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Basic & Advanced Services FAQs

Have a general question about legacy advanced and basic services? Find an answer here!

Contents

  1. What is my client’s service start date?
  2. Can I see all aspects of Botkeeper’s services via a project in the portal?
  3. Does Botkeeper offer migration services?
  4. When are transactions processed?
  5. How does Botkeeper categorize transactions?
  6. How are mid-month bank/credit card statements treated?
  7. What is included in Botkeeper's Basic Transaction Categorizations?

What is my client’s service start date?

Entity Service Start Dates depend on when the entity is deployed within the scoping tool

  • Entities deployed between the 1st and 15th of the month will have a start date of the current month.*
  • Entities deployed after the 15th of the month will have a start date of the 1st of the following month.* 
  • For example, an entity deployed June 3rd, will have a June 1st service start date. An entity deployed June 16th will have a July 1st service start date.* 

* If an entity includes a migration or clean-up work in their scope, this might impact the above-stated service start dates.  Please work with your account team to determine if your entity's start date will be affected by these scoped service offerings.

Can I see all aspects of Botkeeper’s services via a project in the portal?

Currently, projects and related tasks will only show those tasks that the partner is responsible for. Internal tasks for the Botkeeper team will not show up in projects.

Does Botkeeper offer migration services?

Botkeeper offers migration services for clients looking to be migrated to a Xero general ledger. This is performed using lists, and managed at the summary level. Transaction-level migrations are not included in this service. Botkeeper does not offer migration services for clients looking to migrate to QBO. We recommend that you reach out to your Intuit representative to manage these requests.   

When are transactions processed?

Within Botkeeper Basic, bank and credit card feeds for the accounts within scope will be processed at the designated bookkeeping cadence for each client, beginning within 5 business days (weekly) or 2 business days (daily) of being accepted into ongoing service.

How does Botkeeper categorize transactions?

The portal is a critical part of the transaction categorization workflow. The key components of the portal used for transaction categorization are as follows:

  • Transaction Manager: a module in the portal used to facilitate transaction categorization and streamline processes around general ledger exceptions that require partner or client input.
  • Smart Connect: a module in the portal that provides a secure method to grant read-only access to client bank and credit card transaction data and statements. Accounts that are eligible for Smart Connect should be connected via Smart Connect whenever possible to take full advantage of AutoPush.
  • Work: a module in the portal used to assign tasks to the Partner or Client. The Partner can reassign their tasks to the Client if they choose.
    • A weekly task will be assigned to the client point of contact (identified in the Transaction Manager Configurations tab), requesting the user to:
      • Review and update any transactions requiring further assistance
      • Mark each transaction reviewed once it’s been reviewed and/or updated
    • The task will automatically close once all transactions assigned to that user have been Marked Reviewed.
  • AutoPush: a proprietary technology that uses AI and machine learning to predict how bank transactions get categorized in real time with the use of a client’s historical and ongoing global data.
    • To enable AutoPush, a bank account must be connected through Smart Connect. Accounts that are eligible for Smart Connect will initiate a connection request task in the portal during pre-deployment.
    • If your transaction is categorized by our machine learning and results in a 98% or greater confidence rating, your transaction can automatically be posted to your client’s general ledger. This feature can be turned on via the Configuration settings within the Transaction Manager module.  Note: by default, this feature is turned off to allow all transaction categorizations to be reviewed by a human regardless of the confidence rating achieved.

Transaction Manager Workflow for AutoPush-enabled accounts: Transactions in Transaction Manager that feed through AutoPush will be sourced from Smart Connect and thus, GL bank feeds are no longer required:

    • Turn GL bank feeds [off] - preferred: Provides the highest level of assurance that duplicate transactions will not be posted.  

    • Keep GL bank feeds [on]: This option allows for transactions to be retrieved from the GL bank feed if the financial institution disconnects from Smart Connect. However, it carries the risk of duplicate transactions being created during the month if a partner or client posts transactions from the GL bank feed, after the same transaction has already been posted from AutoPush.
      • Turn Auto-Add for Bank Rules [off]: Avoid automatic duplicate entry of transactions posting to your client’s general ledger by turning auto-add [off].
    • Partners and/or clients who previously used the GL bank feed to categorize and/or post transactions to the GL can gain access to the portal and use Transaction Manager instead.
  • Transactions will be downloaded daily from the financial institution and run through the machine learning models which then apply a categorization prediction to each transaction.
  • Transactions with a medium or low confidence rating will undergo human review and be posted to the general ledger, based on the client’s scoped bookkeeping cadence of weekly or daily.
    • As an additional configuration option in Transaction Manager’s AutoPush settings, the partner may elect to have transactions with a medium to low confidence rating posted directly to the GL prior to human review. These transactions can either be posted to the ML model’s prediction, or a previously selected default account. Transactions will be reviewed, edited and escalated to the partner as needed based on the client’s scoped bookkeeping cadence of monthly/weekly/daily.
  • Remaining transactions where there is significant doubt on categorization and/or vendor after human review (including any manual checks with no backup available), will be assigned to the partner primary point of contact in Transaction Manager, based on the client’s scoped bookkeeping cadence of weekly/daily. 
    • Transactions requiring partner or client review will be coded to Uncategorized Income/Expenses, by default, or to an alternate specified account while they await categorization in Transaction Manager.
    • For Xero clients: 
      • Until the close due date, the uncategorized transactions will be unreconciled and editable in Transaction Manager. Partner should edit the category, payee, class, or split for each uncategorized transaction and mark the transaction as reviewed. This will mark the transaction as reconciled in Xero.
      • After the close due date, uncategorized transactions will be marked as reconciled in Xero, which will make them un-editable in Transaction Manager. You may comment on the transaction(s) in Transaction Manager requesting it/they be edited in Xero with the necessary updates to the transaction. The updated categorization will sync back to Transaction Manager thereafter. Alternatively, the partner may make any necessary changes directly in Xero for an immediate change.
Transaction Manager Workflow for AutoPush disabled accounts: 
  • Transactions in Transaction Manager will be sourced from the GL bank feeds or provided bank .csv or statement.
  • Transactions will be coded, reviewed and posted to the GL, based on the client’s scoped bookkeeping cadence of weekly/daily.
  • Remaining transactions where there is significant doubt on categorization and/or vendor after human review (including any manual checks with no backup available), will be assigned to the partner primary point of contact in Transaction Manager based on the client’s scoped bookkeeping cadence of monthly/weekly/daily. 
    • Transactions requiring partner or client review will be coded to Uncategorized Income/Expenses, by default, or to an alternate specified account while they await categorization.
    • For Xero clients: 
      • Until the close due date, the uncategorized transactions will be unreconciled and editable in Transaction Manager. Partner should edit the category, payee, class, or split for each uncategorized transaction and mark the transaction as reviewed. This will mark the transaction as reconciled in Xero.
    • After the close due date, uncategorized transactions will be marked as reconciled in Xero, which will make them un-editable in Transaction Manager. You may comment on the transaction(s) in Transaction Manager requesting it/they  be edited in Xero with the necessary updates to the transaction. The updated categorization will sync back to Transaction Manager thereafter. Alternatively, the partner may make any necessary changes directly in Xero for an immediate change.

How are mid-month bank/credit card statements treated?

Bank or credit card accounts with a mid-month ending date (most commonly credit cards) will be formally reconciled through the statement ending date; if provided. If the remaining transactions for the month being closed are populated via the bank feed,* they will be entered. or for Those requiring manual uploads that will also be entered as long as the .csv file was uploaded to the respective client’s portal prior to the close cutoff date. 

Any transactions not recorded for the month that are received in the following month closing cycle will follow the close type elected in their scope of service; either:

  • Soft Close - will carry the actual transaction date in the prior month; or
  • Hard Close - will carry a date of the 1st of the following month

* Some accounts will use the Smart Connect bank feed and others use your client’s general ledger bank feed. This will be dependent on your clients’ specific account(s).

What is included in Botkeeper's Basic Transaction Categorizations?

Botkeeper codes transactions using historical data, client-level rules, AI, ML, and human oversight, including quality control and exceptions management.

  • When deposits are made, they will either be sorted into revenue accounts or matched to customer payments that were already recorded and applied by the client. It is important to note that the match must be exact - a 1:1 match.
  • Expenses will either be categorized into expense accounts or matched with vendor payments that have already been recorded by the client. It's essential to note that the match must be precise, a 1:1 match.
  • If requested during scoping, loan transactions can be divided into principal and interest. This can be done through either a standard journal entry or an automated journal entry (if applicable), and is only possible when loan documentation is provided.