Tired of manually marking invoices as paid? With Payment Matching, Allfred takes care of it for you.
Once set up, incoming and outgoing payments are automatically matched with invoices and expenses:
Invoices are marked as paid automatically, which stops any further reminders from being sent to your clients.
Expenses are recognized as paid, so you always have an up-to-date overview of your costs.
💡 Payment Matching is part of our most advanced plan. If you don’t see it in your workspace, reach out to us at [email protected] - we’ll help you explore the upgrade options.
Let’s walk through how to set it up and what happens in practice 👇
🛠 How to set it up
Go to Workspace Settings → Banks
Click on your profile icon -> Settings and navigate to the "Banks" section. (only available for Admin role)
Choose your bank
You'll see a list of banks available in your country. Click on the one you use.
You’ll be redirected to a secure screen where you log in to your internet banking.
Select accounts
Choose which accounts you want to authorize for reading bank transactions. This does not give Allfred permission to move money - just to read transaction data.
Give permission
A window will pop up asking you to confirm access (powered by GoCardless). Select the accounts, approve access, and confirm. The steps may vary depending on your bank.
Success message
After confirmation, you’ll be redirected back to Allfred, where you’ll see a “Pairing successful” message.
Transactions appear
After a few moments, all recent bank transactions will appear in the Finance section -> tab Bank.
New transactions are refreshed automatically from 7:00 to 20:00.
Understanding the Bank tab
Let’s break down the table columns you’ll see in the Bank section within Finances:
Column | Description |
Status |
|
Date | Date of transaction |
Reference | Free text reference pulled from bank |
Variable/Specific/Constant Symbol | Used mainly in CZ/SK for matching |
Amount | Value of the transaction |
Balance | Difference between the transaction amount and the total amount of the matched documents. Helps determine if the transaction fully covers the linked invoices or only partially. |
IBAN | IBAN of the counterparty |
Note | Additional transaction notes (e.g. invoice number or purpose) |
Match |
|
Paired documents | Invoice or expense matched to the transaction. Click to view the document details. |
⚙️ How matching payments works in practice
Every 10–15 minutes, Allfred runs a matching script that checks the latest 2 weeks of transactions. Here's how it works:
🔍 What gets matched
We match credit and debit transactions.
If a positive transaction is detected, we match it to outgoing invoices or received credit notes.
If a negative transaction, it’s matched to expenses or issued credit notes.
Grouped payments (e.g., multiple invoices paid together) are matched to the first document. The rest must be matched manually.
How Allfred matches automatically
We use several data points to find the matching document for each transaction automatically:
When transactions are loaded, Allfred looks for a document to match with. It first checks whether the variable symbol (VS) and amount are the same. If these match, the transaction is automatically paired.
If the VS doesn't match but the amount does, Allfred looks at the note or the reference number to find a potential match. If there are multiple invoices with the same variable symbol, Allfred also compares the amount and the payer information to find the correct document.
If a transaction doesn't contain a variable symbol or any other identifying data that can be matched, it must be paired manually. Payments made by card sometimes lack full identifying information (like VS or reference), so these may also require manual matching.
Key data points include:
Amount
Variable symbol, specific symbol, constant symbol (CZ/SK clients)
Reference (EU/international clients)
Note
💡 If these values are not clearly separated, we extract everything from the reference field instead.
❗ Matching works only for processed transactions - not pending ones.
How to manually match a payment?
If a transaction is not automatically matched, click “Match” next to a specific transaction in the Bank tab. This opens a modal showing all invoice types listed in separate tabs – expenses, outgoing invoices and proforma invoices.
You can use filters to narrow down the list of documents – by type, amount range (Amount from / to), or other criteria like client, brand, or project manager.
Select one or more documents using the checkboxes. The summary row at the bottom will show the current balance, letting you know whether the transaction fully covers the selected invoices or only partially.
Other manual matching options
Click “Don’t match” to exclude it from matching.
Already matched? You’ll see a “Match again” button in case it needs to be re-paired.
Use “+ Add bank move manually” to enter missing transactions (e.g., cash payments).
Match payments directly from the document listings
How to match payments directly from the document listings?
In the Proforma Invoices, Outgoing Invoices, and Expenses sections, you'll now find a new action: “Match payment”.
When you click on it, a table with bank transactions will open. You can use checkboxes to select one or multiple transactions you want to match with the document. A summary row will show you the document amount and the total balance of selected payments.
Once a document is manually matched with a transaction this way, additional information appears directly in the document listing. If the transaction is matched with a Proforma Invoice, Allfred will automatically generate a Proof of Payment document.
Filtering
In Bank tab:
To quickly find specific transactions in the Bank tab, use the Filter button. You can filter your results based on:
Bank account – choose a specific agency account
Status – see only paired, not paired, or manually paired transactions
Transaction type - if it is debet or credit
Amount from and Amount to – define a minimum and maximum value range for transactions
In modal with list of invoices:
When you're in the process of matching a specific transaction and looking for the right document to pair it with, a filter bar is available to help narrow down the results.
Based on the invoice type (Expenses / Outgoing invoices / Proforma) ou can filter documents by:
Contractor - invoices from specific contractor
Type – whether it's an invoice, bill, card payment, payment receipt, etc
Payment status – e.g., unpaid, partially paid
Client/Brand – to focus only on a specific client
Legal entity – the agency legal entity used when creating the invoice or expense
Agency bank account – useful if your workspace uses multiple accounts
Due date – filter by the due date range set on invoices
Date of supply – filter by the date of supply range set on invoices
Project manager – filter based on who manages the related project
You can also use the Search field, as well as Amount from and Amount to, to narrow down the list of invoices for matching.
If you need help with a specific transaction, feel free to reach out to support or consult the document directly from the Bank tab by clicking the linked document number.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do I manually add a payment?
Go to the Bank tab in the Finances section and click + Add bank move manually. This is useful for recording payments made in cash or transactions that aren't pulled from your bank.
What should I do if a payment wasn’t matched automatically?
Check if the variable symbol or reference is missing or incorrect. If so, open the transaction and use the Match button to manually link it to the correct document.
How often are bank transactions refreshed?
Bank transactions are refreshed automatically every 2 hours between 7:00 and 20:00.
Can I match multiple payments to one invoice?
Yes, when using the Match payment option from the invoice or expense listing, you can select multiple transactions via checkboxes and match them to a single document. Also you can match one transaction with various documents.
What happens when I match a payment to a Proforma Invoice?
Allfred will automatically generate a Proof of Payment for the client.
How many bank accounts can I connect to Alfred?
Currently, you can connect only one bank account per workspace. Connecting multiple bank accounts is not supported at this time.