There are two ways to get bank transactions into the system: import them via an export from a banking website, or via an automatic integration. This article explains both methods.

We've partnered with Plaid to directly integrate with most major banks and easily import transactions into the accounting module.

With this integration,

To get started, go to Accounting > Banking from the left-hand menu and then click on the "Link Accounts" button at the top.

A pop up will appear with an introduction to Plaid and how the process works. Click on the "Connect New Institution" button.

Once that is done, a pop up will assist in the process of finding the bank, logging in, and authorizing transactions to be imported into One Church periodically. This is done safely and securely. The bank credentials are not shared with One Church. For more information on how Plaid handles security, please see https://plaid.com/safety.

Once the bank accounts have been chosen to connect, one will be taken back to One Church to link them to the register account for the transactions to be imported into.

Important: only cash accounts and credit card accounts can be used to import transactions. This is set via the Special Usage field when editing the chart of accounts.

Also indicate how much transaction history should be imported. By default, this will bring in the last 12 months of history. The amount of history that can be imported depends on the bank that is being connected to.

Once done mapping the bank accounts to the chart of accounts, click on "Save" to complete the process. It may take a few minutes before historical transactions are imported.

After the initial import, the system checks for new transactions multiple times per day.

Important: To make changes to previously linked accounts or to connect new bank accounts, click on the same "Link Accounts" button at the top of the screen.

If the bank is not found in the list or there is trouble successfully connecting to the bank, please see this article for possible reasons why. If assistance is still needed in connecting to a bank, please reach out to Plaid support using this link.

For general Plaid help, visit their help center.

Instead of having transactions be imported automatically (see section above), import them manually. To do so, first go to the banking website and download a CSV of the banking transactions.

Afterwards, go to Accounting > Banking from the left-hand menu within One Church. Choose the register account to import the transactions into and then click on the "Import" button.

A pop up will appear to upload the CSV file from the bank. Please note that it must be a CSV file and not an Excel file. If the file is in an Excel format, simply open it in that program and save it as a CSV file.

Alternatively, click on the "download template file" button near the top to manually add the transactions to a spreadsheet to then import. This template provides the correct format for the data that needs to be included, such as the transaction date, description, and amount.

Once the template has been downloaded, copy and paste the transaction data from the bank’s file into the corresponding columns in the template. Then, save the file and return to the import modal to upload it.

After uploading, map the columns in the file to the appropriate fields in One Church Software. Mapping refers to the process of matching the column headers in the spreadsheet to the fields the system expects (such as date, description, and amount).

When it comes to amounts, two options are available, depending on how the file is structured. If the file includes both income and expenses in one single column (with expenses as negative numbers and income as positive numbers), map that column to the Amount field. Alternatively, if the file separates amounts into two columns—one for money spent and one for money received— map each accordingly: one column for Money Spent and one for Money Received. Only one of these two methods (single column or two columns) should be used in the file.

After finished mapping all required fields, review the information to make sure everything is correctly matched. Once it looks good, click the "Import" button. The transactions will now appear in the bank feed, where they can be categorized and reconciled with the records.

Once the file is uploaded, mapping fields will appear. Choose the columns from the spreadsheet that correspond to the data being imported. The system will make a best guess as to which columns contain the needed data, but always review what columns it picked for accuracy.

Once the fields have been mapped, click on the "Import" button to bring in those transactions.

Important: this import tool will automatically ignore any transactions that were previously imported. Specifically, it will ignore any transactions that have the same Date, Description, and Amount as any transaction already in the system.