Xero + HSBC = Fail

[cava83]

Hi all,

Thought I would update on here how I am getting on (unfortunately cannot link to my old thread as I have not done enough posts), as some people might be in the same position, or may be in the future.

In the end, we decided to give Xero a go, as it integrated with Harvest, which we mainly use for invoicing. We also use HSBC for our banking

Two main issues we have with this setup are the following;

Importing bank statements.

Importing CSV bank statements doesn't work.

Importing QIF statements works well, apart from not showing the right opening/end balance.

On Xero, it is always displayed as £0.00 which obviously isn't right. This is apparently a known issue with Xero.

Bank reconciliation when having credit/debit cards (HSBC)

My goodness this is an annoying one. We use our hybrid credit/debit cards when we have setup things such as Xero/Harvest/other DD payments. They are easy as it comes out the "current account".

When individual purchases have been made, such as domain names/computers/gadgets on each of the cards - it all gets added up at the end of the month, then gets debited from the current account. If you have 5 items, then that's going to be easy, but when you have quite a few items, reconciling it is a pain, as HSBC don't give you the start and end dates of that months "card" payments.

So overall, a real shamble.

The reason why Xero was chosen was due to the excellent reviews and the link with Harvest. HSBC was chosen ages ago because I bank with them with my personal stuff.

Having experienced all of this, I am tempted to go back to excel which I really don't want to and change from HSBC because they are frustrating as a whole.

Can anyone see the flaws of what I am doing and maybe make a recommendation?

Apologies for the essay, hope it made sense.

Regards,

Cava

 

[David Griffiths]

Importing bank statements.

Importing CSV bank statements doesn't work.

Importing QIF statements works well, apart from not showing the right opening/end balance.

On Xero, it is always displayed as £0.00 which obviously isn't right. This is apparently a known issue with Xero.

Importing csv statements does work, if you do it properly but using .qif or .ofx files is far better and less prone to errors. Having said that, if you are banking with HSBC why not simply set up a bank feed and have done with imports? That works really well.

For me what Xero shows on the bank statement is irrelevant if the balances are correct.

Bank reconciliation when having credit/debit cards (HSBC)

My goodness this is an annoying one. We use our hybrid credit/debit cards when we have setup things such as Xero/Harvest/other DD payments. They are easy as it comes out the "current account".

When individual purchases have been made, such as domain names/computers/gadgets on each of the cards - it all gets added up at the end of the month, then gets debited from the current account. If you have 5 items, then that's going to be easy, but when you have quite a few items, reconciling it is a pain, as HSBC don't give you the start and end dates of that months "card" payments.

What is a "hybrid debit/credit card? Never heard of one of those. Do you mean that you have one debit card, which comes directly from the account, and a separate credit card where the transactions are settled from the bank account the following month?

I get the impression that you are trying to deal with credit card payments by splitting the debit to the current account into separate transactions? If you are that is the wrong way to set about it. You should set the credit card up as a bank account, and import the transactions each month, alloacating as required. The payment from the current account is then a simple transfer to the credit card account.

So overall, a real shamble . . . .

Can anyone see the flaws of what I am doing and maybe make a recommendation?

With respect, I suspect that it is a shambles of your own making. If done properly there are no issues with HSBC current or credit card accounts. I have clients using both with no issues.

There don't seem to be any issues with Harvest but I can't comment on that as I've never used it. I do wonder, however, if you really need it when you have Xero but perhaps it offers something that you need.

 

[cava83]

First and foremost, thank you very much for replying. I know it's late, so thanks for your time. I will answer below as best as I can, please note, I am not an accountant....

Importing csv statements does work, if you do it properly but using .qif or .ofx files is far better and less prone to errors. Having said that, if you are banking with HSBC why not simply set up a bank feed and have done with imports? That works really well.

For me what Xero shows on the bank statement is irrelevant if the balances are correct.

It doesn't work for when I import them using CSV, it gives me the wrong values. Can you elaborate how this can be done property? HSBC does not do .ofx, at least in my login.

Bank feed - Takes 4/6 weeks to setup and have not done it yet, the £3 a month is a bit annoying too

What is a "hybrid debit/credit card? Never heard of one of those. Do you mean that you have one debit card, which comes directly from the account, and a separate credit card where the transactions are settled from the bank account the following month?

We have one current account. Two debit/credit cards (HSBC guy called them Hybrid cards). However, when things are paid with the debit cards, they do not come out directly from the "current account", they are credited at the end of the month from the current account. A bit like a credit card I guess.

I get the impression that you are trying to deal with credit card payments by splitting the debit to the current account into separate transactions? If you are that is the wrong way to set about it. You should set the credit card up as a bank account, and import the transactions each month, alloacating as required. The payment from the current account is then a simple transfer to the credit card account.

David, I see what you are saying. Basically the way I think of it it's that the money comes out from the current account, so it's from there. I did not think that I needed to create an account for each of the cards. I can only get 6 months worth of bank statements for those, but I can get all the bank statements for the "current account" ?

With respect, I suspect that it is a shambles of your own making. If done properly there are no issues with HSBC current or credit card accounts. I have clients using both with no issues.

Possibly, it's not the easiest thing to setup if you dont have an accountant background, even if you read some manuals and watch videos.

Are all your clients with bank feeds? Did you understand what I meant by opening and closing balance with the bank statement import.?

Many thanks for your time,

Thank you,

Gabi.

 

[David Griffiths]

It doesn't work for when I import them using CSV, it gives me the wrong values. Can you elaborate how this can be done property? HSBC does not do .ofx, at least in my login.

Pretty well impossible to troubleshoot csv imports without seeing what you are doing, but it sounds like an issue with the mapping of the csv fields. Having said that, csv is definitely the least favourite option. There's no real differenece between .qif or .ofx, so use the .qif option if you have it.

Bank feed - Takes 4/6 weeks to setup and have not done it yet, the £3 a month is a bit annoying too

If it doesn't save you £3 a month, you probably don't value your time a lot! (Tongue in cheek comment!) The feeds are good, but proper import from .qif won't take long - I do mine weekly and it's a minute or so.

We have one current account. Two debit/credit cards (HSBC guy called them Hybrid cards). However, when things are paid with the debit cards, they do not come out directly from the "current account", they are credited at the end of the month from the current account. A bit like a credit card I guess.

To me that is a credit card

David, I see what you are saying. Basically the way I think of it it's that the money comes out from the current account, so it's from there. I did not think that I needed to create an account for each of the cards. I can only get 6 months worth of bank statements for those, but I can get all the bank statements for the "current account" ?

Going forward, you wont have any issues with the credit card statements. As for the past, again it's difficult to comment without seeing where you are but it shouldn't prove impossible to split the payments on the basis of the save statements.

Possibly, it's not the easiest thing to setup if you dont have an accountant background, even if you read some manuals and watch videos.

That's probably true. I do find that some clients need a lot of hand holding, which generally I don't charge for as it's a good investment for the future. We accountants do have our uses, you know.

Are all your clients with bank feeds? Did you understand what I meant by opening and closing balance with the bank statement import.?

The HSBC clients use the feeds. Some of the other banks the feeds aren't brilliant. I use Barclays and the feeds constantly require refreshing so it's less hassle simply to download and import. As to the point about the bank statements, I think that I know what you mean but it's never bothered me

Many thanks for your time,
.

Pleasure. Persevere, it will be worth it.

 

[cava83]

Credit card = agreed. But they assured me it wasn't, as I didn't want one. If it definately is credit cards what we have, can I remove than functionality and just have 100% debit cards, so it all comes out the single account and makes life easier? As I really dont know how I can do the reconciliation, as that is going to be hard.

Bank imports, I am unable to add a screen grab on here due to the post amount. Below is a copy and paste of what I mean. It's a little bit broken up, but I hope you see what I mean.

Status Imported Date Start Date End Date Start Balance End Balance
25 Jul 2013 22 May 2011 17 Jun 2011 0.00 0.00
25 Jul 2013 18 Apr 2011 16 May 2011 0.00 0.00
17 Jul 2013 21 Nov 2011 9 Dec 2011 0.00 0.00
17 Jul 2013 20 Oct 2011 16 Nov 2011 0.00 0.00
17 Jul 2013 21 Sep 2011 12 Oct 2011 0.00 0.00
17 Jul 2013 18 Aug 2011 15 Sep 2011 0.00 0.00
17 Jul 2013 21 Jul 2011 3 Aug 2011 0.00 0.00

I am really keen to get our bit sorted on Xero, if you can assist or point me in the right direction I will be very grateful

 

[cava83]

David,

Added the two credit cards as discussed. So now have three accounts. I have imported the card statements into each of those accounts.

Wondering if you're able to assist, so I have all of this setup? Won't take too long, I am a quick learner and will pay for your time if you want.

Please let me know

Thanks,

G

 

[Tom McClelland]

On the subject of "hybrid" cards 12Pay has the same arrangement with Bank of Scotland. The cards are credit cards that are automatically paid off from the main bank account monthly. A major benefit of operating a separate bank account for them is that reconciliation becomes so easy. You enter every payment as a detailed cash payment allocated to the correct expense account (or purchase ledger creditor), and monthly the bank account does a single transfer to each card's account to pay off the balance. Simples.

 

[cava83]

On the subject of "hybrid" cards 12Pay has the same arrangement with Bank of Scotland. The cards are credit cards that are automatically paid off from the main bank account monthly. A major benefit of operating a separate bank account for them is that reconciliation becomes so easy. You enter every payment as a detailed cash payment allocated to the correct expense account (or purchase ledger creditor), and monthly the bank account does a single transfer to each card's account to pay off the balance. Simples.

Thank you for this reply.

That is exactly what happens as in paid off from the main account monthly.

What I don't understand is the following;

I would therefore need to have three accounts on Xero for my scenario;

A) Current account
B) Card Holder A
C) Card Holder B

Every month, the sum of B + C are debited from A.

How do I manage this on Xero, because obviously I need to reconcile A, B and C.

But I can't see how I would be able to tally the debit from A, with the outgoings of the card on B & C ?

This is probably due to a lack of knowledge, but if this makes sense and you can explain to me how, then it would make this a lot easier for me.

I've tried watching the credit card videos on Xero but it doesn't explain much to be honest.

The other issue I have is that there are some DD's that come out both from the current account and also our card, effectively being two "transactions" for one bill?

Let me explain, every month for instance, we have a direct debit for hosting for instance. The hosting charge comes out of one of our cards, but it is also shown as a DD from the main current account. How does one reconcile this as it's shown in two places?

Thanks,

Gabi.

 

[Tom McClelland]

I'm not familiar with Xero, but I assume that it has a "transfer" option that moves money from one bank account to another. So the monthly payment of card A is a transfer from the main bank account to card A's bank account, and the same for B. This transaction precisely reflects the real world action.

As to your hosting payment showing both as a bank transaction and a credit card transaction, I don't understand how that can be the case since it sounds like double-counting that would lead you to paying the bill twice. Either the statements are wrong or you're misunderstanding what you're seeing, I think.

 

[cava83]

I'm stuck on this.

Need to find someone to help me out.

Anyone up for the job? Won't take long