What is a Marking key?

A Marking key is designed for linking an invoice/bill transaction to a particular bank account or credit card, in order to make your cash projections more accurate.

 

For example, when you create an invoice or bill in your accounting system, you do not have to enter any payment information at that time.

Because of this, CaFE does not know which accounts are receiving payments nor, which accounts payments are being made from.

By default, CaFE selects your main bank account for those transactions.

 

Then, how can the cash flow forecast be more accurate?

 

The answer is to set a Marking key (for example, [CC1] for a credit card) to specify where the money goes!

When you create an invoice or bill in your accounting system, for example, in Xero, you can enter the key to the Reference field along with any other information such as an order number.

 

In QuickBooks, you can enter the key to the Message on statement (Invoices) or the Memo(Bills) field and also the Comments field in FreeAgent.

 

The Marking Key can be defined in the Bank Accounts screen in CaFE.

 

If any registered Marking key is found when synchronising cash flow forecasts, the transaction will be linked to the relevant bank account or credit card, instead of the main bank account defined in CaFE.

This would be suited especially for handling credit card sales and purchases.

Here is a typical scenario.

1. When you have a company credit card account in your accounting system, it is imported to CaFE like as a normal bank account after master synchronisation.
2. In the Bank Accounts master, you set the credit line and also the marking key '(VISA-CC1)', for example.
3. Then you include the marking key in the relevant field of a bill for credit card purchase along with any other information such as an order number, for example, '2359831(VISA-CC1)' in your accounting system.
4. When you sync cash flow forecasts, CaFE will create a cash flow on the credit card account.
5. You can now be made aware of when it reaches your credit limit through the cash projection so that you can make an effective payment plan.
6. When you decide on a payment, you can create a bank transfer transaction between your bank account and credit card in your accounting system and sync with CaFE so that it will be reflected in your cash projection.

If you have any enquiries about a Marking key, please submit a support ticket.