Transactions: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every Transactions task. For what each option means, see Transactions; for problems, see Transactions: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’re setting up and want payments to come in on their own	Connect a bank account
The panel says Needs reconnect or Expired, or asks you to confirm access	Reconnect a bank, or confirm access
You need transactions from before you connected	Bring in older transactions
A payment came in this morning and you want it now	Get the latest transactions now
The dashboard’s Matches tile shows a number	Confirm a proposed match
COHO hasn’t proposed anything for a payment	Match a transaction to a tenancy yourself
One payment covers rent and something else	Split a payment
You logged the rent by hand and the bank payment has now arrived	Link a bank transaction to a payment you’ve logged
You match the same tenant by hand every month	Add a rent match rule
A rule matched the wrong rent, or stopped working	Change, archive or delete a rule, Check your rules’ health
You’ve added a rule and want it to cover payments already in COHO	Re-match transactions
The lists are full of transfers, refunds and other non-rent items	Exclude transactions that aren’t rent
You want to deal with a payment later	Snooze a transaction
A payment was matched to the wrong tenancy or rent	Undo a match
A payment is income or an expense, not rent	Record a transaction as income or an expense
You don’t use open banking	Import transactions from a CSV file
A GoCardless payment is missing	Bring in GoCardless payments
You’ve closed a bank account	Delete a bank connection or account

Connect a bank account

Do this when you start using Transactions, or open a new bank account.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Integrations, your online banking login, and your browser set to allow pop-ups from COHO.

1. From your dashboard, open the Transactions panel and click the settings cog (top right).
2. The first time, read the open banking terms, tick the box to acknowledge them, and click Submit.
3. Click Connect a bank account (on older setups, Connect an account).
4. In the window that opens, choose your bank and log in to approve access. Choose the accounts COHO may read.
5. Come back to COHO. The page updates on its own when your bank has finished.

What happens next: the connection appears in Connected Accounts with its accounts, and the panel shows Connected. COHO brings in money coming in from the day before you connected, and keeps checking several times a day. To bring in older transactions, see Bring in older transactions.

Tip

You can connect as many banks and accounts as you like. Give each account a Friendly name (click Edit on it) so you can tell them apart in the lists.

Reconnect a bank, or confirm access

Do this when the panel shows Needs reconnect or Expired, the dashboard says Reconnect your bank account!, or a connection says “confirm access by [date]”.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Integrations.

To confirm access (when the connection shows a Confirm access box):

1. Open the settings cog on the Transactions panel.
2. Tick “I confirm that COHO may keep reading this bank account.” and click Confirm access.

To reconnect:

1. Open the settings cog on the Transactions panel.
2. On the connection, click Reconnect.
3. In the window that opens, log in to your bank and approve access again.

What happens next: the connection shows Active again with a new “valid until” date, and COHO starts fetching transactions. Confirming access keeps the connection going for another 90 days without visiting your bank. If your bank has withdrawn access, COHO asks you to reconnect instead.

Note

After a gap, check All transactions for the missing days. If some are missing, move the account’s Sync from date back (see the next task).

Bring in older transactions

Do this after connecting, or after a gap in the feed.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Open banking.

1. Open the settings cog on the Transactions panel.
2. Click Edit on the account.
3. Make sure Synchronise is Yes, and set Sync from to the earliest date you need.
4. Click Save.

What happens next: COHO fetches that account’s transactions from the new date, as far back as your bank allows. Transactions already in COHO aren’t brought in twice. Matching runs on the new ones from the last 3 months; for anything older, see Re-match transactions.

To stop bringing in an account’s transactions, set Synchronise to No and click Save. Transactions already imported stay.

Get the latest transactions now

COHO fetches automatically, but you can ask for the latest at any time.

1. On the Transactions panel, click Check bank feeds on the Rent Automation bar, or the reload icon in the header.
2. If your connection shows Get latest in Connected Accounts (settings cog), click that instead.

What happens next: new transactions appear in the lists and are matched. Get latest shows how many manual refreshes the account has left this month.

Note

Banks release transactions in batches, so a payment made in the last few hours may not be available yet. If it’s started but not finished, look under Pending transactions.

Confirm a proposed match

Do this when the dashboard’s Matches tile shows a number, or you’re working through Reconcile transactions.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transaction matching and Rent Collection.

1. Open the Transactions panel and expand Reconcile transactions.
2. For each payment, check the proposal on the tenant’s tab: the Tenant, Date due and Amount due. Highlighted fields are the ones that match.
3. If there are several possible rent records (“3 possible items”), use the arrows to pick the right one.
4. If the payment was a few days late but you want it shown as on time, tick Override ‘Paid Late’ status to show as paid on time.
5. Click OK.

What happens next: COHO records a bank transfer payment on the tenancy for the transaction’s date and amount, and the payment leaves the list. The rent shows as paid in Rent Collection. If it was a holding deposit or move-in monies, the onboarding step is confirmed.

Tip

If the same tenant appears every month, click Create rule instead of OK. You can then save a rule and record the payment in one go, so next month’s payment matches itself.

Match a transaction to a tenancy yourself

Do this when COHO hasn’t proposed a match, or proposed the wrong one.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transaction matching and Rent Collection.

1. In Reconcile transactions, click Find tenancy beside the payment. (For older payments, find it in All transactions and click the row.)
2. Choose the tenancy: use Search all current tenancies, or Find tenancy by property.
3. Check the Amount paid and Date paid, and choose the rent records it pays.
4. To match future payments from this tenant automatically, choose Yes at Create a rule for this reference? and fill in the rule (see Add a rent match rule).
5. Click Save.

What happens next: the payment is recorded on the tenancy and the transaction is matched.

Note

Past and cancelled tenancies only appear in the list if they still have unpaid rent.

Split a payment

Do this when one bank payment covers more than one thing, such as rent and a deposit, or two tenants’ rent.

1. In All transactions, find the payment and click the row.
2. Log the first part: choose the tenancy, change Amount paid to that part, pick the rent record, and click Save.
3. The row now shows how much is already matched. Log the next part the same way, or use Record a transaction as income or an expense for a non-rent part.

What happens next: once the whole amount is matched, the transaction shows as Matched. If everything is matched but it still shows as partly matched, click Mark as fully-matched.

In Reconcile transactions, if a payment is more than the rent due, COHO offers Associate [amount] to match just the amount due and leave the rest.

Link a bank transaction to a payment you’ve logged

Do this when you logged a payment by hand in Rent Collection, and the bank transaction for it has now come in. Linking stops the rent being counted twice.

From Transactions: if COHO spots it, the proposal shows Reconcile existing payment. Check the details and click OK.

From Rent Collection:

1. Open the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel and view the payment.
2. Under Transaction, click Search & match.
3. Choose the bank transaction from “Unmatched transactions around [date]”, and click Match.

What happens next: the transaction shows as Matched and the payment is marked as coming from your bank. No new payment is created.

Caution

Don’t click OK on a normal proposal for a payment you’ve already logged. That records it twice. If it happens, see Undo a match.

Add a rent match rule

Do this for tenants whose payments you match by hand every month.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transactions. Look at one of the tenant’s payments in All transactions to see exactly what the description looks like.

1. On the Transactions panel, expand Rent match rules and click Add rule.
2. Choose the Tenancy.
3. Choose the Match type (Equals, Starts with or Ends with) and type the Description, for example the tenant’s reference.
4. If several tenants pay with similar descriptions, click Change and add the Payee name exactly as your bank shows it.
5. Click Preview matches to check the rule catches the right payments, and only those.
6. Choose the Behaviour: Propose match, Match closest or Match oldest.
7. Click Create rule.

What happens next: from now on, matching payments are matched as you chose. The rule doesn’t go back over payments already in COHO; to apply it to those, see Re-match transactions.

You can also create a rule from a proposal (Create rule), or when matching by hand (Create a rule for this reference?).

Tip

Starts with works well when the bank adds a changing date or number to the end of the reference. Keep the text specific: a rule for “RENT” would catch everyone’s payments.

Change, archive or delete a rule

1. On the Transactions panel, expand Rent match rules. Use Search… or the property filter to find the rule.
2. Click the edit icon to change it, then Update rule. Or click the archive icon and Archive to stop using it.
3. To see archived rules, turn on Archived only. Click restore to bring one back, or delete to remove it permanently.

What happens next: changes apply to payments that arrive from now on. Archived rules no longer run, and no longer block a new rule with the same description.

Check your rules’ health

Do this when payments you expect to match aren’t matching.

1. On the Transactions panel, expand Rent match rules.
2. Click Health check at the bottom.
3. Read the summary (working, not matching, partly working, no recent payments). For each rule that needs attention, click Show to see recent payments marked Matched or Missed, and read the Recommendation.
4. Edit the rule to follow the recommendation, for example a shorter description, or clearing the payee.

What happens next: the changed rule applies to new payments. Use Re-match transactions for ones already in COHO.

If it says some rules “will never run”, their tenancy has ended or been cancelled, or they aren’t linked to a tenancy. Match those payments by hand, and archive rules you no longer need.

Re-match transactions

Do this after adding or fixing a rule, to apply it to transactions already in COHO.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transaction matching.

1. Expand All transactions, set the Date range and choose Un-matched/Partially matched. Click Filter.
2. Tick the transactions (or the box at the top for the whole page).
3. Click Re-Match checked transactions.

What happens next: COHO clears their old proposals and runs your rules and matching on them again, whatever their date. Only transactions with nothing matched can be re-matched.

Exclude transactions that aren’t rent

Do this for transfers, refunds, deposit releases and other money that isn’t rent.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transactions.

One at a time, in Reconcile transactions: click the Other tab, then Exclude transaction. Or Exclude transaction & create rule to also save an Ignore rule for that description.

In bulk, in All transactions:

1. Filter the list, for example by Date range and Un-matched/Partially matched.
2. Tick the transactions, or the box at the top to tick the whole page.
3. Click Exclude checked transactions, then Exclude.

What happens next: excluded transactions disappear from the default lists and the dashboard count. Anything already matched can’t be excluded; COHO lists those under “These transactions could not be excluded:”.

To include one again: choose Excluded in the status filter, click Filter, and click Include (tick icon) on the row.

To remove an excluded transaction for good, click Delete on its row. It can’t be brought back.

Snooze a transaction

Do this when you’re waiting for information before matching a payment.

1. In All transactions, click the snooze icon on the row.
2. Choose Tomorrow, 3 days, Next month, or Pick a date.

What happens next: the transaction is hidden from the lists and the dashboard count until that date. To see snoozed ones, turn on Show snoozed; click the bell icon to un-snooze.

Undo a match

Do this when a payment was matched to the wrong tenancy or rent record.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Rent Collection.

1. In All transactions, choose Matched (or Auto-matched), find the payment and click the row.
2. In the list of what it’s matched to:
   • click Dissociate to unlink it from that rent record (the payment stays on the tenancy as unassigned), or
   • click Delete to delete the rent payment altogether.
3. Confirm.

What happens next: the rent shows as unpaid again and the transaction is unmatched, ready to match correctly. If a rule caused it, fix the rule too.

Record a transaction as income or an expense

Do this for money that isn’t tenant rent, such as a refund from a supplier.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Finances.

1. In Reconcile transactions, click Create item beside the payment.
2. Click Create income or Create expense reversal (for money going out: Create expense or Create income reversal).
3. Fill in the financial item and save.

What happens next: the financial item is created in Finances and linked to the transaction.

Import transactions from a CSV file

Do this if you don’t use open banking, or to fill a gap.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Transactions. Export a statement from your online banking as CSV or Excel.

1. At the bottom of the Transactions panel, click Import transactions from CSV.
2. Choose the Bank, then the Name of account (or Add account and type a name).
3. Under Upload file, add your file.
4. If COHO asks, choose which columns hold the Date, Amount and Reference.
5. Use Prev and Next to check a few rows in the Preview of your CSV import.
6. Click Import.

What happens next: COHO shows how many were imported and how many were duplicates. New transactions are matched straight away, including by your rent match rules. Import a new file whenever you want newer transactions.

Caution

If two rows in your file are exactly the same (same date, amount and reference), COHO imports only one. Matching runs on transactions from the last 3 months; use Re-match transactions for older ones.

Bring in GoCardless payments

GoCardless payments come into Transactions on their own. If one is missing:

1. On the Rent Automation bar, click Import latest GoCardless payments.

What happens next: COHO fetches payments paid out to you in the last 30 days, skips any it already has, and matches the new ones. Check Reconcile transactions for any waiting for your OK.

Delete a bank connection or account

Do this when you close a bank account or no longer want it in COHO.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Integrations.

1. Open the settings cog on the Transactions panel.
2. To remove one account: click Edit on it, then Delete, and Yes.
3. To remove the whole connection: click the delete icon on the connection, then Delete.

What happens next: COHO stops reading the account and your access is withdrawn. Transactions and matches already in COHO stay.