Import a Bank of America card statement

Instead of keying in each corporate card transaction by hand, you can upload the statement you export from Bank of America. Fidesic turns it into one invoice to your card vendor for the statement total, with one line per transaction. AI suggests a GL code for each line based on the merchant, the expense category and how your company has coded similar charges before. You check the coding, attach your receipts, and confirm. The invoice then goes through your normal approval workflow.

Who can do this: users whose role has the Enter Invoices permission.

Before you start

• A vendor for the card. The statement is billed to a vendor in your vendor list, such as "Bank of America". Give that vendor a default GL code: any line the AI can't code uses it.
• The statement export. Download the transaction export from Bank of America's portal as an .xlsx, .xls or .csv file. Upload it exactly as Bank of America gives it to you; there's no need to change or reformat it.
• Your receipts. At least one receipt has to be attached before you can confirm the statement. Have them ready as PDFs, images or documents.

Step 1: Upload the statement

1. Click the gear icon in the top right, then under File operations click Import Files.
2. In Choose a type of file to import, select Bank of America Card Statement.
3. In Card vendor, start typing and pick the vendor the card is paid to.
4. If your company codes GL accounts by location, pick the Location the statement belongs to.
5. Under Select file to upload, choose the statement file.

[Screenshot: Import Files with Bank of America Card Statement selected, showing the Card vendor and Location fields]

Uploading can take up to a minute while each transaction is coded. When it's done, you're taken to the confirmation step.

What Fidesic creates

• One invoice to the card vendor, for the statement total, with the statement file attached.
• An invoice number of BOFA- followed by the year and month of the latest transaction, for example BOFA-202609.
• One line per transaction, described as the merchant and the cardholder, for example "Office Depot - Jordan Lee".
• Refunds and other credits become credit lines. If the statement's credits are larger than its charges, it's imported as a credit memo.

Step 2: Review the GL coding

The Statement lines table shows each transaction, its amount, the GL code it was given and, under Why, the reason for that code.

[Screenshot: the Statement lines table on the confirmation step, with one line flagged]

A line marked with a warning icon needs a closer look, and the number of lines to check is shown above the table. A line is flagged when:

• the AI wasn't sure of its choice,
• no account fit the charge, so the vendor's default GL code was used, or
• the account it chose exists under several departments or grants, and your past statements don't show which one you use.

To change a line's code, pick a different GL code in its GL code box. The change is saved straight away. You can change codes any time until you confirm the statement.

Note: If AI GL coding isn't turned on for your company, every line uses the vendor's default GL code. Contact Fidesic support if you'd like it turned on.

Step 3: Attach your receipts

Until a receipt is attached, the statement shows Receipt required and the Confirm button stays disabled. To attach receipts, click the + (Add Attachment) button in the statement's Attachments column and choose one or more files.

Any file that isn't a spreadsheet counts as a receipt: PDF, image or Word document. You can attach as many as you need.

[Screenshot: the statement row with the statement file and a receipt attached]

Step 4: Confirm

Click Confirm. The invoice, with its coded lines and all of its attachments, goes into your approval workflow like any other invoice.

Finishing later, or starting over

• Come back later. If you leave before confirming, the statement waits for you. Open it from the Previous Imports tab on the Import Files page.
• Discard it. To throw away an uploaded statement before confirming, click Discard on the confirmation step. This removes the statement, its lines and any receipts attached to it. You can then upload it again.

Uploading the same month twice

• If you upload a statement with the same total as one already imported for that month, Fidesic stops you so it isn't paid twice. If the earlier one is still waiting to be confirmed, you're told to confirm or discard it under Previous Imports instead.
• A statement for the same month with a different total is imported with a suffix on its number, such as BOFA-202609.1, then BOFA-202609.2.

Optional: require a receipt before a card statement is approved

A card statement can also reach Fidesic another way, for example by being emailed to your invoice inbox and read by MagiCapture. To make sure no statement is approved without a receipt, an admin can turn on Require a receipt before approving a card statement under Settings → Accounts Payable → MagiCapture.

When it's on, an invoice whose only attachments are spreadsheets (CSV, XLS or XLSX) can't be approved until another file, such as a receipt, is attached. If the invoice would normally be approved automatically, it's held in a Receipt Required stage for the person who submitted it instead. The setting is off by default.

[Screenshot: Settings → Accounts Payable → MagiCapture, with the Require a receipt before approving a card statement toggle]

Troubleshooting

• "This doesn't look like a Bank of America card statement export": the file has no header row with Posting Date, Description and Amount. Download the transaction export from Bank of America again and upload it unchanged.
• "The statement file could not be read": the file may be damaged or password protected. Export it again as .xlsx, .xls or .csv.
• "Pick a vendor" or "Pick a location": choose the card vendor (and location, if asked) before selecting the file.
• "No GL code could be found": a line couldn't be coded and the card vendor has no default GL code. Give the vendor a default GL code, then upload the statement again.