We understand it might be confusing
at the beginning

To install Bankfeed and start using the free monthly trial, click the “Free trial” button on the Microsoft AppSource.

The solution is packed with useful tools so that you would be able to install and start using it in a matter of minutes:

• Assisted setup for Bankfeed preparation and bank account connection – HERE is a video on that
• Guided tour that introduces you to the fields, pages and functions of Bankfeed – HERE is a video on that
• HERE is a detailed user manual 
• Usually for the payment recognition setup, customers ask for assistance from our side. In such a case, please reach out to us at support@bankfeed.com

Once the free trial is activated, you can use the full Bankfeed functionality for 30 days.

Because Bankfeed is used on a subscription basis, you may cancel it anytime by emailing us at support@bankfeed.com.

If you have any questions, we are here to help. Please send us a message at support@bankfeed.com.

Bankfeed works as an add-on for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Therefore the usage of this ERP system is necessary. The solution works best with the three latest versions of Business Central.

Before installing Bankfeed, we recommend checking if the following conditions are met:

1. Open banking API (PSD2*) is not occupied.
If you use online payment provider services (Wordline, Wordpay, etc.), they might be connected through an open banking API. Therefore, Bankfeed will not be able to connect to this API as it is already occupied. In these situations, we can connect Bankfeed through the bank’s direct API, known as a Gateway. However, it usually requires additional banking fees and additional implementation hours.

2. Banks provide the information required for recognition and reconciliation.
Even though open banking is regulated using the PSD2 protocol and is mandatory for all EU banks, the banks treat these requirements differently. The amount of information provided through the APIs and its quality can differ depending on the bank. This can lead to a situation where Bankfeed will not be able to properly identify customers/vendors or documents because of the lack of data.

Here is a list of mandatory bank fields needed to enable Bankfeed’s payment recognition and reconciliation. Please check HERE if the banks you are using provide the information from these fields:

• creditorAccount – customer recognition by IBAN
• creditorId – customer recognition by ID
• creditorName – customer name comparison when the document is identified
• debtorAccount – vendor recognition by IBAN
• debtorName – vendor name comparison when the document is identified
• endToEndId – document Nos to identify
• entryReference – document Nos to identify
• remittanceInformationStructured – document Nos to identify
• remittanceInformationStructuredArray – document Nos to identify
• remittanceInformationUnstructured- document Nos to identify
• remittanceInformationUnstructuredArray- document Nos to identify

*The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) is a set of laws and regulations for payment services in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). Under this payment services directive, banks and other financial institutions are required to provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for regulated and licensed external services providers, commonly referred to as third-party providers. This practice when banks provide APIs for third-party providers is also known as Open banking.

The matching rate highly depends on proper system settings, the definition of statement formation, and the quality of data. Typically, Bankfeed achieves a matching rate of at least 95%. Each payment recognition enables continuous improvement and maintenance of recognition and reconciliation rules.

Financial statement files automatically travel through the API from the bank to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and end up on a separate table. A register of statements is kept. Payment Journal entries are then automatically created from the statements. During the creation of Payment Journal entries, payment entries are automatically reconciled with the issued invoices (customer identification and reconciliation with the issued invoices is performed). Depending on the settings, the entries will be posted automatically or manually. Unrecognized entries are left in the Journal and can be reconciled manually.

Bankfeed searches for open items independently and reliably using pre-defined recognition rules, and all rules are processed serially. After a match is recognized (e.g., customer number, invoice number, transfer subject, amount), Bankfeed creates an entry and jumps to the next bank statement line for further processing.

After the Bankfeed installation, when the assisted setup “Set up Bankfeed Connection” is run, the user must provide an E-mail, Password, Name and Surname. This step creates an account/login for the company and is completed by adding the “Company information”. For one company, one account/login is available. Using a general company e-mail, such as info@bankfeed.com instead of name@bankfeed.com, is recommended.
In case when an employee’s e-mail was used, and the employee left the company, or their account for some reason is no longer available, you will need to add another e-mail to the company account/login – please get in touch with the our team at support@bankfeed.com for help.

Sometimes, new users entering their login information (e-mail, name, surname password) when running the assisted setup “Set up Bankfeed Connection” for the first time, get an error message saying that their password is not strong enough. These are the requirements for the password:

• At least eight characters long
• Contains an uppercase letter and a lowercase letter
• Contains a digit and a special symbol (.!#$%^&*()_-+)
• Does not contain first name, last name or part of the e-mail
• Does not match the previous password

Also, errors while creating an account/login can happen because the company registration number or VAT registration number already exists since it was used when creating another account/login for the same company.

Let‘s start with what you should not do:

• Do not create a new account/login using the assisted setup “Set up Bankfeed Connection” because the one you have created is valid and can be used in both the Sandbox (Test) and the Production environment
• Do not reconnect bank accounts; if you have connected them in the Sandbox (Test) environment, it will be connected in the Production, too, without any additional steps. The connection to the bank accounts is linked to the created account/login, not the environment

Bankfeed can be run only in one environment for one company. It means it cannot be running simultaneously in the Sandbox (Test) and in the Production environment.

To start using Bankfeed in the Production environment (if you were using it in the Test), follow these steps:

• Install the Bankfeed app in a Production environment
• Open the page “Integration setup (Bankfeed)” and copy the “Isolated storage API Key” from the Sandbox (Test) environment to the Production

To do this right, follow the steps:

1. In the Sandbox (Test) environment open the “Integration Setup (Bankfeed)”.
2. In the actions, click “Change API Key”
3. Copy the API Key from the opened page and click “Cancel”

1. In the Production environment open the “Integration Setup (Bankfeed)”
2. Click the Action “Change API Key” and copy in the value
3. Click “OK”

• When the API key is copied to the Production environment, Deletethe “Isolated storage API Key” in the Sandbox (Test) environment. To do this in the Sandbox (Test) environment, open the “Integration Setup (Bankfeed)” and click the Action “Delete API Key”

• The last step is to run assisted setup “Set up Bankfeed Integration” in the Production environment and fill the primary setup of the product

There is also another way to manage this Sandbox (Test) and Production environment question. The “Isolated Storage API Key” can be left in both environments. Still, in this case, you must stop the Job queue entry, which runs the function “Process Financial Statement (Bankfeed)”, in the Sandbox (Test) environment.

It is important to understand that Bankfeed can run only in one environment. If it runs in both the Sandbox (Test) and the Production environment, the statements will be uploaded only in one of them.

There can be several reasons why bank accounts cannot be connected. Here are a few of them:

• The user connecting bank accounts does not have enough permissions to give access to a third party to connect to the company’s bank accounts

In such cases, there can be few solutions. Ask another employee with these permissions in the bank to connect the bank accounts (e.g., CEO or CFO). Or ask the bank to provide you with the permissions needed.

• Bank connection window is blocked by a security system (e.g. Firewall)

The additional window pops up for authentication in the bank, and sometimes, the computer’s security system blocks these windows. It is easy to identify this problem because the user cannot open the bank window for authentication after he selects the bank and clicks “Next”.

• Other problems

If you do not relate to the problems described above, please get in touch with us at support@bankfeed.com.

First, looking from the Bank statement side, you will see that money transfers from one account to another are seen in both bank account statements, so when Bankfeed uploads these statements, it seems like these transactions are duplicated, but this is because operations are in both bank accounts, one in a debit transaction, one in a credit.

To avoid duplicate transactions in BC accounting, you could delete one and post another, but we suggest another easier way.

Use an interim General Ledger account for such transactions. Create or use an existing one. Make setup by the text of such transactions in the Text-To-Account Mapping (Bankfeed) table if the text is repeated.

For example:

Most payment platform accounts do not have an IBAN but they have Account IDs. In this case, you must enter this Account ID in the BC Bank account card field “Provider Bank Account ID (Bankfeed)”.

However, users usually do not know this ID, so they get confused.

You can see this Account ID in uploaded statement files.

Open “Statement Batches (Bankfeed)“. Find the statement file and click “Download Document“.

Open the Statement file. You will find the ID in tag <Id>, copy it to the Bank account card.

If you have already uploaded and parsed the statement lines, click “Refresh Recognition” on the “Statement Lines (Bankfeed)” page. It will update the recognition status of all lines and apply a new setup.

If you have your statement lines in the journal and want to update journal lines, you need to delete them and run the function “Process Statement Batched (Bankfeed)” with the option “Fill Journals.” The newly created lines will be with refreshed recognition.