Enabling AI Matching
Managers and Admins can enable AI Matching via in-line editing at the account-by-account level:
Please note that AI Matching is only available for reconciliations with the Monthly frequency. If you don't see the AI Matching option in your FloQast instance, please reach out to your ASM for more information.
How to Set Up AI Matching
Once AI Matching is enabled for a reconciliation, you’ll see ‘AI Matching’ under the account number and name.
Clicking on that will allow you to set up the matching instance and tell FloQast how you intend to use the tool for that particular reconciliation. Currently, there are two Matching types to choose from as the first step:
- 2-Way Match - Uploading and/or integrating with two data sources. Transactions will match across data sources (reversal matches are also accepted).
- Debits vs. Credits - Uploading or integrating with a single data source. FloQast will match the debit transactions to the credit transactions.
Next, select the Account Type, which will provide more context on what type of reconciliation is being prepared.
Once you’ve selected your Match Type and Account type, you can set up your Primary Data Source. We recommend using this for your General Ledger data source, but you can set it up for whichever data source you’d like. If you select the Debits vs. Credits Match Type, this will be your only data source.
To set up your primary data source, you can:
- Name your data source, which will be displayed in the app
- Choose your data source, which will be a file upload by default. Integrations can be selected if they’ve been set up for your FloQast app
- If your data source is file upload, you can select the file you want to upload (note that it must be either an XLSX or CSV file type)
- Select your Import Start Row, which will be the first row of transaction data in your file (for example, if you have column headers on row 1, you’ll want to select row 2 to skip those).
- Map columns from your file to the attributes in FloQast (Date, Amount, and References).
- For example, if the A column in your file contains all of the dates for each transaction, you’ll want to ensure the Date mapping is set to Column A in FloQast.
- You can add as many Reference fields as you'd like by clicking on the Add Reference option.
If your data source is set to the general ledger, then we will pull transactions based on the integration you’ve set up (direct API or FloQast API).
- FloQast will automatically map date and amount attributes for you, and you’ll be able to define which attributes from your source system to map to your references.
If your file contains two separate amount columns, with debits in one column and credits in the other, you can select the Change to DR/CR option.
This option will allow you to map the Debit and Credit columns individually. FloQast will consider debit transactions as positive numbers and credit transactions as negative.
If you selected 2-Way Match as your Match Type, you can repeat the above steps for the Secondary Source data. The secondary data source is typically your bank or other subledger system. The only difference in the mapping of the secondary data source is the Flip signs option. Use the flip sign option when signs with positive and negative amounts don’t match your primary source (this is typical for bank accounts). When this option is selected, FloQast will automatically change the negative values to positive values and vice versa.
Once you’ve uploaded your files and chosen your Start Rows & Column Mappings, you can select the Complete Setup button to import your data and start the matching process. Note that these settings will be saved going forward, but you can always modify them if needed.
Creating AI Rules
Once your data has been uploaded, you can start creating AI Matching rules by selecting matching transactions and clicking on the Create AI Rule button. By leveraging AI, FloQast will write and interpret the rules in natural language, making it easy for anyone to create and manage the rules without any technical knowledge.
FloQast will create a starting point for the rule based on the selected transactions. Once the rule has been created, you will have the opportunity to name it and edit the criteria to suit your use case best. Once you’ve named the rule and are satisfied with the wording and criteria, you can click Save & Apply to add the rule and match all of the remaining transactions that meet the rule criteria.
Once AI is finished applying the rule, the Rules drawer will update to show how many matches were found.
If there are unmatched transactions left, you can repeat this process and create more rules until all transactions are matched. Once all of your rules are created, they will be saved and automatically available for each period going forward. If you have new transactions in the future that don’t match the existing rules, you can just create a new rule for those as they appear, which will also be remembered for future periods.
When more rules are created, they’ll stack in the Rules drawer. You can change the order in which the rules run by clicking on the up or down arrows, with the topmost rule running first before the second from the top, third, and so on.
Users can edit rule criteria by clicking on the pencil icon below the rule. This will remove all matches associated with the rule and reapply the rule with the new criteria.
Users can delete a rule by opening the rules drawer and clicking the trash icon below it. This will remove all matches associated with the rule, and users can try to create a new rule.
Manual Matches
There may be a scenario where transactions should be matched, but there is no rule associated with it, or you do not anticipate this same type of match on a regular basis. In this case, you can manually match these transactions by clicking on the “Create Manual Match” button.
Reviewing Matches
You can review the matches on the Matched Transactions tab.
1-1 matches will be displayed side-by-side in the Primary and Secondary panels, while 1-Many and Many-Many matches will be displayed as a single, expandable line. Clicking on the carrot will reveal all of the transactions included in the match. Each match will also display which Rule was used to create it, which can be filtered. For user-made matches, we will show “Manual Match” in the rule column, and you can hover over this to see who created the match.
Removing Matches
Manual matches can be removed manually. If you need to remove a match made by a rule, we recommend editing or deleting the rule within the rules drawer, which will remove all matches associated with those rules. By editing the rule, we hope this will improve its accuracy and ensure no bad matches are found going forward.
Importing Or Removing Data
You can select the Manage Date button to return to the initial Manage Data screen. From there, you can import more data by selecting files for your new data sources. You can upload as many files as you need each period. Your file can include month-to-date activity, and FloQast will only bring in new net transactions.
If you use direct integrations to sync data into Matching, FloQast will only bring in net new transactions for the period and will also update transactions in case records are modified or deleted in your source system.
You can also remove data on the manage data screen by selecting the Undo Last Import button. This will only remove transactions from the previous import, but you can undo multiple times in case you need to remove multiple imports.
Just note that undoing the last import(s) will also remove any matches from those files on the Matched Transactions page.
Finalizing The Period
Once your data has been matched, you can use the Export button to download the matching data, which can then be uploaded to the reconciliation folder as your supporting documentation.
You can then lock the completed period so no more edits can be made by navigating to AI Matching in the next period and selecting the Rollforward option. This will pull any outstanding transactions from the completed period into the next and ensure that no changes are made to the completed period.