What do the labels on matched transactions mean?

In the Already matched list on Finances > Reconciliation, every match carries a label saying how it was made. Only one of them asks anything of you.

• Stripe payout (green) - one bank line matched to the whole group of takings, fees and refunds behind a payout. The group added up to the payout exactly, so this is certain.
• Matched on the same day (green) - same date, same amount.
• Suggested and accepted (amber) - same amount, dated within a week of each other, which we suggested and you accepted. This is normal for cheques and card payments.
• Matched by hand (white) - you chose it yourself, either with Match to my records or with Record this.

You may also see Matched a few days apart (amber) on older matches, from before these were shown as suggestions. It means the same thing as the accepted one, except that nobody looked at it, so it is worth a glance.

Why do the amber ones need a person?

Because a wrong match still balances perfectly. If you paid two different suppliers £50 a few days apart, matching each to the other's bank line leaves the totals right and the records wrong, and no arithmetic will ever flag it. Only a person reading the descriptions will. Automatic matching refuses to guess when two candidates are equally good, but it cannot know when the only candidate is still the wrong one - which is why it suggests rather than decides.

What if one is wrong?

Choose Undo on the match, then match it by hand.

Related reading

• How does automatic matching work?
• How do I undo a match?