{"id":64392,"date":"2018-12-02T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T09:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sageone.co.za\/?p=64392"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:58:51","slug":"stop-manually-balancing-your-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/stop-manually-balancing-your-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop manually balancing your books"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/category\/technology-innovation\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Technology &amp; Innovation<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tStop manually balancing your books\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2018-12-02T11:00:21+02:00\">Dec 2, 2018<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Stop manually balancing your books\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/stop-manually-balancing-your-books\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/author\/asavinwattanajantra\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Asavin\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/Asavin-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/Asavin-810x810.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/Asavin.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Asavin Wattanajantra<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Seasoned accountants will remember sitting with a bank statement printout and manually entering each transaction into the accounting system, crossing each one off with a pen and ruler as they went along. Mistakes often crept in, although this was only noticed when the books didn\u2019t balance at the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then things got fancy. Accounting systems evolved, with the ability to import bank statements and automatically capture transactions. There was still some manual work involved: accountants had to assign each transaction to an account and make sure everything was accounted for. But errors still slipped through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, there\u2019s been another advancement in accounting integration technology: Bank Feeds make bank reconciliation even faster. While pulling information from your bank account into your accounting system multiple times a day is not necessarily new, few accountants and businesses are benefiting from the time-saving and accuracy this automated approach offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark class=\"highlight-and-share\">Bank Feeds makes capturing and processing of recurring transactions as easy as logging onto an Internet banking profile. All in real-time and secured by a third-party financial services provider<\/mark>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-it-works\"><strong>How it works<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most accounting solutions support Bank Feeds functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once activated, you can link directly with most large banks and financial institutions globally. After you\u2019ve entered your Internet banking details, you\u2019ll need to give the service provider permission to access your banking account. Now, every time you log into your accounting system, Bank Feeds screen scrapes your statement and automatically imports new transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To allocate recurring transactions to an account or customer with no future manual intervention, simply create rules to map them. For example, payments to staff accounts can be mapped to register under the payroll line item. You only need to create the rule once and, if anything in the payment reference changes, the system will alert you to the change, as well as to any transactions that have not been assigned rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some compelling reasons to active Bank Feeds today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It makes bank reconciliation quick and easy;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You\u2019ll buy time by assigning rules to focus on better serving customers, improving efficiencies, or growing your business;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Errors are drastically reduced \u2013 possibly eliminated \u2013 giving you peace of mind that your books will balance at the end of every month;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Since Bank Feeds pulls transactions into your accounting system every time you log on, you\u2019ll have a real-time view into your business\u2019s finances;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u2019s completely secure, since you only need to provide your Internet banking details to the third-party service provider.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With one less thing to worry about, Bank Feeds empowers accountants to focus on becoming business advisors and consultants to their clients. They can add true value by helping clients with their financial strategy, business development, and forecasting, while also growing their own revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Sage 50cloud Pastel Xpress<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>One solution to manage your accounting, invoicing, cash flow, inventory, VAT, and more \u2013 on the go, from the cloud.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/products\/sage-50-cloud-pastel-xpress\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"cta-id-625\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-button-location=\"cta_box\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Find out more<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1064\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-610219284-1064x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Woman using tablet\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-610219284-1064x810.jpg 1064w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seasoned accountants will remember sitting with a bank statement printout and manually entering each transaction into the accounting system, crossing each one off with a pen and ruler as they went along. Mistakes often crept in, although this was only noticed when the books didn\u2019t balance at the end of the month. Then things got [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":68321,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,28,44],"tags":[313,336],"business_type":[2,3,5],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[6,8,13,15,16],"imagine_tag":[51,52,73,81],"coauthors":[402],"class_list":["post-64392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-money","category-technology-innovation","category-todays-tech","tag-bookkeeping","tag-moving-money","business_type-small-business","business_type-medium-business","business_type-accountants"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-za","author_name":"Asavin Wattanajantra","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/07\/resize-1675x1275-37.jpg","imagine_tags":{"51":"Accountants","52":"Accounting software","73":"Money Matters","81":"Technology and Innovation"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice South Africa","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/68321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=64392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}