The Tyms' real-time bank sync feature allows users to bring in transactions from their bank accounts to Tyms, enabling automatic and up-to-date transaction tracking. This feature eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and provides a comprehensive financial overview. After setting up bank sync, users can access real-time transaction data, reconcile accounts, and make informed financial decisions.

The real-time bank sync on Tyms is a combination of two major features on the application:

1. Forwarding email: The forwarding email feature automatically extracts essential information from debit and credit transaction alerts, via your bank-connected email, providing a real-time transaction summary, including amounts, dates, and payment references. These transactions are automatically populated on the bank transactions tab.

2. Bank rules: The bank rules are conditions put in place by users to prompt Tyms to process the payments meeting these conditions and post them to the appropriate accounts. I.e If narration contains Salaries, post to Expenses, under the Salaries account.

Here are the steps involved in setting up real-time bank sync on Tyms:

I. Setup forwarding email on Tyms

1. Navigate to the TBankSync module, and preview any of your existing banks.

2. Switch to the forwarding email tab, and click “create forwarding email”.

3. When creating a forwarding email, you'll need to enter the following: 

a. Username: This will serve as the identifier and is best set as your bank's name. This username will be combined with your Tyms domain to create a unique forwarding email address.

Your Tyms domain follows the syntax ‘tag.tyms.email', where 'tag' is your business tag. This tag was automatically generated when you registered for Tyms, but you can easily edit it by going to the ‘Edit Business' page under 'Settings'.

For example, if your business tag is set to 'xyz', your Tyms domain will be 'xyz.tyms.email'. If you enter 'Worldbank' as your username, your forwarding email address will be 'Worldbank@xyz.tyms.email'.

This forwarding email address is where you'll receive transactions from your bank-connected email. 

b. Common phrase in the email subject: Enter a phrase that appears frequently in the email subject for your bank transactions. 

c. Emails that can forward to your forwarding email address: These are the email addresses that Tyms will use to pull transaction data from. Examples include:

The email address connected to your bank account, from which you receive transaction alerts, and the email address used by your bank to send you transaction alerts.

For example, if you receive transaction alerts from your bank at bankemail@example.com, those emails would be forwarded to your Tyms forwarding email address, such as Worldbank@xyz.tyms.email. This allows Tyms to retrieve the transaction data. 

Enter a comma to save the email, enter the other, and enter a comma to save the next.

d. Click on “Save” and your forwarding email address will be created for you.

Finally, go to the settings page of your email provider, and add the Tyms forwarding email in the forwarding section. Also create a filter, ensuring that only emails from your bank-connected email would be forwarded.

Also reference this article to setup automatic forwarding on various mail providers: https://www.tyms.io/help/article/how-to-set-up-tyms-forwarding-email-for-real-time-bookkeeping-via-bank-transaction-sync

II. Set up Bank Rules for Automated Transaction Categorization

Now that your forwarding email is set up, transactions will be automatically sent to Tyms. However, to save time and streamline the process of posting, you can set up bank rules to automatically categorize and post transactions to the appropriate accounts.

To set up bank rules, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the bank rules tab and click on “New” and a form will open to you.

2. Enter the following information:

a. Rule title: This is the title of the bank rule, preferably a name to capture the intent of the rule. Ex: Salary detector rule.

b. Cashflow: This is the form of cash flow, either coming in (inflow) or going out (outflow).

c. Conditions to be true: This is either any or all. "Any" means that if at least one of the conditions is met, the rule will take effect. This is useful when you want to capture transactions that meet any of the specified criteria. "All" means that all conditions must be met for the rule to take effect. This is useful when you want to capture transactions that meet a specific combination of criteria.

Example: If you set up a rule with two conditions: "Amount > $100" and "Description = John Doe", and you choose "Any", the rule will apply to any transaction that is either over $100 or contains description [John Doe].

Alternatively, If you choose "All", the rule will only apply to transactions that are both over $100 and contain narration [John Doe].

3. Set up the conditions the rule would look out for by selecting from the following:

a. Type: This refers to the type of data that the rule will look for in a transaction, such as:

• Description (e.g., transaction description or notes)
• Amount (e.g., transaction value)
• Reference (e.g., transaction ID or invoice number)

b. Condition: This defines the relationship between the Type and the Value, such as:

• Contains (e.g., the description contains a specific keyword)
• Is exactly (e.g., the amount is exactly $100)
• Greater than (e.g., the amount is greater than $100)
• Less than (e.g., the amount is less than $100)
• Contains an invoice number (e.g., the reference field contains a specific invoice number)

c. Value: This is the specific value that the rule will look for in the transaction data, based on the Type and Condition. For example:

If the Type is "Description" and the Condition is "Contains", the Value might be a specific keyword like "Rent payment".

If the Type is "Amount" and the Condition is "Greater than", the Value might be a specific amount like $100.

d. Destination where the transaction which has passed these conditions would be posted to: Ex: Sales, Expenses, Journals.

e. Account: This is the specific account within the Destination category where the transaction will be categorized, such as: Revenue > Sales, Expenses > Rent.

f. Select the desired options to:

Keep bank narration: Preserve the transaction description or notes.

Auto-approve posting when recognized: Automatically post transactions that meet the bank rule conditions.

If you don't select auto-approve posting, transactions will be marked as "Recognized" in Tyms, indicating that a matching account has been found. You can then manually approve or reject these transactions before they are posted.

By configuring forwarding email and bank rules in Tyms, you can streamline transaction management, enabling automatic import, identification, and posting of transactions to relevant accounts, thereby eliminating manual categorization tasks and increasing efficiency.

FAQs:

1. Is my bank information secure?

Yes, Tyms doesn’t connect using your credentials, so there’s no access to it.

2. How often are transactions updated?

Transactions are updated in real-time, as they occur if you make use of the forwarding email feature.

3. Can I edit or delete existing bank rules?

Yes, you can edit or delete existing bank rules at any time. Just go to the Bank Rules tab, find the rule you want to modify or delete, and click the corresponding button.

4. Can I use BankSync for multiple bank accounts?

Yes, you can use BankSync to connect multiple bank accounts to Tyms. Just follow the same setup process for each account.