The categorisation of bank transactions for companies is always mandatory. Currently, this task is carried out exclusively by your accountant. Indeed, a company's bookkeeping uses what is known as "double-entry accounting". In practice, this means that every transaction must have a mandatory accounting justification 🤓
⚠️ For self-employed individuals (sole proprietorships), processing bank transactions is not always mandatory. Find out here who needs to categorise transactions as a sole proprietor.
What is CODA?
CODA = COmmunication DAta.
It is a standardised electronic file used by Belgian banks to transmit bank statements to businesses and accounting software.
In practice:
The bank generates a CODA file
BILLY imports it into its accounting software
Transactions (payments, transfers, direct debits…) are automatically integrated and often already pre-encoded
👉 Result: less manual data entry, fewer errors and faster bookkeeping.
Automatic retrieval of CODA files
BILLY uses the Isabel platform to retrieve your CODA files. We also use the Codabox platform for certain banks.
⚠️ For KBC bank, a specific procedure must be followed. Please refer to our article on setting up CODA for KBC.
Processing time
CODA processing is partly automated thanks to our tools. However, human validation by your accountant is always essential to ensure the consistency of your figures.
Your accountant does not process your transactions every day. They validate your bank statements to ensure that no more than 10 statements are ever left pending.
Why is there a difference in processing between sole proprietors and companies?
As a company, you are subject to double-entry bookkeeping rather than single-entry bookkeeping. What is the difference? In double-entry bookkeeping, every bank transaction must have a corresponding counterpart. Every receipt or payment corresponds to a transaction that is recorded twice (in addition to the expense or income entry).
👉🏻 Example:
Steps | Actions | Accounting entries |
1️⃣ | I purchase a service (I increase my expenses) | Increase the expense account (61xxxx) |
2️⃣ | I have a supplier liability | Increase the supplier liability (44xxxx) |
3️⃣ | I pay my supplier (this reduces my liability) | Decrease the supplier liability account (44xxxx) |
4️⃣ | I receive the bank statement confirming the debit from the account (via CODA) | Decrease the bank account (55xxxx) |
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the live chat at the bottom right!
See you soon 😇