Open centralOS

Money

centralOS keeps the business's books from its bank statements. You add your bank accounts, import each statement, then say what every transaction was for. That's called reconciling or allocating, and it feeds the Money overview and the GST figures for your BAS.

  • Bank Accounts lists the business's bank accounts.
  • Transactions lists every bank transaction, with how much of each is Reconciled and whether it's Documented with a receipt or invoice.
  • Money shows what customers owe, what's overdue, money in that isn't matched to a sale yet, cash flow and the biggest expense categories.

Add a bank account

  1. Open Bank Accounts and press +.
  2. Give it a Label you'll recognise, such as "Everyday account", and fill in Account Name, BSB, Account Number, Bank Name and Pay ID if you have one.
  3. Tick Default transaction account for the account customers pay into. Its details are the bank details printed on quotes and invoices.
  4. Press Create Bank Account.

Import a bank statement

centralOS doesn't connect to the bank directly. Statements are downloaded from internet banking and imported.

  1. In your internet banking, export the transactions for the dates you want as an OFX, QFX or QIF file. Most banks offer at least one of these, sometimes labelled Microsoft Money (OFX) or Quicken (QFX or QIF).
  2. Open Transactions and press Import, or drag the file onto the Transactions page.
  3. Choose the Bank Account and the Statement file.
  4. Check the list and press Import statement.

Transactions already imported are skipped, so importing overlapping dates is safe. View skipped rows shows what was left out.

To make the next import quicker, press + Add shortcut > Web link in the import panel and save a link to the transactions page of your internet banking. It stays there for every import, one click away when the next statement is due.

Allocate a transaction

  1. Click a transaction in Transactions.
  2. Choose what it was: an Expense or Income category, or Other for things like ATO payments.
  3. Check the tax code. Some things have no GST, such as bank fees and wages.
  4. To split one transaction across categories, press Add manual allocation and set each amount.
  5. Press Save Allocations.

The categories are edited in Settings > Banking > Edit categories.

Match a payment to a sale or purchase

When a customer pays by bank transfer, or you pay a bill:

  1. Click the transaction in Transactions.
  2. Press Attach sale for money in, or Attach purchase for money out, and pick the sale or purchase.
  3. Press Save Allocations.

The sale then shows as paid. Money in, not matched on the Money page counts deposits still waiting for this.

Stripe payouts

Card and direct debit payments through Stripe arrive in the bank as one payout, less Stripe's fees.

  1. Click the Stripe deposit in Transactions.
  2. Press Attach Stripe payment and pick the payments it covers. The Stripe fees are added for you.
  3. Press Save Allocations.

The payments then show Settled to bank on their sales.

Receipts

Drag a receipt or bill, as a PDF or photo, onto a transaction. centralOS reads it, creates the purchase with the file attached and links it to the transaction. Transactions with a receipt or invoice show as Documented.

Let centralAgent do it

On Transactions, press Agent reconciliation. A centralAgent chat opens with the request ready to send. It works through unreconciled transactions oldest first, matches payments to sales, purchases and Stripe payouts, says what it's unsure of, and asks for receipts it needs. You can drop receipts straight onto that chat.

Things to know

  • Without GST registered in Settings > Business Details, there's no GST to choose and transactions use BAS Excluded.
  • Once a transaction is in a BAS snapshot, its GST is locked and can't change.
  • Preparing a BAS from these allocations is in GST and BAS.