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Connect Bank Intake with Plaid or Statement Upload
App path: Books → More → Banking for bank accounts, and Books → Upload & process for statement files.
Use this scenario when a client needs bank and credit-card activity flowing into Kraal for review, reconciliation, and close.
Goal
Bank activity reaches Kraal through a reliable intake method. The firm can review, map, reconcile, and prove the source data used for close.
Choose the intake path
Use Plaid when:
- the client agrees to connected bank feeds;
- the bank supports Plaid well;
- recurring daily sync is more valuable than manual statement control.
Use statement upload when:
- the client does not want bank feed access;
- Plaid is not available or needs re-authentication;
- you need a specific statement period as close evidence.
Many firms use both: Plaid for daily activity and statements as close support.
Plaid setup checklist
- Open Books → More → Banking.
- Connect the bank account.
- Authenticate with the bank.
- Select the accounts to sync.
- Map each account and confirm its name and type in Kraal.
- On a multi-entity client, choose which entity's books each account belongs to as you map it. Kraal confirms the effect — "This connects [account] to [Entity]'s books" — and won't let you save the mapping until you've chosen. Single-entity clients skip this automatically.
- Wait for the first sync to complete.
- Open Inbox and confirm any bank-feed blockers are gone.
- Open banking or reconciliation and confirm transactions are available.
Multi-entity clients: accounts mapped earlier
An account mapped before entity confirmation existed may not be tied to an entity yet. On multi-entity clients Kraal shows a blocking readiness finding — the account "is not attributed to an entity" — and holds its transactions until you confirm. Open the account's mapping, choose the entity whose books it belongs to, and save; the finding clears. See Working with Multiple Entities.
Statement upload checklist
- For a statement file, use Upload statements on Home. It accepts PDF, CSV, OFX, QFX, XLS, and XLSX. Books → Upload & process also takes those, plus TXT and images (PNG, JPG, WEBP, and TIFF).
- Confirm the selected client and entity before uploading.
- Upload the statement PDF, CSV, or spreadsheet.
- Wait for extraction to finish.
- Resolve mapping or source issues in the prepared work queue.
- Review extracted transactions before posting or reconciling.
- Confirm the statement appears as close evidence when the month is being closed.
What good looks like
- Bank activity is tied to the correct client and entity.
- Stale or failed feeds show a clear reconnect or upload action.
- Statements do not remain stuck in extraction.
- Mapping issues land in the Inbox instead of disappearing.
- Reconciliation work is available before close package generation.