Top banks in Australia and New Zealand join Reckon

Leading financial institutions from across Australia and New Zealand have joined Reckon to improve financial management for sole-traders and micro-businesses.

With many smaller sized businesses relying on accounting practices or bookkeeping businesses to assist with the recording of daily transactional data, or saving receipts in ‘shoeboxes’, Reckon says their banking solution simplifies this process, improves collaboration and helps businesses stay on top of their current performance.

The solution, Reckon BankData, virtually eliminates manual data entry, saving time and costs for businesses and accounting professionals. These new bank partnerships form part of the banking solution which helps automate the import of bank transactions into accounts within their accounting software.

“With Reckon BankData, unlike some existing products, both the accounting professional and their small business client are using the same tool. Being a cloud accounting application they are able to access the same data simultaneously and make collaborative business decisions,” says Gerald Chait, Group Marketing Manager, Marketing.

“By significantly reducing time spent on data entry, our banking solution frees up accounting professionals so they can offer businesses more valuable advisory services, and have access to the tools that help make working together on strategies for growth far simpler.”

Through Reckon BankData, users can import transactional data from thousands of banks throughout the world. Reckon has relationships with the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA in Australia as well as ANZ, Westpac, ASB Bank, Kiwibank and National Bank in New Zealand for direct electronic data imports. In addition, data from a host of banks across the globe can be imported using the third-party intermediary service, Yodlee.

Once set-up, Reckon BankData users create rules so that data automatically gets sorted into their right categories within the accounting program; amounts can also be split into separate categories.

The service is currently exclusive to Reckon’s web-based program CashBook Online however there are plans to offer the banking solution with Quicken Personal Plus and Quicken Home & Business programs, as well as QuickBooks desktop products and QuickBooks Hosted in 2013.

“Being a cloud solution, accounting professionals and business owners can also benefit from not having to install software and receiving automatic updates, as well as having ready access when and where they need it,” said Chait.

Reckon has also added a new Bank Compatibility Checker to their website for accounting professionals and businesses seeking information about their bank availability. The Bank Compatibility Checker is available here: http://online.reckon.com.au/Products/CashBookOnline/FeaturesandBenefits.aspx