Transactions and bank review
One list of what AutoDealer recorded, what you added and what your bank sent, and how to categorize, split, merge or exclude bank lines, with AI help.
Last updated
Books → Transactions is one list of everything: what AutoDealer recorded for you (sales, customer payments, loan payments, vehicle purchases and costs, floor plan activity), what you added yourself, and, once your bank is connected, every transaction your bank sends. Newest first, for the dates you pick at the top.
Each row reads the same way:
- Description: what it was, and underneath, where it came from: From your bank, Recorded automatically (with its reference, such as
PMT-orSALE-), or Added by you. - Account: where the money went in or out: your bank account, or Cash in your books.
- Category: what it counts as on your Profit & Loss.
- Amount: money in shows in green with a plus sign. A bookkeeping entry that moved no money (a sale on credit, the cost of a car sold) shows its size in grey with no sign.
- Status: for bank lines, To review, Done, or Check this when something needs another look.
Click any row to open it on the right: what it is in plain words, what you can do with it, and an accountant view with the debits and credits.
Review what came from your bank
The Needs review tab lists every bank transaction still waiting on you, whatever the dates say, with a count beside it. For each one, do one of three things, all right from the row or its panel:
- Categorize: pick a category in the row's Category box, for example Fuel or Rent. It is recorded in your books on the day the bank posted it. Change your mind later? Pick another category and it moves, in the month the transaction happened, even an earlier one: that month's report shows the new category and nothing of the old.
- Split: choose Split across categories when one transaction covers several things, such as a $300 store run that was $200 of parts and $100 of cleaning supplies. The panel keeps a running remainder, and the parts have to add up to the transaction exactly.
- Merge: when your books already have it. A customer's payment you took in AutoDealer and the deposit that shows up at the bank two days later are the same money, so merge them and it shows as one row. When we spot a likely match, the row says Looks like and names the entry; one click opens the merge. A deposit that carries several payments merges with all of them at once. Merging records nothing new in your books, and Unmerge puts both back.
A fourth choice covers what does not belong in the books at all:
- Exclude: a personal charge on the business account, or a transaction your bank sent twice. Open it and choose Exclude it. Nothing is recorded, it leaves Needs review, and it drops out of the list (tick Show deleted and excluded to see it again, and Put it back for review if you change your mind).
AutoDealer remembers your categories. Once you have categorized a place, the next transaction from it says Use Fuel, like last time (or whatever you chose most recently) under its category box, and opening it fills that category in for you. It matches the same place whatever the store number or trip code on the statement, and a refund from a store is never given the purchase's category. It is only a suggestion: nothing is recorded until you press it.
The AI categorizes new bank transactions for you, and asks when it is not sure. When your bank sends new transactions, the AI looks at each one. When it is sure, the row says AI: Fuel · Record, and one press records it. When it is not sure, it asks on the row (for example "What was the $1,200.00 from John Smith on Sep 3?") with the likely answers as buttons. Record all at the top of the list records every transaction it is sure about in one go. It is never sure about deposits, auction purchases, floor-plan or loan payments, or money moving between your own accounts; those always ask. If your books already hold the money, you see the merge suggestion instead, never an AI category. Nothing is recorded until you press, and the AI's work counts toward your monthly AI budget.
Money moving between your own accounts. When you move money from checking to savings, both banks send a transaction: money out of one, money in to the other. Categorizing both would count the same money twice, so AutoDealer spots the pair (the same amount, out of one of your connected accounts and into another, within a few days) and says Transfer to Savings · Record on the row. One press records both sides as one transfer, which is never counted as income or a cost. If you already categorized one side as the other account, the other side offers Link instead, and nothing more is recorded. Undo transfer on either side puts both back to review. When two transfers of the same amount happen in the same week, AutoDealer does not guess which goes with which.
You can also tick rows: tick several bank transactions to categorize them all at once (or Use last time's categories when every one has one), Exclude them together, or tick one bank transaction and the entries it is made of to merge them into one.
If you pick a category for money your books already hold, AutoDealer stops and names the entry it found, with Merge instead as the first choice. Recording it anyway would count the same money twice, so it only happens when you say it is different money.
Check this appears on a bank transaction when a merge no longer adds up (the payment behind it was deleted or changed) or when your books later gained an entry that looks exactly like one you categorized. The panel says which, and what to do.