Bank Genie
Software for Managing Bank Accounts

by Ideas for Gardens.com
User Guide - Applies to Bank Genie 4 and Bank Genie Pro 4
Last updated: 28th February 2018

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Index

Introduction

Getting Started

Setting Up

Preferences

User Guide Options

Bank Accounts

Bank Groups

Categories

Category Groups

Tags

Manage Transactions

Standing Orders

Process Standing Orders

Online & Downloads

Transaction Analyser

Net Worth

P&L Years and Groups

P&L Reports

Invoices

Password Protection

Database Protection

Quick Backups

Backups (with history)

Create a New Database

Open another database

Restore

Pack

Importing Data

Broken Transfers

Where is everything?

FAQ

Glossary

Common Controls

Index by Program Name

Acknowledgements

About us

Product support

Sponsored Links

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Working with Bank Accounts and Credit Card Accounts
Screen BS403S02 (with screenshots)


To display this screen:
Click Add, Edit or Delete in Bank Accounts - BS403

In this section

The Currency pop-up
Screenshot
Set this to the currency of the Bank Account.
The Currency is particularly relevant when you use the Net Worth program, transfer money between accounts or enter transactions made when you convert money when abroad.
The system handles any currency with 2 decimal places.

Begin with Statement
Opening Balance (Adding an Account)

If your Bank or Credit Card does not issue Statements you can treat Statement Numbers as a fictitious entity.
Statement numbers can range from 1 to 999996.
If you leave the fields blank, Bank Genie will set them to the default values (1 and 0.00 respectively)

When adding a profile
Review your Bank records and decide on a Statement Number where you will begin entering transactions into Bank Genie.

You can change the Begin with Statement number, and the Opening balance, up until you Complete (Reconcile) that Statement in Program BS421

Once you have completed (reconciled) your Begin With Statement Number, you can only go FORWARD.

Reconciled
The program indicates when the Last Statement is reconciled.
This read-only field is not visible when Adding a new Bank Account profile.
Reconciling Bank Account statements is discussed in Input Transactions - BS421

Last Statement
Opening Balance (Editing an Account)

Once you have reconciled at least one Statement in a Bank Account, the captions in screen BS403S02 are not the same as when you added the Bank Account profile
Begin with Statement caption (see above) becomes Last Statement
Opening Balance
caption is unchanged

Bank Genie system shows the Last Statement in use for the chosen Bank.
You cannot change the Last Statement Number, or the Opening Balance for this Statement - this is now associated with the Last Statement
If the opening balance is incorrect, try reversing the previous reconciled statement for the chosen Bank.

If your Bank or Credit Card does not issue Statements you can treat Statement Numbers as a fictitious entity.
Statement numbers can range from 1 to 999996.

Allow Statement Numbers to be edited
Credit card accounts (for example) use Statement References, rather than Statement Numbers.
In that case,  you may opt to check the Allow Statement Numbers to be edited checkbox.
When using the program Manage Transactions-BS421 you can enter the reference shown on the Credit Card Statement e.g. July 2011. A maximum of 14 characters are allowed.
Screenshot BS403S02-AllowEdit
The predictive text feature in Bank Genie makes this very quick and easy in the program Manage Transactions-BS421.
Screenshot BS421S01-AllowEdit
Behind the scenes, Bank Genie maintains statement numbers as normal.
Thus, if you find it is too much trouble to enter Statement References, you can revert to Statement Numbers at any time (or indeed vice versa, and details entered previously are restored).

Pay day
Pay-day can be set up individually for any bank in your database.
The pay day field is used by Bank Genie when you process monthly Standing Orders and Direct Debits (ONLY) using program BS423.

It is NOT used in the payment of weekly, bi-weekly (etc) regular payments which you can also set up in BS423.

Example:
For managing your current account, the month starts with your Employer crediting your account on Pay Day.
Run the Standing Orders program BS423.
Bank Genie refers to the value you have entered for Pay Day and automatically fills in the date fields.
All Standing Orders and Direct Debits which are due for payment from Pay Day to the day before next Pay Day are processed. Transactions are created automatically in your latest un-reconciled statement.

Purpose: This feature allows you to manage your protracted expenditure over the entire month.
Avert bank charges.

Statement Days
If you dont receive statements from your Bank, enter 30
If you do receive hard copy statements from your Bank, enter the approximate regularity in days.

The date is used when you reconcile a statement in BS421, and is best explained by example.

Example
You wish to reconcile to a statement from your Bank, or to your current balance shown on an ATM  or on-line listing.
You have entered a value of 201 for your opening statement.
You use the Exclude and Include buttons to arrive at a matching closing balance for Statement No 201.
The items you Exclude are moved to the fictitious statement No 999997.

You set the Statement date to 30th Sept (in screen BS421S01)
You click the reconcile button for Statement No 201.

Bank Genie now creates the next sequential statement = 202 and assigns a Statement date of 30th Oct to 202 based on the value you entered for STATEMENT DAYS (assuming here to be 30) .

Additionally, Bank Genie scans the items you excluded from Statement 201.
In the scan, items dated up to 30th Oct are moved from 999997 to statement no 202 (the new statement)
Items later than 30th Oct remain in 999997

Thus, STATEMENT DAYS are for convenience only. They may not necessarily predict the NEXT Statement Date. The next Statement Date must be verified and manually corrected as necessary.

Days to clear
Bank Genie allows you to enter 2 dates for each transaction

  1. Transaction Date
  2. Bank Date

In Days to Clear, enter the number of days it takes from the date you make a payment (the Transaction date) until the cheque or payment is processed by your bank (the date it appears on your statement).

Enter 0 for same day clearance

Bank Genie uses this value when you add a transaction in screen BS421S02, BS421S03
and BS421S31.
When you enter a Cheque (or Transaction) Date, Bank Genie adds "Days to Clear" to that date, and automatically calculates and fills the "Bank Date" field for you.

If in Preferences you have unchecked I need to use both Transaction dates and Bank Dates the Days to clear setting is ignored by Bank Genie when you add transactions.
In that case, Bank Genie works behiind the scenes to save your transactions with Bank Date equal to the Transaction date which you enter.

Protect to this date (Optional)
This feature can be enabled/disabled in Preferences
Enter a date in this field to protect data up to and including that date.
Screenshot

IMPORTANT NOTE: Bank Genie uses the Bank Date for comparison.
The Transaction date is ignored.

Beware of this Example:
You set the Protected date to 20/11/09
You attempt to enter a payment with:
Transaction date= 18/11/09
Bank Date= 22/11/09
This WILL be allowed. The BANK date is AFTER the Protected date, even though the payment occured within the Protected date range.

OVERRIDING the Protection
There are two cases.
Case 1 - Password Protection is OFF
Overriding is NOT permitted

Case 2 - Password Protection is ON
The System Administrator can grant or deny override permissions.
When Override permission is granted, the system will display a Warning message as normal when an attempt is made to add or change a record within the protected date range, but an override option will be offered.

Set Permissions
This feature is used to grant (or deny) permissions to Users created using program BS414.
Screenshot
Applies ONLY when Password Protection is Activated

Since permissions can be configured for each individual account, the program does not allow you to proceed (on click) unless the account you are working with already exists (i.e. has been added)
Thus, to set permissions for an account:
a) add the account, bypassing the Set Permissions button.
b) edit the account and click the Set Permissions button

Clicking the button takes you to screen BS403S04

The Active checkbox
Un-check this if an account is no longer used, but you prefer to keep the history rather than delete the account.
You can check this again at any time if you need access to the transactions.

The Account becomes "hidden" in most other programs.
There is one exception. ALL accounts are displayed in the program Profit & Loss - BS410
Profit & Loss reports are stored for past years. Inaccuracies would result if a historical  P&L report were to refer to an account which has been marked inactive.

The I need to use Protection dates checkbox
The option to use Protection Dates is normally set in the program Preferences BS498.
This checkbox is for your convenience, should you decide to enable the feature while working in this program.

Other screens with Help for this program

 

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