When you have two transactions in your books that represent the same financial event, you can use the match feature in ZipBooks to combine (or “match”) these transactions.

For example, a customer pays their invoice and you mark it as Paid using the Add Payment button. A few days later, your bank shows a deposit from that customer for the same amount. While these events show up as two separate transactions in your transaction list, you recognize that they are duplicates of the same financial event–you weren’t really paid twice. So, you “match” these transactions in your books and now, the payment only shows up once. Voila!

Another example of matching is when money is transferred between accounts. If you make a credit card payment, you might see two transactions: 1. A withdrawal from your checking account saying “Hey, I paid your credit card” and 2. A deposit on your credit statement that says “Hey, I got paid by your checking account!” The dates may be different, but it’s the same source of funds, same destination, and same amount. In other words, it’s the same transaction. So, you hit match and you’re back to one transaction–in ZipBooks, we’ll mark bank transfers with a blue arrow so you know which direction the money moved. 

Transactions should not be matched when financial events are not exact, even if the two transactions relate to each other. For example, when you send an invoice with ZipBooks, we automatically generate a Sales transaction and credit that balance to your Accounts Receivable. When the client pays that transaction, it represents an entirely different event–different source of funds and different destinations. Even though these two transactions relate, they cannot be matched.

Matching transactions can be incredibly handy, but it’s normally used sparingly. 

That’s it! The matched transactions are now been combined into one. 

Things to remember about matching: