ensure that your transactions import correctly. Having a well set up Configuration will ensure that your transactions will import properly.
NOTES ON QIF FORMAT
Functions similarly to CSV with the following differences:
- Configure is more limited with QIF, because of the different format, as detailed below
- Source files display differently to represent the QIF format
- Rules apply to QIF tags instead of CSV columns
CONFIGURE FOR QIF
- Can only set a date format and a debit / credit sign. All other tags are pre-defined.
Click here to view an example of setting a Configuration for a QIF file
Options for CSV
Column Delimiter
This is what separates (or delimits) each column of your statement. It will be either a comma or a tab.
Exclude lines at start
Statements often include lines of extra information at the start. These lines do not, however, contain any transactions and cannot be used by Budgets Get Real. Exclude any of these lines if they have not automatically been excluded (excluded lines show in grey in ‘Source File & Results’).
Date
Nominates the column in which the date appears, and the date format.
Money
Your statement may contain one or two money columns. You will need to nominate how many money columns there are, and which columns they are in e.g. columns 2 & 5. Please note that Budgets Get Real does not pay attention to balance columns, so don’t count them as a money column.
For each money column you will need to nominate how credits and debits are displayed. A sign and/or a suffix indicate credits and debits. You will only need to set a sign or a suffix if one exists.
Description
Nominates the column in which a description appears. Most transactions will be accompanied by a description, often the name of a store.
Category
Sometimes, in addition to the description, a transaction may also have been associated to a category. If there is a category in your transactions, nominate it as ‘required’, along with the number of the column in which it appears.
Options for QIF
Date
Nominates the date format for the date Tag “D”
Amount
Nominates how money is to be interpreted. You will need to select how debits are represented in your statement, through the signs + and -.
Reference
Indicates a reference number. You will use this if you are using cheques and have to nominate a cheque rule.
Payee
This is a pre-defined QIF tag, you cannot change this tags options.
Memo
This is a pre-defined QIF tag, you change this tags options.
