How to reconcile Zettle income
This help guide article covers how to reconcile Zettle income. Zettle is similar to SumUp and Square in that as well as enabling organisations to accept income payment by card, it's also possible to be used as a till system, with both cash and card transactions being recorded.
In this article:
The two options for reconciling Zettle income
Option 1: Splitting payouts manually using the 'mixed income' option
Option 2: Adding Zettle as a payment processor account, and uploading and reconciling transactions
- Reconciling Zettle payouts appearing on your main bank account statement
- Downloading Zettle transactions (from Zettle)
- Importing Zettle transactions to ExpensePlus
- Reconciling Zettle transactions
- Recording Zettle CASH that is banked (not relevant for most organisations)
- Why is my Zettle statement not uploading?
The two options for reconciling Zettle income
Within ExpensePlus there are 2 choices for how to reconcile Zettle income (you will need to pick the one that will work best for you):
You should not reconcile payouts from Zettle as 'Income Received' / 'Other income'. Zettle charges transaction fees, so recording the net amount that arrives in your bank account simply as income is incorrect from an accounting perspective. Instead, choose one of the above options - both of which enable you to ensure the gross amount of income collected via Zettle is recorded as income, and the Zettle transaction fees are correctly recorded as expenditure
- Option 1: Splitting payouts manually using the 'mixed income' option - This can be a good option where you have only a small number of Zettle transactions, or where all transactions are typically either just card donations, or relate to just one event (and you wish to bulk together similar income transactions and fees).
Option 1 can't be used if you are using Zettle as a till system through which you are also recording cash income.
- Option 2: Adding Zettle as a payment processor account and uploading and reconciling transactions - This option enables you to upload and reconcile the transactions that form part of your Zettle payouts in a highly automated and efficient way using the quick-match feature in ExpensePlus, avoiding the need to manually split payouts into gross income and fees.
Option 1: Splitting payouts manually using the 'mixed income' option
Reconciling Zettle payouts appearing on your main bank account statement
When you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, select the Zettle payout on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, then, in the pop-up that appears, select the transaction type as 'mixed income'.
Within the 'Enter Mixed Income' screen, enter the details for the transactions in the Zettle payout:
- GASDS Donations - any contactless card donations where the amount given is £30 or less
- Income (other) - all other income, such as ticket / book / cafe sales (along with contactless card donations greater than £30 which are not eligible for GASDS)
- Less Expenditure - the total of the fees deducted (typically grouped into a single expenditure line)
Typically, the named donation option isn't used, since most donations will be contactless card donations, which can be claimed under GASDS (removing the need to try and manually track at the point of donation which donor gave which amount, with which card number).
Any card donations over £30 are not eligible for GASDS and should be entered instead as 'Income (Other)' /' Income Received'.
If you are finding the process of splitting payouts as described above tedious or time-consuming, then we'd recommend you consider option 2, which is far quicker and doesn't require manual data entry.
Option 2: Adding Zettle as a payment processor account, and uploading and reconciling transactions
Reconciling Zettle payouts appearing on your main bank account statement
When you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, select the Zettle payout on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, then, in the pop-up that appears, select the transaction type as 'Payout from Payment Processor', and then select your Zettle account.
You will need to set up Zettle as a payment processor account before you can do this - click here to find out how to do this.
This first step may temporarily make the balance of your Zettle account in ExpensePlus go negative (until you upload your Zettle transactions).
Downloading Zettle transactions (from Zettle)
Within your Zettle account:
- Under receipts & invoices, select 'receipts';
- Click 'filter by date' and select the date range;
- Then click 'Export'.
Once the CSV file has downloaded, don't edit or resave the file, or change the file format from .CSV to .XLS/.XLSX, as it may stop the file uploading properly to ExpensePlus.
Importing Zettle transactions to ExpensePlus
Within the bank reconciliation screen, select your Zettle account and click 'Upload transactions'.
The upload process works similarly to a regular bank account, except that, each line on the statement will show as two transactions within ExpensePlus - one relating to the income and the other to the transaction fee deducted.
If you are using Zettle as a till system, ExpensePlus can cope with the transactions you import being both cash income and card income.
Reconciling Zettle transactions
The bank matching process for Zettle transactions works similarly to a regular bank account - with the ability to remember and quick-match transactions.
This means that once you have reconciled Zettle transactions for the first month, you won't need to manually enter these transactions for future months - instead, you can simply click the 'quick match income' button at the top of the match transactions screen.
Within Zettle, we'd recommend you prefix all item descriptions with the same short code (e.g., cafe -). This will then enable ExpensePlus to auto-allocate all sales to the relevant income category, regardless of the purchase made.
If you wish to allocate sales to multiple categories, then you can also do this - for example, 'cafe -', for anything cafe-related, and 'books -' for any bookshop purchases.
Where transactions haven't been previously reconciled and auto-remembered:
GASDS Donations
To reconcile contactless card donations that are £30 or under:
(1) click on the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;
(2) in the pop-up that appears, select the 'GASDS Donation' option and enter the details.
Contactless card donations over £30 are not eligible for GASDS and should be entered instead as 'Income Received' / 'Other income'.
Income Received
To reconcile income for an event or sales income (as well as contactless card donations over £30):
(1) click on the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;
(2) in the pop-up that appears, select the 'Income Received' option and enter the details
Consider shortening the 'Description to Remember' field to just the first part of the description e.g., 'cafe -' as this will enable all future sales / event income to auto-match!
Card/Payment Process Fee
To reconcile Zettle transaction fees:
(1) click on the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;
(2) in the pop-up that appears, select the 'Card/Payment Processor Fee' option and enter the details.
Consider shortening the 'Description to Remember' field to just 'Fee -' as this will enable all future Zettle transaction fees to auto-match!
Recording Zettle CASH that is banked (not relevant for most organisations)
This is only applicable where Zettle is being used as a till system through which cash is being recorded.
If you are using Zettle as a till system where both cash and card sales are being recorded, then your Zettle balance will be made up of both cash held and card transactions that have been collected and are awaiting payout to your bank account.
If you wish to bank cash from your till, then to record this within ExpensePlus, you need to go to the Bank Deposit screen, and use the 'Plus Cash Added from Petty Cash / Till System' section to record the cash being banked.
This will automatically create an entry in your Zettle account in ExpensePlus, causing your Zettle balance to reduce - reflecting that the money has been banked.
Why is my Zettle statement not uploading?
- Date (each transaction must contain a date)
- Total (each transaction must contain an income amount)
- Fee (each transaction must contain a fee)
- Description (each transaction can contain a description)
- Payment method (each transaction can contain a payment method)
Note that:
- Additional columns can be present but won't be imported;
- The file format should be .CSV
To better understand the Bank Reconciliation functionality, please watch the module overview video here.