Sage 300 Bank Reconciliation with OFX Import from PDF Statements

Can Sage 300 import a PDF bank statement?

No. Sage 300 Bank Services reads bank activity from a bank feed or from an OFX statement file through Import OFX Statements. It does not read a PDF. To reconcile from a PDF statement, convert it to OFX with the tool above, import it against the right bank code, and let Reconcile E-Statements match it to the withdrawals and deposits already in Sage 300.

The menu paths and matching rules on this page come from the Sage 300 help. Our part is the file. The converter reads the statement, digital or scanned, and writes a standard OFX file with the date, amount, payee and description of every line, so a controller or AP lead is not clearing two hundred lines by hand at month end.

Where Sage 300 bank feeds stop

Bank feeds are the comfortable route for a current operating account, and Sage 300 asks for a start date when you connect one. Its own help is careful about what happens next. The system will attempt to download history from that date, the connection can take time before transactions arrive, the bank may deactivate a feed that sits unused, and a feed on a bank code that is really a credit card may bring in irregularities.

That leaves the accounts every Sage 300 shop still reconciles the slow way: the corporate card program, the payroll account at a second bank, the lockbox or escrow account the bank will only report as a PDF, the account closed after an acquisition, and the twelve months that need to be redone because nobody reconciled them during an ERP migration. The bank will give you a PDF for every one of those. Import OFX Statements wants an OFX file.

How to import a PDF bank statement into Sage 300

The first statement takes about ten minutes, most of it spent confirming the bank code and the cutoff date. After that each month is a few minutes of import and review.

1. Upload the PDF statement with the box at the top of this page. Scanned and photographed statements go through OCR the same way.
2. Check the rows against the beginning and ending balances printed on the statement, then export OFX. Card statements come out as a credit card statement file, checking and savings as a bank statement file.
3. In Sage 300 open Common Services, Bank Services, Bank Transactions, Import OFX Statements. You can also start from the File menu of the Reconcile Statements screen with Import, Downloaded Bank Statements.
4. Enter the bank code in the From/To Bank Code fields, click Browse, pick the OFX file and click Import.
5. Open Reconcile E-Statements, enter the bank code, a reconciliation date later than the last one you posted and the statement cutoff date, choose how to match deposits, and click Reconcile.
6. Clear what did not match, record bank charges and interest with Bank Entry, check the Summary tab of Reconcile Statements, print the Withdrawal Status and Deposit Status reports, and post the reconciliation.

For a catch-up year, convert and import one month at a time, oldest first, and post each reconciliation before you start the next. Sage 300 requires each reconciliation date to be later than the previous one, so working in order keeps every month on its own ending balance.

How Reconcile E-Statements matches an imported file

When you click Reconcile, Bank Services matches every imported line on amount first and then on extra details, in a fixed order. For payments it compares the Sage 300 check number with the OFX reference number, then the reference, then the vendor or payee name, then the comment. For deposits it compares the deposit transaction number, the comment and the payee. The table shows each check and what a converted statement supplies.

Be clear about the one gap. Our OFX file does not carry a check number tag, so Sage 300 will not pair checks on number. Checks still match on amount and payee name, and an amount that appears once in the period matches cleanly. Where two checks share an amount, leave Automatically Clear Reconciled Transactions off, as the Sage 300 help itself recommends when amounts repeat, and clear those lines from the Detail list with the check number in front of you. If your account writes many checks of the same amount, export CSV or Excel as well and keep it beside you for that step.

Deposits, bank charges and credit cards

• Match Deposits By. Pick Deposit Slip when the statement shows one credit per deposit, which is how most US business statements print. Pick Transaction only when the statement lists each receipt.
• Bank charges and interest. Lines the bank created, such as service charges, wire fees and interest, stay unmatched. Select them and click Bank Entry, enter a distribution code and G/L account, save and post, then refresh.
• Corporate cards. A card statement converts to a credit card OFX file, so purchases import as charges and the payment as a credit. Import it against the bank code you use for the card.
• Currency. In a multicurrency system the statement currency has to be the bank's statement currency or one of its source currencies. Our files carry the statement currency, USD for US accounts.
• Ending balance. We write the ledger balance into the file only when the statement prints one, so the figure on the Summary tab always comes from the bank, never from a guess.

Who uses this

Sage 300 runs finance at distributors, manufacturers and multi-entity companies that outgrew small business software. The people converting statements for it are controllers closing the month across several bank codes, AP and treasury staff who reconcile card programs and secondary banks, and Sage partners who clean up a client's bank reconciliation after a migration or before an audit. They are all trying to get the same thing done: a posted reconciliation with zero out of balance and two status reports to hand the auditor.

What a year of statements costs to convert

OFXStatement Starter is $49 a month, or $24.50 a month on the annual plan, for 2,500 pages from one shared pool, with statements up to 25 pages each. A busy operating account often prints 20 to 40 pages a month, so a catch-up year on one account is roughly 250 to 500 pages and several accounts still fit in one Starter month. Plus is $149 a month for 10,000 pages, removes the per statement page cap and adds bulk upload of up to 50 files at once, which suits a Sage partner reconciling many entities. You can test 15 pages without a credit card before you pay.

Compare that with the alternative. Clearing a 300 line statement by hand in Reconcile Statements is most of a day for someone senior, and the bank charges still have to be keyed in afterward.