Automated Bank Statement Feed - BAI2 Format - SFTP Process

Overview

This article describes the SFTP process for companies that wish to integrate their bank statement feed with Accountability through SFTP and whose Banks support the standard BAI2 format.

Prerequisites

1. Confirm if your Bank supports the standard BAI2 format. Submit a support ticket with details of your request.  For instructions on how to submit a ticket, click here. 
2. Accountability needs to complete the SFTP set-up and provide credentials to your agency and your bank.  There will be 3 folders for each SFTP site:
   1. Received
   2. Processed
   3. Failed
3. Check that each bank account being requested is also correctly setup in the Accountability system. See 

   How to setup banking details on a GL account (counta.com)

4. Agree a file naming convention with your bank. The only requirement for the Accountability System is that each file received must be unique so, consider incorporating date and timestamp in the file name.
5. Provide details of designated contact(s) at your agency that will receive error notifications for files that fail - see more details in Error Handling section below.
6. After the Bank completes the first file transfer to the designated SFTP folder, notify your Accountability Account Lead via email to complete the configuration in Accountability.

Workflow 

1. The Bank sends the BAI2 bank statement file to a designated SFTP folder.  The timing of this file is determined by the bank.
2. A scheduled task runs at specified intervals, i.e. once daily (11:30 UTC) or custom if required.
3. The task checks all files in the Received folder in the SFTP host and processes each one.
   1. If successful, the file is moved to the Processed folder and the bank statement entries are displayed in the Bank reconciliation screen.
   2. If failed, the file is moved to the Failed folder.  See how to handle errors in the next section.
4. An email notification is sent to the designated agency contact(s) with the result.  

Error Handling

The import stops at the first error. For example, if there are  20 entries in the file and the second entry fails the validation routine, the failed email notification will only contain that error. 

Issues that need to be resolved in the Bank's platform:

If the issue needs to be corrected in the Bank platform by the agency or the Bank provider,  they can import another file to the SFTP site.  The file name needs to be different from the file that errored out, but it should follow the agreed-upon naming convention. 

Your agency has access to delete the original file from the Failed folder.

Issues that need to be resolved by the agency outside the Bank's platform:

• If the issue is in Accountability:
  • An authorized user can update the data on the platform
  • A user who has access to the SFTP site can move the file from the Failed to the Received folder, to be processed in the next scheduled task.
• If the issue is in the file itself: 
  • A user who has access to the SFTP site can download the file, update the content, and upload it to the Received folder, to be processed in the next scheduled task.