If you regularly receive certain transactions, you can set up an allocation rule. MYOB Essentials will use these rules to allocate the amounts of all imported bank transactions that meet the criteria to the nominated MYOB Essentials account.

You can set up a rule using any unique text in the bank transactions you import into MYOB Essentials. When the same type of transaction always uses the same text, you can use that text to automatically allocate the transaction to the correct MYOB Essentials account.

Banks provide only brief descriptions for transactions, but they usually contain enough information to identify the relevant MYOB Essentials account. Allocation rules won’t cover all transactions, but they save significant time once you’ve set them up. They will apply every time you import new bank transactions, but you can edit or delete them at any time.

Make sure the description text is suitable

To make sure the description text of a bank transaction is suitable to be used as an allocation rule, check that:

• the same text appears regularly in transactions,
• the text is unique, and
• if the text is long, it can be shortened easily and still refer to all items belonging to a certain account.

To create allocation rules  x

1. Click Banking. The Bank transactions page appears.

2. You can create allocation rules in two ways.

   To…	Do this…
   create allocation rules from the AllocationRules page	Click the Manage allocation rules link at the top of the page. The AllocationRules page appears, displaying details of all existing allocation rules in the list. Click Create allocation rule. The Create Allocation Rule window appears.
   create allocation rules while you’re allocating a bank transaction to a MYOB Essentials account	Find an unreconciled transaction that you want to base an allocation rule on—either a bank deposit or withdrawal that hasn’t yet been matched to a MYOB Essentials transaction or allocated to an MYOB Essentials account—and click it. The Deposit details or Withdrawal details window appears, displaying the transaction details. Click the Create rule button. The Create Allocation Rule window appears.

3. Complete the fields at the top of the Create Allocation Rule window.

   1. In the first field, enter the text that you want to use to allocate transactions.
      Note that if you’re creating an allocation rule while you’re allocating a transaction to a MYOB Essentials account, this field will contain the transaction’s Description text. If necessary, edit the text.

      Case-sensitivity

      The text you enter here will not be treated as case-sensitive.
   2. From the first drop-down list, select whether you want to allocate transactions with amounts equal to the amount you’ll choose in step c, or allocate transactions of any amount.
   3. If you chose equal to in step b, enter an amount in the field that becomes active. Only transactions with amounts equal to this amount will be allocated.
   4. From the second drop-down list, select whether you want to allocate transaction amounts by dollar amount, or percentage.
4. In the Account column of the list, select the MYOB Essentials account that you want to allocate transaction amounts to.
5. If you want to split transaction amounts between two or more MYOB Essentials accounts:
   1. Click Split Amount or Split Percentage (note that this button name changes according to the option you chose in step d of step 3).
      A new line appears in the list.
   2. Select a second MYOB Essentials account and amount or percentage.
   3. Repeat for any other accounts you want to split transaction amounts between.
   4. Enter an Amount or Percentage against the first account, with the balance against the other accounts (note that this column name changes according to the option you chose in step d of step 3).
6. Click Save to save the allocation rule.

To edit allocation rules  x

1. Click Banking. The Bank transactions page appears.
2. Click the Manage allocation rules link at the top of the page. The Allocation Rules page appears, displaying details of all existing allocation rules in the list.
3. Double-click the allocation rule you want to edit. The Edit allocation rule window appears, displaying details of the allocation rule.
4. Make any changes.
5. Click Save to save your changes.

To delete allocation rules  x

1. Click Banking. The Bank transactions page appears.
2. Click the Manage allocation rules link at the top of the page. The Allocation Rules page appears, displaying details of all existing allocation rules in the list.
3. Select the allocation rule you want to delete and click Delete. A confirmation message appears.
4. Click Yes to delete the allocation rule.