> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dualentry.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Common Errors with Bank Match

> Symptoms, causes, and resolutions for the most common Bank Match problems: prepayment drafts, rules that don't behave as expected, and unmatched items.

This page catalogs the Bank Match problems accountants run into most often, based on real support questions.

| Symptom                                                                                                          | Likely cause                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | Resolution                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| A bank transaction is drafted as a vendor prepayment when it should be a direct expense with no invoice          | The payment-drafting stage runs when a transaction has no GL entry to match against, and doesn't check whether a real invoice exists before drafting a prepayment. This is a known limitation.                                                                                           | Reject or delete the draft. A [rule](./how-to-create-a-rule) for the vendor reduces recurrence but won't fix drafts already created.                                                                                   |
| A new rule doesn't stop a transaction from being drafted or miscategorized the way you expected                  | Rules aren't retroactive, and payment drafting is a separate stage from rule-based matching.                                                                                                                                                                                             | Confirm the rule's condition matches exactly. If drafting continues for the same vendor, treat it as the limitation above rather than a misconfigured rule.                                                            |
| A rule matches some transactions but not other, similar ones                                                     | Rules match on a fixed, narrow set of fields (description, amount, check/reference number). Transactions that vary outside those fields, or that would need a distinction like transaction type or a date range, fall through even with several AND conditions combined.                 | Split into several narrower rules. See [Keep rules narrow](./how-to-create-a-rule#keep-rules-narrow).                                                                                                                  |
| A transaction isn't matching a rule even though it looks like ones that do match                                 | Rule matching is exact, not fuzzy. A description that varies slightly transaction to transaction (extra reference numbers, reformatted text) won't match consistently.                                                                                                                   | Confirm the condition matches the exact field value. If the variation is unavoidable, broaden the condition or match on a more stable field.                                                                           |
| A new rule doesn't seem to apply to a transaction that was already sitting unmatched before the rule was created | A saved rule is evaluated against every unmatched transaction in **To Match**, not just new ones, so this usually means either the transaction doesn't actually meet the rule's criteria, or the rule hasn't been applied yet. Saving a rule doesn't create or match anything by itself. | Check the transaction for a bolt icon indicating a rule match. If it has one, select **Create & Match** on the **To Match** tab. If it doesn't, adjust the rule's condition to match the transaction's fields exactly. |
| An unmatched bank transaction can't be edited                                                                    | An unmatched bank feed line isn't a posted accounting record, so there's nothing to edit directly.                                                                                                                                                                                       | Match it, exclude it, or post a correcting journal entry so it can be matched instead. See [Recording adjustments](../reconciliation#recording-adjustments).                                                           |
| A transaction you expected to see in **To Match** isn't there                                                    | DualEntry automatically excludes transactions dated before your bank-match start date and duplicates detected from another connected account. Transactions can also be excluded manually.                                                                                                | Check the **Excluded** tab. If it shouldn't have been excluded, select it and choose **Include** to bring it back into the matching workflow.                                                                          |
| Uploading a CSV bank statement doesn't create or post journal entries automatically                              | Manual upload brings transaction data into Bank Match for matching only; it doesn't read or post accounting entries from a statement file on its own.                                                                                                                                    | Connect through a certified aggregator for automated feeds, or upload and match manually. See [How to Connect Bank Accounts](../../bank-connections).                                                                  |

## Related reading

* [Bank Match AI](./bank-match-ai): how matching, scoring, and payment drafting work.
* [How to Create a Bank Match Rule](./how-to-create-a-rule)
* [Reconciliation](../reconciliation)
* [How to Connect Bank Accounts](../../bank-connections)