In businesses, payments are processed through various channels — e.g. by bank transfer, direct debit, or via payment services such as PayPal or Stripe. These payment transactions must be documented in accounting in a traceable way and matched to the corresponding documents. Xentral provides a dedicated module for this, allowing you to import bank statements and process transactions — regardless of the payment channel used. This ensures that incoming and outgoing payments are correctly recorded and ready for further accounting processes.
Managing incoming payments is a central part of accounting. In Xentral, you can import bank statements from various sources such as Business accounts, PayPal or Stripe — either manually as a CSV file or automated via the PSD2 interface. The transactions can be directly linked to the corresponding documents such as invoices, orders, or credit notes. This gives you an overview of open items, prevents duplicate payments, and prepares your data cleanly for the accounting export. In this article, you will learn step by step how the import works, how to match payments, and what options are available for special cases such as chargebacks or partial payments.
Note
In addition to the standard process for importing and linking payments, Xentral offers further functions to support you in post-processing, evaluating, and organizing your transaction data.
-
Bank statement import options: Bank statements can be imported into Xentral either manually as a CSV file or automated via the PSD2 interface (live import). Most banks and payment service providers such as PayPal or Stripe are supported.
-
Import prerequisite: A business account must be set up in Xentral for each account used. Only then is an import possible.
-
Linking with documents: Incoming payments can be linked to invoices, credit notes, orders, or liabilities. Automatically recognized transactions are highlighted in green; manual assignments are also possible.
-
Color coding of transactions: Color markers in the overview display the posting suggestion for a transaction (e.g. green = correctly matched, gray = still open, red = expense). An overview of all colors can be found in the article.
-
Splitting payments: A transaction can be distributed across multiple documents or recorded as a partial payment. Chargebacks can also be posted back to an invoice.
-
Liabilities: Payments can also be posted to open liabilities. The status is automatically set to "paid" — resetting it manually is not intended.
-
Clarification cases: Transactions that cannot be assigned can be marked as clarification cases and evaluated separately.
-
Manual adjustment: Transactions can be edited in detail and split or reassigned as needed.
-
Resolving links: Existing transaction assignments can be reset and reprocessed.
-
Additional options: Overview of debit, credit, and balances per account and period. Full-text search in bank statements. Manual recording of incoming payments (for offline accounts, beta). Posting of regular fees via automatic liabilities. Account sheet for searching account relationships and contra accounts.
When working with financial accounting in Xentral, the account overview is your central hub for managing all bank accounts, cash accounts, and other financial accounts. In this view, you can check existing accounts, add new accounts, and see at a glance which accounts still have open transactions.
Your active business accounts overview can be found under Accounting > Receipt of payment.
Default columns in the table:
-
Bezeichnung: The name of the account, usually with account number (e.g. 1700_Postbank).
-
Konto-Art: Indicates whether it is a bank account, cash account, PayPal, or another account type (e.g. konto, kasse, paypal, finapi).
-
IBAN / BIC: Bank details, if available.
-
Saldo: Displays the current account balance, if provided e.g. via finAPI or a CSV import.
-
Projekt: If the account is assigned to a specific project.
-
Menü: Context menu for actions (e.g. edit account, view bank statements).
Tip
Identifying open transactions:
In the account overview, you can see which accounts have open transactions. Accounts with open transactions are indicated by a marker or a note in the menu field or directly in the associated account sheet.
This information helps you quickly identify where assignments or processing are still needed.
Filter functions in the account list:
The following functions are available to filter the view or search for specific accounts:
-
auch inaktive: Activates the display of inactive accounts.
-
Suche: Full-text search across all accounts.
-
Spaltensuche: Separate input fields per column (Bezeichnung, Konto-Art, IBAN, BIC, Saldo, Projekt).
In Xentral, you have two options for importing bank statement data into a bank account:
Warning
Use only one import variant per bank account!
For each bank account, choose either the live import or the CSV import. Using both variants simultaneously can lead to duplicate or inconsistent transactions, because:
-
The live import sometimes provides different fields than your individual CSV format.
-
Transactions can be imported twice if they come from both sources.
Exception: Accounts with a combined import function
Some accounts, such as PayPal, are enabled for both methods by default in Xentral. Here, in addition to the live import, you can also import CSV files — e.g. when you need more data during order peaks than the automatic retrieval can deliver in time.
If you have connected a bank account via a live interface, you can retrieve bank statements either:
-
manually via button, or
-
automatically in the background at the defined time interval (setting in the account).
This method is intended for all common bank accounts supported via finAPI and payment providers such as PayPal. Transactions are imported in a standardized way and contain structured additional information (e.g. contra account, posting text, payment reference broken down into fields).
Alternatively, you can import bank statements manually via CSV file into an account. The upload function can be found directly in the respective bank account under the menu item CSV Import. This method is suitable e.g. for:
-
Banks that cannot be connected via finAPI.
-
Special formats or customized account data.
-
Cases where you want to specifically correct or add data.
Note
Best practices:
-
If you use CSV import, define a clear internal format and adapt it to the Xentral import schema if necessary.
-
If you use Live import, make sure the account is correctly connected and the retrieval is working (check the status display in the account).
-
Regularly check whether duplicate transactions exist — especially after switching import methods.
When importing bank statements — whether via a live bank connection or CSV — Xentral automatically recognizes whether it is income or expenses and attempts to link payments with existing documents (e.g. invoices, orders, credit notes, or liabilities).
Steps:
-
Click on the relevant bank account in the receipt of payment.
-
In the info box for automatic reconciliation, click the Start button.
-
The automatic reconciliation starts and determines the posting suggestions. For smaller transaction volumes, you will receive the result within a minute. For larger data volumes, the progress is displayed and updated in the info message.
-
You can post the incoming and outgoing payments via Complete transactions or Complete all automatically reconciled transactions.
Note
You can control the calculation volume via the time period in the settings: Reconciliation period settings.
Xentral uses color markers to show you the status and type of each transaction at a glance:
Color |
Meaning |
|---|---|
|
Green |
Income was automatically recognized and successfully linked to a matching order or invoice (posting suggestion). |
|
Gray |
Income that has not yet been automatically assigned. |
|
Red |
Expense that could not be automatically assigned. |
|
Purple |
Expense that was successfully linked to a liability. |
|
Orange |
Payment was assigned to a cancelled document, an already-paid document, or an uncertain match (e.g. correct invoice number, but not unambiguous). |
This section provides a compact overview of the most important tabs in the financial overview area. Each tab serves a specific function — from displaying individual bank statements to evaluating balances or configuring individual account views.
The following explains the tabs Overview, All bank statements, Account sheet, Totals and balances, and Settings in detail.
Note
The overview displays your accounts including open transactions: Receipt of payment – account overview.
In the All bank statements tab, you will find a tabular overview of all imported bank transactions. The table is the central workspace for checking, post-processing, and clarifying incoming and outgoing payments. Each row corresponds to a single transaction.
Filter functions (above the table):
Several filters are available for narrowing down the displayed data:
-
Klärfälle – shows only transactions with unresolved status.
-
Importfehler – lists faulty or incomplete import rows.
-
Ohne Importfehler – shows only technically correct transactions.
-
Status prüfen – shows transactions that need to be checked manually.
-
Buchungstext statt Kontoauszugstext – shows transactions that have a posting text entered and activated.
-
Soll / HABEN – restricts the view to incoming or outgoing payments.
-
Von / Bis (Datum) – limits the time period of the transactions.
Table columns and search fields:
Each column of the table has its own search field for targeted filtering. The available columns are:
-
Vom (posting date)
-
Konto (assigned bank account)
-
Nr (sequential transaction number)
-
Vorgang/Buchungstext (name, transaction number, posting text)
-
Gegenkonto (automatically or manually assigned contra account)
-
Kostenstelle
-
Soll (outgoing amount)
-
HABEN (incoming amount)
-
Gebühr (bank fees, if applicable)
-
Status (e.g. open, posted, check)
-
Menü (actions such as assignment, edit, delete)
The account sheet displays all transactions of a specific account in chronological order. This view is used for targeted tracking and analysis of transactions within an account, e.g. for reconciliations, audits, or preparation of the annual financial statements.
In the account sheet area, you can filter and search bank statements by specific accounts. This is based on the accounts stored in the system from the chart of accounts.
The following data is evaluated in the account sheet:
-
General ledger accounts from the module Chart of Accounts.
-
Contra accounts from bank statements — checked whether the contra account can be assigned to a customer or supplier number.
-
Business accounts marked as DATEV-relevant (the DATEV field in the business account is not equal to "0").
Filter above the table:
The filter fields allow you to narrow down the display to specific transactions:
-
Gegenkonto – filters by assigned contra account.
-
Von / Bis (Datum) – limits the posting period.
Status info display (above the table):
This display gives you a quick overview of the current state of the selected account:
-
Haben: Total of all credit transactions.
-
Soll: Total of all debit transactions.
-
Saldo: Difference between credit and debit.
-
Anzahl Buchungen: Total number of transaction rows.
Column search below the table headers:
Each column has its own search field for targeted filtering. The available columns are:
-
Datum
-
Konto
-
Gegenkonto
-
Kostenstelle
-
Buchungstext
-
Belegefeld1
-
Soll
-
Haben
-
Währung
Manual booking:
Xentral offers you the option of recording incoming payments manually — especially for business accounts without online banking connection or where no account import is planned.
For recording, you first select the relevant bank account. This is part of the general ledger chart of accounts and is managed as a balance sheet account. No further presettings are required for a manual booking.
When posting, you can define whether the booking is assigned to a debtor, creditor, a general ledger account, or a category from the balance sheet or P&L. This keeps bookkeeping structured and traceable even for manual transactions.
Note
The Gegenkonto (contra account) field is optional. If you save the booking without a contra account, you can make the assignment later in the Receipt of payment module.
Recordable fields:
-
Währung (e.g. EUR)
-
Soll (S)
-
Haben (H)
-
Gegenkonto (optional)
-
Kostenstelle (optional)
-
Belegfeld 1 (optional)
-
Datum
-
Konto
-
Buchungstext
The Totals and balances tab provides an overview of the debit, credit, and balance values per account for a selectable period. You define the period using the Datum von and Datum bis filter fields.
-
Haben: Sum of all positive amounts (income) from the bank statements.
-
Soll: Sum of all negative amounts (expenses).
-
Saldo: Difference between credit and debit.
-
Startsaldo: Account balance at the start of the selected period.
In addition, the account number, name, and number of transactions per account are displayed. The last row shows the totals across all accounts for the selected period.
Note
Only accounts with transactions are displayed in this section.
Defines the extent to which the incoming payment may deviate from the expected amount.
Meaning: With tolerance activated, small differences — e.g. rounding differences of 1 cent — are accepted during automatic assignment to orders or invoices. The payment is correctly linked to the corresponding document despite the difference.
In the system settings, you can define which time period is taken into account during payment reconciliation. This determines which open transactions are included in the automatic assignment — for example, the last 3 months, 6 months, the last year, the last 2 years, or without a time limit.
Tip
For a large number of transactions, it is recommended to limit the reconciliation period to the last 3 months. This applies the calculation only to a current and relevant portion of the open transactions, which significantly improves performance — especially if you process older open transactions only at year-end or do not post all payments completely.
Today, banks offer their customers the possibility to export all account transactions as CSV files at any time via a web portal. These CSV files can be imported into Xentral to register incoming and outgoing payments in the system and link them to the corresponding transactions. Most banks also offer the possibility of an automated or automatic live import via the PSD2 API.
You can find more information in how you import your bank statements here.
In order to import the account transactions, a business account must be defined in Xentral for each of the accounts.
In Xentral you can import the bookings of your business accounts. This includes not only bank accounts, but also PayPal, Stripe and many more.
Under Accounting > Incoming Payments, you can perform a payment import for each of your business accounts to have all bookings of this account stored in Xentral. This enables the linking of all postings to their associated documents, i.e. invoices, credit notes and payables. This link can be performed with one click for all entries that can be uniquely assigned to a document based on the amount and the purpose of the transaction. This is recognizable by the lines highlighted in green. Other bookings can be linked manually with a few more clicks. The marking of the vouchers as "paid" is done automatically. A bank statement is generated in Xentral for each posting. If corrections are required, it is also possible to dissolve a link via this statement.
In the Account sheet area, you can search account statements by the accounts filtered from the chart of accounts. There the accounts from the module, the contra accounts are searched from the bank statements and there it is checked whether the contra account corresponds to a customer or supplier number. Likewise, the business accounts are searched that are DATEV accounts. This is the case, if in the business account the field "DATEV" is filled differently than with "0".
You can import the current bank statements of the business accounts to link incoming payments with open orders and thus preassign them for the accounting export.
To do this, select the pencil icon in the menu column in the overview (Accounting → Receipt of payment).
Note
If you have activated the live import in the respective business account, you can do this via the Live Import button. CSV files can be imported via Browse and Import.
When you have selected the pen icon, you will get to this screen:
-
Revenues are marked in gray
-
Issues are marked in red
-
Found orders/ invoices are marked green
Xentral automatically detects during account import if a posting has already been imported at an earlier time. In this case, the entry will not be imported again.
The "Complete all automatically recognized bookings" button will immediately post all recognized bookings at once, regardless of whether they are located on other pages.
If the subject of a transfer contains references to an invoice/ order and the transfer amount matches the order value, Xentral automatically suggests the appropriate link (green highlighted lines in the screenshot). In this case, payments are linked to orders for prepayment methods (e.g. PayPal, credit card, prepayment) and to invoices for other payment methods (e.g. payment on account, cash payment, cash on delivery).
Incoming payments that are not automatically recognized remain grayed and can be manually linked to the appropriate orders/ invoices/ credit notes. Outgoing payments are highlighted in red in the import view.
In the overview of incoming payments there is a direct PDF preview for the documents that can be linked (payables, invoices, credit notes and orders).
The type of entry is indicated by the color of the line:
-
Green = Incoming payment that could be successfully linked to an invoice or order
-
Gray = Unrecognized revenue or positive entry
-
Red = Expense or negative entry that could not be allocated
-
Purple = Negative entry that could be assigned to a liability
-
Orange = Recognized entry
-
on cancelled order/ invoice
-
on order/ invoice with already linked payment
-
on invoice/ POS invoice automatically marked as paid by the system (but without directly posted incoming payment on it)
-
where Xentral recognizes a matching number, but is not completely sure if it is valid
-
A quick creation of clarification cases is possible directly in the overview of incoming payments. Via the "!" icon the dialog box appears to mark the entry as a dispute case and to enter a reason.
It is possible to filter for clarification cases in the Bank statements tab. This marking can be used, for example, for communication between the employee processing the incoming payment and the accounting department.
Note
The reason for the dispute case is not exported in the accounting export for DATEV format. However, the list of all clarification cases can be dragged via a date range in the "All statements" tab.
When a payment from your company leaves your bank account, Xentral automatically recognizes it and assigns it to the correct liability — provided an important condition is met:
-
Condition: The transaction on the bank statement must contain the Xentral liability number. This number comes from the sequential number range for liabilities in Xentral.
Why is this important?
-
The Xentral liability number is unique.
-
In contrast, the supplier invoice number can appear multiple times with different suppliers — it is not unique.
How it works when using Xentral payment processing:
-
When you process payments via Xentral (e.g. via SEPA-XML), the liability number is automatically included in the payment file.
-
This enables reliable matching to the corresponding liability when the payment appears in the bank account later.
Tip
Make sure that your bank transaction (e.g. in the payment reference) contains the Xentral liability number — especially when transferring outside of Xentral.
It is possible to link liabilities in the incoming payment as well. In this case, the status of the liability will be set to "paid". If the payment import is undone, the status of the liability will not be reset. It remains set to "paid". This is to prevent multiple payments.
Note
In the Autocomplete field all liabilities are displayed that have not been set to paid directly via the incoming payment. Payables manually set to paid will still be displayed.
If a discount on the liability is automatically recognized in the incoming payment, analogous to the incoming payment on a customer invoice with a discount.
Note
If the invoice total has been paid minus discount, you can mark the invoice as paid by entering an amount as discount in the "Discount given" field in the invoice under Details → Invoice in the "Dunning" interface. You can find more information about this here .
Payments can also be posted to multiple orders:
-
Action: Select "Order credit" (analog for invoice or credit note)
-
Field: "Order" → Here the order numbers are entered separated by commas (do not use spaces!)
For liabilities, the procedure is as follows:
-
Click on the pen symbol for the respective booking
-
In the pop-up window, click on the Liability tab
-
Select a liability with the arrow icon and click Save
-
The amount is split and the remainder can be linked to a liability again (see step 1)
If the sum of the payment amount is less than the value of both orders/ liabilities, the available "remaining amount" is posted to the last posted order number. This order is not marked as paid because there is too little money linked.
Note
Cash discount is not processed when linking multiple orders.
Return debits can be posted to an invoice again. The invoice is then changed back to "open" and the direct debit amount is displayed including the fee.
The invoice is displayed normally in the dunning system. As soon as the customer has transferred, the new payment can be posted back to the invoice. The remaining amount (fee) can either be given as a discount or the customer remits it.
If a charge back is to be assigned to multiple invoices, use the following workflow:
-
Set invoices to open: In order for the invoices to show up in the overview, you need to set the payment status to open (Accounting > Invoice > Details > Invoice).
-
Assign invoices: Navigate to Accounting > Incoming payments > Import and click on the arrow icon next to the charge back you want to process. An overview will appear where you can select the individual invoices by clicking on the arrow icon. Select the first invoice by clicking on the arrow symbol and enter the value at SOLL. Now a split entry is created for the remaining amount. This has to be repeated for the other invoices.
-
The result can be found in the overview under Accounting > Incoming payments > Import.
Example with two invoices: If there are two invoices that have to be posted by return debit, the assignment can be made as follows: In order for the item to be split, go over the pen and reduce the "TARGET" amount there to an invoice value including the charge back fee.
In the example below, the bill is for 19.04 euros and the charge back is 33 euros.
After the entries are saved, the entry is split and the items can each be posted to the invoice.
Bank statement postings can also be split if, for example, two invoices have been paid in one sum or an overpayment has occurred.
Example:
-
Invoice amount: 8.12
-
Credit note: 3.70
-
Customer pays: 4.42 (RE-GS)
In the receipt of payments, click on the pen icon for such a booking.
After that, you can search for the document number (RE) and use the arrow under Menu to take over the information of the document.
By clicking on the "Save" button below, the entry is completed and appears as a new line. The original line is highlighted in turquoise and consists of the remaining amount. This line can now be linked to the credit note and click on "Finish entries":
Analogous splitting can also be done for outgoing payments or liabilities.
Select the pencil icon to the right of a booking and enter the missing data in the dialog box.
If you receive partial payments on an invoice, you can proceed as described above and also click on the edit icon in the payment line. After accepting the invoice data, however, you must manually adjust the amount to the partial total:
Example: Total amount: 185,05 Euro, Partial payment: 100 Euro + 85,05 Euro
The remaining payment is then posted in the same way, except that Xentral already recognizes the difference here when it is assigned and this can be posted in this way:
Expenses and revenues that do not concern customer accounts (orders, invoices, credit notes) can be posted directly to accounts of the deposited chart of accounts.
In addition, it is possible to create and link liabilities directly from incoming payments.
In the dialog window the liability can be created. If the amount of the liability and that of the incoming payment match, the status will be changed automatically.
A new tab appears to see all statements across all business accounts. Of course, the employee’s project assignments are still taken into account here so that you don’t see too much.
In this interface there are the same filter options as in the posting overviews of the individual accounts.
Links between document and bank statement posting can be undone. It should be noted that this does not create a new entry (for accounting). The original entry is deleted and the new entry is created. The date of the posting is still the date of the bank posting.
Accounting → Receipt of payments →
-
Linked account postings receive the "completed" status
-
Account postings that have not yet been linked the "check" status
-
Account entries recorded as "import errors" are shown crossed out
Completed links can be resolved with the action:
This entry is opened and is now to be posted again in the account statements.
It is possible to set additional properties by clicking on the Edit icon.
-
Import error → Marks this entry as an import error and thus prevents this entry from appearing in the accounting export
-
Closed → Marks this transaction as closed and prevents this transaction from being listed again in the incoming payments
The search field allows searching for content in bank statement entries, e.g. the sales tax debits of the tax office in the last year for the tax office. Here it is possible to search in a flash for names, authorities or other texts. The search result can be exported as a list at the push of a button.
Accounting → Receipt of payments → . The link of a payment amount to an order or an invoice can also be edited or changed manually (e.g. changing the distribution of an amount to several invoices). The linking of a bank statement to one or more invoices can be seen directly in the bank statements. To do this, open the payment at the front with the blue arrow.
Click on the order number to change these entries. You are in the order now. Open the Protocol tab. Here you will find the payments. You can open these payments by clicking on zur Buchung.
Now the view of a single bank entry appears. At the bottom you can see the link to one or more invoices, which can be edited.
It is possible to click on the individual entry and edit the amount by entering a new amount (e.g. 10 EUR is entered with separator "dot": 10.00) and clicking on "ok".
In this expert mode, it must be taken into account that the changed amounts add up to the total of the account posting.
The posting for a single invoice can be seen in the log of the document.
The Totals and Balances tab shows an overview of the credit, debit and balance of each account within a given period. The period can be defined through the filter with "Date from:" and "Date to:".
The credit amounts are calculated from all positive values of the account statements and the debit amounts from the expenses. The balance is the difference between credit and debit. The start balance always refers to the balance on the day at the start of the selected period. In addition, the account number and name as well as the number of entries are displayed. The bottom line shows the totals of all accounts for the selected period.
A data import of a bank statement file can also be undone. Only the last import can be undone. In doing so, links are undone again - with the exception of liabilities.
In the "Account sheet" area, account statements can be searched and filtered by the accounts from the chart of accounts.
In the account sheet you can…
-
Search for the accounts from the module "Chart of Accounts" (Administration → Settings → Accounting → Chart of Accounts)
-
Picked the contra accounts from the bank statements and checked if the contra account corresponds to a customer or supplier number
-
Search the business accounts that are DATEV accounts (i.e. if in the business account the "DATEV" field is filled other than with 0)
Additionally, Xentral offers you the possibility to manually enter incoming payments. You can use this option if you have accounts that do not and will not have online access.
To ensure correct entry, enter the desired bank account under "Account". This is only a balance sheet account, but that is irrelevant here. The account is part of the G/L chart of accounts and both accounts are included in the chart of accounts.
You then decide whether your booking regards..
-
… to customers, vendors or a G/L account …
-
… or to a balance sheet or an income statement
Note
"contra account" is not a mandatory field! If you post without a contra account, the mapping will be done in the incoming payment.
Note
This option is still in the beta phase.
For charges or similar, there is also a workaround to permanently assign them to the correct account and initiate an automatic posting.
To do this, create a regular liability (Administration → Settings → Accounting → Liabilities → Regular Liabilities → + Create new entry).
It is important that you select "Chart of accounts" as the type. For constant amounts for credit and debit, you can also enter a value here.
Xentral does not match payments when reading the bank statement using the invoice number, but rather using the unique liability number. This number is assigned when creating the liability in Xentral (e.g. 100123) and is required for automatic assignment. If a payment is made manually or outside of Xentral and the payment reference does not contain this liability number, Xentral cannot uniquely assign the payment to a liability — even if the amount, invoice number, and status are correct.
When payment processing is carried out directly via Xentral, the liability number is automatically included in the payment file (e.g. SEPA-XML), so that the assignment works reliably during bank reconciliation. For manual transfers, the liability number should always be included in the payment reference.