Payment Import & Reconciliation

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Payment Import & Reconciliation

OctopusPro helps you reconcile offline payments (such as bank transfer / EFT, cash deposits, and other manual payment types) by allowing you to import bank transactions from a CSV and intelligently match each incoming payment to the correct outstanding invoice.

Payment Import and Reconciliation workflow in OctopusPro

When you import a bank file, OctopusPro evaluates transaction details—such as customer name, business name, email, address, booking number, invoice number, payment references, and amount—to suggest matches. Each suggestion includes a confidence score, so you can quickly review and approve (or adjust) the match.

On this page

Overview

Payment reconciliation is the process of matching money received in your bank account to invoices issued in OctopusPro. This feature is ideal when you receive customer payments outside of an integrated payment gateway, and you need a fast, accurate way to apply those payments to invoices.

After import, payments appear in Invoices > Payment Reconciliation so you can review matches, approve payments, reassign them to different invoices, or ignore non-invoice transactions.

Key benefits

  • Intelligent auto-matching to reduce manual reconciliation work
  • Confidence scoring to help you verify matches faster
  • Approval control (you decide what gets applied to invoices)
  • Duplicate prevention (previously imported payments are detected and excluded)
  • Unmatched payment handling (apply to invoice, add notes, ignore, or delete record)
  • Ignored keywords to automatically skip irrelevant transactions during import

Before you start

  • Make sure invoices are in OctopusPro: Matching works best when the related invoices already exist and are outstanding/unpaid.
  • Export your bank transactions as CSV: Most banks allow exporting a date range of transactions as a CSV file.
  • Understand what is imported:
    • Incoming (positive) amounts are processed as candidate customer payments.
    • Outgoing (negative) amounts (fees, withdrawals, transfers out) are ignored.
    • Transactions containing any of your Ignored Keywords are excluded from import.
  • Optional approvals workflow: If your account uses payment approvals, imported payments may appear as Unapproved until an authorized user approves them. Payment Approval Workflow: Keep Payments Pending

CSV requirements (bank export format)

To import successfully, your CSV file should include these columns (names can vary by bank, but the data must be present):

  • Transaction Date – the date the transaction occurred
  • Transaction Amount – positive values for incoming payments
  • Transaction Description / Reference – the narrative/description used for matching (customer name, invoice number, booking reference, etc.)
  • Running Balance (optional) – commonly included by banks; not used for matching and ignored during import

Accepted CSV example

Date,Amount,Description,Balance
27/03/2025,750.00,Direct Credit JOHN DOE INV-1234 Cleaning,18500.00
27/03/2025,-25.00,Bank Service Fee Monthly Maintenance,18475.00

CSV preparation tips

  • Save/export as .CSV (not Excel .XLSX).
  • Use comma delimiters and UTF-8 encoding.
  • Keep values as plain text (avoid formulas).
  • Use one date format consistently in the entire file.

Supported date formats

OctopusPro supports importing bank transaction CSV files containing common international date formats. Supported formats include:

  • YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2025-03-27)
  • DD/MM/YYYY (e.g., 27/03/2025)
  • MM/DD/YYYY (e.g., 03/27/2025)
  • DD-MM-YYYY (e.g., 27-03-2025)
  • DD.MM.YYYY (e.g., 27.03.2025)
  • YYYY/MM/DD (e.g., 2025/03/27)

Best practice: do not mix different date formats within a single CSV file.

Step-by-step: import & reconcile

1) Open Payment Reconciliation

  • Go to Invoices > Payment Reconciliation.
  • Click Import Payment Transactions.

Import Payment Transactions button in Payment Reconciliation

2) Upload your CSV

  • Drag and drop your CSV file (or click to browse).
  • Select the correct Date Format Order (example: DD/MM/YYYY).
  • Click Import Payments.

Import Bank Transactions popup showing CSV upload and date format order

3) Review imported transactions

Imported records appear in the reconciliation list. You can filter and review payments by status (for example: Unapproved, Approved, Ignored, All) and by the imported file name.

How matching works (confidence scores)

When you import transactions, OctopusPro suggests invoice matches and assigns a confidence score to each match. Higher scores generally indicate a stronger match based on available data in the transaction description and invoice/customer records.

  • If there is a clear match, you can approve it quickly.
  • If multiple potential matches exist, you can manually select the correct invoice.
  • Previously imported transactions are automatically detected and excluded to reduce duplicates.

Approve, reject, edit, or reassign matches

Approve or reject

  • Select Approve to apply the payment to the matched invoice (and update the invoice balance/status).
  • Select Reject if the match is incorrect or the payment should not be applied.

Edit payment details or add notes

Use Edit Payment to correct imported details (where permitted), and Add Reconciliation Note to document context for your team or audit trail.

Open invoice, reassign, or unlink

  • Open Invoice to verify invoice details before approving.
  • Reassign Invoice to link the payment to a different invoice.
  • Unlink Invoice to remove the invoice association (then reassign as needed).

Email receipt or delete record

  • Email Receipt to send the payment receipt to the customer (if enabled).
  • Delete Record to remove the imported payment record from the reconciliation list (this does not affect your bank statement—only the imported record in OctopusPro).

Actions menu showing Approve, Reject, Edit Payment, Add Reconciliation Note, Open Invoice, Reassign Invoice, Unlink Invoice, Email Receipt, Delete Record

Reassign an invoice match

If a payment was linked to the wrong invoice, choose Reassign Invoice and select the correct invoice number.

Handling unmatched incoming payments

Sometimes OctopusPro can’t confidently match a transaction to an invoice (for example, the bank description doesn’t include an invoice number or identifiable customer details). These transactions appear as unmatched and require manual review.

Apply an unmatched payment to an invoice

  • Open the payment’s Actions menu.
  • Select Apply to Invoice, then choose the correct invoice.

When to ignore an unmatched payment

If an unmatched incoming payment doesn’t relate to any outstanding invoice—such as miscellaneous income, bank interest, adjustment credits, or unrelated deposits—you should mark it as Ignored to keep your reconciliation queue clean.

How to ignore a payment

  • Open the payment’s Actions menu.
  • Select Ignore Payment.

View ignored payments

You can review ignored payments at any time from the Ignored tab.

Ignored keywords (skip irrelevant transactions)

Ignored Keywords allow you to automatically exclude transactions that shouldn’t be imported. This is especially useful when your bank statement includes entries that do not represent customer invoice payments (or are already handled through integrations).

Common examples

  • Settlement – daily batch deposits from integrated gateways (e.g., Stripe/PayPal) that don’t need manual import
  • Refund – refunds managed separately
  • Fee / Charge – bank or processing fees
  • Credit Card – card settlement descriptors that may already be matched via your gateway integration

Manage ignored keywords

  • In Invoices > Payment Reconciliation, select Manage Ignored Keywords.
  • Add a keyword, then click Save.
  • Remove keywords when needed (to avoid excluding legitimate payments).

Important: Keep keywords specific. Overly broad keywords can accidentally exclude valid customer payments.

Best practices & pro tips

  • Ask customers to include the invoice number in bank transfer references (e.g., “INV-31685”). This dramatically improves matching accuracy.
  • Import frequently (daily/weekly) so reconciliation stays fast and manageable.
  • Use reconciliation notes for edge cases (helpful for audits and team handovers).
  • Review your ignored keywords list periodically—bank descriptors change over time.
  • Check unmatched payments promptly to avoid sending “payment overdue” reminders when the customer has already paid.

Troubleshooting

CSV won’t upload

  • Confirm the file is .CSV (not .XLSX).
  • Ensure the file uses comma delimiters and UTF-8 encoding.
  • Make sure your date format is consistent and matches the selected Date Format Order.

Too many unmatched payments

  • Check whether your bank description/reference includes meaningful identifiers (customer name, invoice number, booking number).
  • Encourage customers to include invoice numbers in transfer notes for future payments.

Valid payments are being skipped

  • Review your Ignored Keywords list—keywords may be too broad.
  • Remove/adjust keywords, then import future files with the refined rules.

Syncing payments from Xero / QuickBooks

If your payments are already recorded in your accounting system, you can sync payment records into OctopusPro to reduce manual CSV imports (depending on your integration settings and workflow).

To enable syncing, navigate to:

  • Xero: Settings > Financial Settings > Xero Integration
  • QuickBooks: Settings > Financial Settings > QuickBooks Integration

Need help? If you experience issues importing your bank export file or formatting your CSV, contact our support team.

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