When reconciling bank statements, the system suggests which GL account to use for each transaction based on how you’ve categorized similar transactions in the past. Previously, these suggestions only appeared when the description on a new transaction matched a past transaction exactly — character for character. That meant recurring payments like IRS tax deposits or payroll transfers, which include a different reference number each time, wouldn’t receive a suggestion even though you’d categorized the same type of payment dozens of times before.
We’ve updated the bank reconciliation tool to recognize transactions that are similar, not just identical. Now when you’re working through your bank statement, the system looks at the meaningful parts of each description and finds past transactions that are close matches. For example, if you previously reconciled “IRS USATAXPYMT 270568894771210” to a specific expense account, a new transaction for “IRS USATAXPYMT 999888777666555” will automatically suggest that same account — even though the reference numbers differ. This works across all kinds of recurring transactions where only a portion of the description changes from month to month.
The suggestions are ranked so the closest matches appear first, and the system is careful not to suggest accounts when descriptions are too different. This means less time looking up the right GL account during your monthly reconciliation and fewer opportunities for misposting — the system learns from your past work and applies that knowledge even when transaction details vary slightly.