Matching Transactions to Bills

When you pay a vendor bill with a card, Topkey records two things: the bill (what you owed) and the card transaction (how you paid). Matching links these two records together so the bill is marked paid, the transaction inherits the bill's property and GL splits, and your accounting integration receives only one entry instead of two.

Why Matching Matters

Without matching, the same expense can appear twice in your reports — once from the bill and once from the card transaction. Matching prevents this by:

• Marking the bill as paid on the date of the card transaction
• Copying the bill's line-item splits (property, category, and GL code) onto the transaction
• Preventing the transaction from being pushed to your accounting system as a separate, duplicate expense
• Creating a bidirectional link so the bill displays "Paid via card ending in XXXX" and the transaction displays the associated bill number

How Matching Works

Topkey supports three ways a transaction can be matched to a bill: automatically, through a suggestion, or manually.

Automatic Matching

When a bill is paid through Topkey's bill pay system and the card transaction posts, Topkey automatically matches the two records based on amount, date, and vendor. No action is required on your part. Once the match is made, the bill is marked paid and the transaction reflects the bill's splits.

Suggested Matches

If Topkey detects a likely match between a transaction and an existing bill, a Suggested Bill Match card appears in the Details tab of the transaction. The suggestion includes a confidence score, the bill number, vendor name, and amount.

To act on a suggestion:

1. Open the transaction from your Transactions list.
2. Select the Details tab.
3. Review the suggested bill details — vendor, amount, and bill number.
4. Click Accept Match to confirm the match, or Dismiss to remove the suggestion without matching.

Manual Matching

If no suggestion appears, or if you dismissed a suggestion and need to match the transaction yourself, you can search for and select the correct bill directly from the transaction.

1. Open the transaction from your Transactions list.
2. Select the Details tab.
3. Scroll to the Select a bill to match section.
4. Use the search field to find the bill by vendor name or bill number.
5. Select the correct bill from the results.
6. Click Match to Bill to confirm, or Cancel to exit without matching.

What Happens After Matching

Once a transaction is matched to a bill:

• The bill is marked as Paid, with the payment date set to the transaction date.
• The bill's line-item splits — property, category, and GL code — are applied to the transaction.
• The bill displays a note indicating it was paid via the matched card.
• The transaction displays the bill it is linked to.
• The transaction is excluded from being pushed to your accounting system as a standalone expense, preventing duplicate entries.

Unmatching a Transaction

If a match was made in error, you can unmatch the transaction as long as it was not matched through Topkey's bill pay system.

1. Open the matched transaction.
2. Select the Details tab.
3. Click Unmatch from bill.

Unmatching removes the link between the two records, reverts the bill to its previous state, and removes the bill's splits from the transaction. Both records are then treated independently again.

Edge Cases

Split payments across multiple transactions: If a single bill was paid across more than one card transaction, each transaction can be matched to the bill separately. The bill remains marked as paid once all payments are accounted for.

Amount doesn't match exactly: Topkey allows a match even when the transaction amount and the bill amount don't align exactly. These matches are flagged for review so you can confirm the amounts are correct before closing out the records.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if a bill already has a manual payment recorded when I match a card transaction to it? Topkey removes the manual payment and replaces it with the card transaction match. The bill remains marked as paid, and the card transaction's splits reflect the bill's line items.

Can I match one transaction to more than one bill? No. Each transaction can be matched to one bill at a time. If you have multiple bills paid in a single card transaction, contact Contact Support for guidance on how to handle that scenario.

Why don't I see a "Suggested Bill Match" on my transaction? Suggestions are generated when Topkey detects a strong candidate bill based on amount, date, and vendor. If no suggestion appears, you can still match the transaction manually using the Select a bill to match search field on the Details tab.