Plaid integration
Bring bank and card activity into Imprest through Plaid and reconcile it.
Plaid supplies bank and card activity to Imprest. Each downloaded line is matched to a record already in your books or categorized to create the missing record, and reconciliation checks the books against your statement.
Plaid
ImprestHow it works
Three common scenarios, step by step.
Bill already paid
Explains the bank withdrawal without recording the purchase a second time.
Example: a $500 repair bill and its $500 payment from checking, both already recorded in Imprest, with no tax or fee.
Bill and payment recorded
The accounting already exists
Withdrawal downloaded
The bank line is added to the feed
$500.00 Bank withdrawal
Existing payment matched
Matched from a suggestion or a manual search
Statement reconciled
Matching and reconciliation answer different questions
Once the payment is matched and the statement reconciles, your books still contain one $500 repair expense and one $500 payment. The bank line shows where that payment cleared.
Purchase missing from the books
Categorizing creates the accounting record that a downloaded line cannot supply on its own.
Example: a posted $240 checking withdrawal for $180 of office supplies and $60 of software, with no bill, expense or payment already recorded.
Purchase made
The bank records a $240 withdrawal
Downloaded line reviewed
Existing records are checked first
Purchase split and categorized
The two lines total $240
Purchase reconciled
Compared with the statement period and balance
Saving the split increases expenses by $240 and reduces Checking by $240, with $180 allocated to Office Supplies and $60 to Software. The allocation is correct when those categories match the actual purchase.
Transfer between your own accounts
Two bank lines describe one transfer, with no income or expense.
Example: a $1,000 transfer from Checking to Savings, both owned by the same business, with no fee or currency conversion.
Funds moved at the bank
One account pays out and the other receives
Transfer suggestion reviewed
Both accounts and directions are verified
Transfer recorded once
Or matched to a transfer that already exists
Each account reconciled
Cash can be in transit at statement end
When the transfer is recorded once, Checking decreases by $1,000 and Savings increases by $1,000, so total business cash is unchanged. Each side is reconciled only when its statement supports it.
Scope
Synchronized data and your controls.
Data synchronized
The first connection downloads the history your institution supplies. Later syncs bring added, changed and removed transactions and refresh balances. Bank notifications and scheduled syncs can provide updates, and Sync now starts another check. A successful sync does not confirm that the bank has supplied every recent transaction.
Your controls
You choose which accounts to connect, link each one to the correct account in your books and complete its start-date setup. Suggestions require review unless a rule or other enabled automation applies them. While QuickBooks or Xero still holds your books, feeds import and match transactions but do not categorize new activity in Imprest.
Set up
Setting up Plaid.
Requirements
- A role in Imprest that can manage banking: owner, admin, accountant, bookkeeper or AP admin.
- At an accounting firm, a client assignment that allows managing banking.
- The online banking sign-in for the account, at a bank in the United States.
Connect your bank
- Open Bank Connections in the sidebar and select Add a connection.
- On the Plaid card, select Connect.
- In Connect an account, search for your bank and pick it.
- Sign in to your bank in the Plaid window and choose the accounts to share.
- For each account, pick the matching account in your chart of accounts, add a new one, or choose not to track it.
- Set the start date and opening balance, then select Continue, or Start tracking on the last account.
Plaid is a trademark of its owner, used here only to name the service Imprest connects to.