Introduction

In Netsuite, you have the option to install an additional Suite App Bundle named “Electronic Bank Payments” (ID 416781). This bundle is also often named “EFT module” or “Batch payments”. The bundle allows the user to create payment batches or direct debit batches that can be imported directly into your online bank portal by hand or with the use of the Fast Four SFTP Connector. In most situations, the bank will process the Batch as one line on the bank statement, but it can happen that the bank provides feedback with individual lines. Often it's possible to change the behavior by editing a particular parameter in the “Payment File Template”. We recommend contacting your bank for more information if needed. In this documentation, we will provide the best practices for both situations.

The Electronic Bank Payments module allows you to create both EFT and Direct Debit (DD) transactions. The reconciliation is done the same way for both.

Configuration

To enable the option to reconcile EFT batches with the Bank Reconciliation you must alter the general settings in the Bank Reconciliation Suite App and create an additional field on the “Payment File Administration”.

Enable feature

You can enable the option to reconcile EFT batches by navigating to SETUP->COMPANY->GENERAL PREFERENCES. Navigate on this page to the subsection “Custom Preferences”. In this section, you will find a section labeled “Fast Four Bank Reconciliation”. In this section, there is a checkbox labeled “Use Other Matching Types. Enable this checkbox so that EFT batches can be reconciled and save the configuration by pressing the blue button labeled “Save”.

Customize Payment File Administration

During the installation of the Bank Reconciliation Suite App, the system can’t create custom fields in different Suite App bundles. The Bank Reconciliation Suite App does need an additional field on the Payment File Administration so that it can keep track of which EFT batches are reconciled. To create this additional field navigate to CUSTOMIZATION->LIST, RECORDS, & FIELDS->RECORD TYPES. In this list locate the record type named “Payment File Administration” and click on the name to open the configuration. It can be that you need to navigate to one of the following pages on the top right corner of the table. On the page click on the grey button labeled “New Field”.

On the new Payment File Administration Field enter the following information:

Label: enter here the value “Bank Statement”
ID: enter here the value “_bs_ep_bankstatement” (including the first underscore)
Type: change the value to “List/Record”
List/Record: Select here the value “Bank Statement”
Store Value: Make sure this checkbox is checked

Now save the new Payment File Administration field by pressing the blue button labeled “Save”. The new field is now created and can be used by the Bank Reconciliation Suite App

Reconciling Batches

Depending on your bank and “Payment File Template” settings the bank will provide feedback as one mainline or as individual transaction lines. Below we will explain the best practice for both scenarios.

Reconcile One Line Feedback

On the bank statement line, there is a column labeled “Alt Match Type”. If you select this field on the bank statement you will get a dropdown with several options. One of the presented options is “Netsuite Electronic Payment Batch”. When you select the option the Bank Reconciliation Suite App will show a pop-up. This pop-up will provide an overview of all the batches that aren’t reconciled yet in your Netsuite system. The “Select Match” pop-up will filter the batches automatically based on the debit/credit identifier on the bank statement line. So when the line is debit the system will only show batches containing outgoing payments. When the line is a credit line it will only show Direct Debit batches.

In the pop-up that opens you simply select the batch that is equal in amount. When reconciling a batch the amount must always be 100% equal to the amount from the statement line and you can only reconcile one batch. So in the “Select Match” pop up the value in the field “Amount” and “Total Selected” must be equal.

After selecting the applicable EFT Batch you can press the blue button “Submit”. When saving the statement our solution will automatically reconcile the EFT Payment batch. If the batch is created with the native “In Transit” feature from Netsuite then the Bank Reconciliation Suite App will automatically transform each transaction from “In transit” to “Paid in full” and will also handle the correct posting in Netsuite.

Reconcile Individual Lines Feedback

If the bank provides feedback as individual lines instead of one mail line then in most situations the description field on the bank statement will hold a payment number that is equal to the payment number that was created by Netsuite. The naming convention Netsuite uses is always following the pattern “payment batch number” / “Transaction line number”. If this information is indeed present the Bank Reconciliation will automatically match the individual lines. If the bank does not provide this feedback in the description it's recommended to contact the bank so that it can potentially be altered. Please note that on the bank account configuration the “/” should not be a part of the additional delimiter settings.

If the bank is not able to provide this transaction number as the feedback you could enable the matching option on the bank account configuration named “Match Closed On Exact Match Within Date Range”. In most cases, this matching option will still be able to match the lines automatically, but it is only recommended to enable this matching option if amounts are pretty unique so the system is protected in some way against incorrect matches.

If none of the above options is a potential solution for automizing the matching the user always can proceed manually by first selecting on the line the correct entity. After selecting the entity the Bank Reconciliation Suite App will show a pop-up. In this pop-up, you first select the checkbox labeled “Show Closed Transactions”. The list that is shown should hold the expected closed transaction to reconcile against.