Import Transactions

The information in this section relates to a pre-release version of ContactsLaw and is not representative of the final product.

ContactsLaw can import transactions from an external data source, such as a CSV file from a bank.

This is typically performed on accounts that mirror those held by a bank or other financial institution. It is likely that transactions will occur on these accounts which were not initiated by the business; for example, deposits made by external parties or payments by direct debit.

In order to exclude transactions initiated by the business (and hence already recorded), the importer needs to compare the two sets, requiring the user to resolve any ambiguities.

In addition, the user must also enter any remaining particulars for each transaction (where the external data is incomplete). The importer can use these to make suggestions about future transactions.

Transaction Sources

There are no standards that govern the format in which transactions are exported from banks or other financial institutions; therefore, before you can import transactions from a new source, you need to create a transaction source that reflects your particular data.

Transaction sources have the following properties:

• Description (to differentiate from other sources)
• Format - currently only Comma Separated Values (.csv) is supported
• Whether to use commas, tabs or fixed widths as delimiters between columns
• Whether the data includes column headings
• Whether line-breaks are permitted inside cells

Once these have been appropriately configured, you then need to identify the purpose of each column in the data source:

• Date
• Bank description - typically incorporating a unique reference number
• Cheque #
• Debit
• Credit
• Amount - where debits and credits appear in the same column

Amounts can be further processed by reversing the sign (+/-) or dividing by 100 (where figures are expressed in cents).

The importer will ignore any additional columns.

In cases where multiple transaction sources are defined for the same format, you can specify which source should be used by default.