Converting Bank Lines to Documents
When an uncategorised line is really a customer paying you or you paying a vendor — turn it into a receipt or a payment so the invoice or bill is actually settled.
Categorising a bank line moves it to an account. That is right for a bank charge and wrong for a customer payment — because a customer payment has to settle an invoice, not just land somewhere. Converting creates the real document, so the party's balance and their statement come out right.
Navigate to: Finance → Banking → open the account → Classification → select lines → Convert N to receipts / payments
When to Convert
| The line is… | Action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A customer settling an invoice | Convert to a receipt | The invoice is cleared and Accounts Receivable is right |
| You paying a vendor bill | Convert to a payment | The bill is cleared and Accounts Payable is right |
| A bank charge, interest, a subscription | Categorise instead | There is no document behind it — an account is the whole answer |
| One transfer covering several unrelated costs | Split it | See Transfer & Split |
Never categorise a customer deposit straight to Accounts Receivable, or a vendor withdrawal straight to Accounts Payable. A bare line on a control account has no invoice or bill behind it, so the party's balance moves while their open documents do not — and their statement stops reconciling. Convert it instead.
Which Document You Get
You do not choose. The side of the Classification tab you are on decides it:
| Side | Creates | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Money in · income | Receipts | One customer |
| Money out · expenses | Payments | One vendor |
Converting
Tick every line belonging to the same party. One party is chosen for the whole selection, so lines for different customers are converted in separate rounds.
The dialog is titled "Create N receipts" (or payments).
Search by name and select. Change swaps it if you picked wrong.
Center / location is optional and defaults to "No center". It stamps every document created.
The footer shows the total of the selected lines and the button reads Create N receipts / payments. It stays disabled until a party is chosen.
What Happens Next
The documents are created in the background. The lines disappear from the list while the job runs and a strip explains that work is in progress — you can keep working. If anything fails, the lines come back with the reason.
Each line becomes its own numbered receipt or payment for that party, dated and valued from the ledger — the amounts are never re-derived in the dialog.
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncategorized Income | 3,200.00 | — | Clears the holding account the line was parked in |
| Accounts Receivable · Acme Corp | — | 3,200.00 | The receipt settles the customer's open invoices |
The receipt or payment then settles the party's open documents by the standing rule — any Statement or opening balance first, then invoices or bills by their own document date, oldest first, each one exhausted before the next receives anything.
When It Does Not Work
| Problem | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The date sits in a closed period | The line returns, naming the period it fell in | Reopen the period, or categorise it in an open one |
| The party could not be resolved | The line returns saying so | Check the customer or vendor still exists and is not archived |
| Lines belong to different parties | They are all created for the one party you picked | Undo those documents, then convert in separate rounds |
| The job does not finish | The strip reports the worker may be down; the lines are restored | Nothing was posted — try again |
Converting is not reversible from the Classification tab. If a batch went to the wrong party, void the receipts or payments in Sales or Purchases — the holding lines return and can be converted again.
Related
- Classifying uncategorised money — the tab this starts from
- Transfer & split — one line across several accounts
- Bank rules — pre-filling the lines that are not documents
- Bank Reconciliation — where these lines came from
- Banking — the account workspace