Reconciling the bank

Under Finance → Banking → Bank, the card is Bank accounts. Connect bank account sends you to choose your bank and approve access, then transactions come in automatically. Or Add manual account and type lines in, in pounds and pence with a minus for money going out (for example -12.50), or Import statement (CSV, OFX, QFX or QIF), with no live connection needed.

After you approve access at your bank, you come back to Banking and see Bank account connected. If you close the tab or lose signal before getting back, the link still finishes: the next time anyone opens Banking, the account appears.

If you see Your bank didn't finish connecting, the bank turned the request down or it ran out before you approved it. Choose Connect bank account and go through it again.

On a linked Open Banking account, Sync or Sync from bank pulls new lines (there's a cap of four syncs per linked account per day; a daily refresh also runs). Stripe-connected accounts say they refresh daily and don't have a Sync button. Then View transactions: Unreconciled only hides lines you've already explained. Lines your bank hasn't settled yet show greyed at the top as Pending at the bank. They're for information only: they can change or disappear, aren't counted anywhere, and appear as normal transactions once they clear.

Explain splits a transaction into allocation lines that must add up to the amount, in pounds and pence, so £42.50 can be split £30.25 and £12.25. Each line's Category comes from your list: money-in categories for money coming in, money-out ones for money going out. You can apply a category suggestion, add auto-categorisation rules (description contains, amount at least £10.00, and so on), tag a line to an Event, and save. Money going out lists any Event expenses waiting to match, so Match ties the line to what a leader logged instead of typing it again. Money coming in can be marked This is a donation, for Gift Aid. Once the lines sum correctly, the transaction shows as Reconciled (meaning explained, not that an invoice has been marked paid).

Each account shows its balance next to its buttons, with the Total in all accounts above the list. Opening balance sets what the account held at the start of a day, usually the opening balance on the first statement you imported. The balance is then that plus every transaction from that date, so it's right even when you've only brought in recent statements. Without one, it's just the transactions imported. An account connected to your bank gets its opening balance from the balance the bank reports, the first time it syncs. One you've set yourself is never changed: Clear it and sync again to use the bank's figure instead.

A manual account you no longer use can be put away: choose Close on its row, and pick the first day it no longer counts. Its lines from before then still count, stay matched and stay in your reports. From that day it adds nothing to the bank total and takes no new lines. It moves under Closed accounts, showing what it held when it closed, and Reopen brings it back.

If you kept the bank by hand and have now connected the same account, choose Replace with connected account on the manual one. Pick the connected account and the switch-over day (it suggests the day you connected). The manual account closes that day, and the connected account starts from what the manual one held at the start of it, so the money is only counted once. The preview shows the manual balance, the bank's own figure (once the connected account has synced), any difference between them, and the total in the bank before and after. If they differ, you can start from the bank's figure instead.

The connected account's lines from before the switch-over stay listed, greyed as Before this account took over, but they don't count and can't be explained or matched: the manual account has that money. If a line on either side is already explained or matched, unmatch it first. Reopen on the manual account undoes the switch.

Under Finance → Reports & compliance → Reports, below Pots at a glance, Does the money add up? puts what the group holds (the bank, card and Direct Debit takings on their way, and cash in hand) against what's set aside in section pots, group pots and events not yet closed. What's left is the General group pot. If that goes below zero, the pots add up to more than the group has.

Card takings count while they're on their way, in three parts. With Square is what's been taken but not paid out yet, after fees: the same as the balance on your Square dashboard. Paid out, not in the bank yet is each payout Square has sent that no line in your bank transactions shows yet. Once a bank line of the same amount arrives, the money is already in that account's balance, so the payout moves to Payouts in the bank, not matched yet instead of being counted twice; match it on Payouts to confirm. Paid online, not in a payout yet is anything paid through Scout Suite in the last 30 days that isn't in a payout. Takings from outside Scout Suite (a card reader, say) count as held but sit on their own line, Card takings not allocated yet, rather than in the general group pot, until you tag each sale under Finance → Card sales to an event, a pot or the general group pot. Any still untagged once their payout is in the bank count as the general group pot's.

Every figure opens to show what it's Made up of: each bank account (its opening balance and the transactions since), each payout and when it's due, each cash float, each section pot and group pot, and each event. Under the General group pot is the sum itself: held, less set aside, less card takings not allocated yet. Nothing is left to guess. Lines pending at the bank are noted under their account, but not counted, and a closed account isn't listed.

Recorded as paid, not seen in the bank lists payments marked as paid by bank transfer or standing order that no bank line has been matched to. Find each one in the bank transactions and match it, or check it was really paid.

Income & Expenditure ends with Net Income/(Loss): what was earned less what was spent in the period. That isn't the same as what the group holds, because it leaves out money you had before the period and money that moved without being income or spending. Under it, How this links to what you hold goes from one to the other, step by step.

It starts with what the group held at the start of the period (the bank, card and Direct Debit takings on their way, and cash in hand) and adds net income. Then it adds or takes away anything that isn't income or spending: money explained with a category under Not income or spending, such as a transfer between accounts or a balance brought forward; bank lines not explained yet; opening balances set during the period; payments recorded as paid that aren't matched to the bank; card fees still to come off takings not paid out yet; and cash paid in or drawn out that doesn't match cash in hand. Only the steps that apply are shown. What's left is what the group holds at the end, and when the period ends today it's the same total as Does the money add up?.

Card takings count as income in full on the day they're taken, including sales on a card reader that aren't Scout Suite payments, and the fee counts when they're paid out. The payout reaching the bank isn't income again: it's the same money arriving. If anything can't be explained, the report says so as Not explained by the steps above, rather than hiding it in another figure.