Transfers
Match transfers between accounts so money movement is recorded accurately and doesn't inflate your client's income or expenses.
How transfers work in Kick
When money moves between two accounts — checking to savings, Stripe to checking, checking to a credit card — both sides of that movement need to be linked. Otherwise, the outflow can look like an expense or uncleared transaction on one account and the inflow can look like income or an uncleared transaction on the other.
Kick uses clearing accounts to track transfers. When a transaction is categorized as a transfer, it posts to a clearing account rather than hitting the P&L. When the other side of the transfer is matched, the clearing account nets to zero. If it doesn't net to zero, one side of the transfer is either missing or miscategorized.
This approach gives you real-time visibility into money in transit — funds that have left one account but haven't settled in another yet. The tradeoff is that unmatched transfers will carry a balance in the clearing account until both sides are present and matched.
Transfer types
What happens on the GL depends on the relationship between the two accounts involved.
Bank to bank (same entity) — Both sides post to Bank Transfer Clearing. When matched, the clearing account nets to zero.
Payment processor to bank — When a processor like Stripe or PayPal pays out to a connected bank account, both the payout and the deposit post to Payment Transfer Clearing. When matched, the clearing account nets to zero. If the bank deposit is categorized as income instead of Transfer, revenue will be double-counted between the processor and the bank account.
Credit card payment — When a bank account pays a credit card, both sides post to Credit Card Clearing. The bank side records the outflow; the credit card side records the payment received. When matched, the clearing account nets to zero.
Intercompany (cross-entity) — When money moves between two different entities, the sending entity records an Intercompany Receivables and the receiving entity records an Intercompany Payables. Kick creates these entries automatically when a cross-entity transfer is matched.
Owner transactions — Transfers between a personal account and a business account don't use a clearing account. They post directly to equity — Distributions when money moves from business to personal, Contributions when money moves from personal to business.
Matching transfers
Kick automatically matches transfers when both sides are present. The matching algorithm looks for transactions with opposite amounts on different accounts within a few days of each other.
Matching runs when new transactions sync, new accounts are connected, or a transaction is manually categorized as Transfer or Credit Card Payment.
Suggested matches — If Kick finds a likely match but isn't fully confident, it surfaces a suggested match in the match drawer's Suggested list. Open the transaction and click Find a transaction match to review suggestions. Select a suggestion, then confirm it with Match on a cash-basis entity or Confirm match on an accrual-basis entity. To reverse a match, click Unmatch on the matched row.
Manual matching — If none of the suggestions fit, switch the drawer from Suggested to All and search for the transaction yourself. Selecting and confirming works the same way.
Automation
Transfer Rules let you define custom conditions to automatically match transfers between specific accounts. This is useful for recurring transfers that follow a predictable pattern — like Stripe payouts landing in a specific bank account.
→ Rules
Last updated
Was this helpful?