Connecting Bank Accounts & Credit Cards: Plaid Sync

Manually entering every single bank and credit card transaction is exhausting and prone to human error. To automate this bookkeeping, Mogul Books utilizes a secure Plaid Sync integration that pulls cleared bank feeds and matches them directly to your general ledger.

This document walks through connecting accounts, mapping them to GL codes, and setting up the reconciliation matching pipeline.

Mappings in the Chart of Accounts

In Mogul Books, bank and credit card accounts map directly to standardized balance sheet accounts in your Chart of Accounts:

1. Asset Cash Accounts (`1100s`):

1110 - Operating Cash: Main business checking for property operations.
1120 - Security Deposit Trust Cash: Isolated trust checking account for tenant deposits.
1130 - Reserve Cash: Savings or reserve capital account.

2. Liability Accounts (`2700s`):

2700 - Credit Cards: Standard current liability account for business credit cards.

Managing Multiple Bank Accounts: Suffix-Based GL Tracking

If you have a small portfolio with 1–2 bank accounts, you can map them to standard codes like 1110 and 1130. However, if you manage a larger portfolio with 10 or more bank accounts, you will quickly exhaust the numeric ranges between 1110 (Operating), 1120 (Trust), and 1130 (Reserves).

To solve this, Mogul Books supports suffix-based GL tracking for bank accounts and credit cards, matching the architecture used for mortgages.

Under this system, each connected bank feed or credit card is assigned a unique suffix code (e.g. CHASE or AMEX) and maps to a sub-GL account under the parent headers:

Operating Cash: 1110.[SUFFIX] (e.g., 1110.CHASE, 1110.BOFA)
Security Deposit Trust: 1120.[SUFFIX] (e.g., 1120.CHASE_ESC, 1120.WFB_ESC)
Credit Cards: 2700.[SUFFIX] (e.g., 2700.AMEX, 2700.CAP1)

This suffix-based model delivers several advantages:

1. Uncapped Scalability: You can connect 10, 50, or 100 bank accounts without ever running out of numeric space.

2. Unified Architecture: Every external connection (checking, credit cards, mortgages) uses the same sub-GL suffix structure, simplifying data mappings.

3. High Readability: GL codes are self-describing (e.g., 1110.CHASE vs. 1113), making it simple to review registers.

4. Reconciliation Integrity: Each sub-GL account reconciles 1-to-1 to a single bank statement, keeping books clean.

Step 1: Linking a Bank Account or Credit Card

To link your bank feeds:

1. Navigate to the Setup Console and select the Bank Connections (Plaid) tab.

2. Click + Link Account.

3. A secure Plaid Link interface will open, prompting you to log into your financial institution (e.g., Chase, Capital One, Bank of America).

4. Authenticate and select the specific accounts you want to connect.

5. Once complete, select which GL account each bank account maps to:

Map your main checking account to 1110 - Operating Cash.
Map your savings account to 1130 - Reserve Cash.
Map credit cards to 2700 - Credit Cards.

Step 2: Nightly Syncs & Webhooks

Once linked:

Nightly Auto-Sync: Mogul Books runs an automated nightly job utilizing Plaid's /transactions/sync cursor model. Only new, cleared transactions are imported.
On-Demand Sync: You can click the "Sync Now" button in the Plaid Manager at any time to pull the most recent cleared transactions instantly.
Pending Transactions: Mogul Books excludes pending transactions. It only imports cleared charges to prevent ledger duplicates or adjustments.

The Auto-Matching Reconciliation Pipeline

Every transaction imported from Plaid goes through a matching pipeline in order:

1. Deduplication: Mogul Books checks if a manual transaction (e.g., a receipt uploaded yesterday) already exists in the system with the same date, amount, and payment method. If matched, it merges them, marking the manual JE as cleared = true and linking the Plaid ID.

2. Transfer Detection: If Mogul Books detects a matching debit/credit pair across two of your linked accounts (e.g., $1,000 leaving checking and $1,000 arriving on your credit card within a $\pm$ 3-day window), it automatically records it as a single cash transfer JE, preventing you from recording it as duplicate expenses.

3. Lease Rent Matching: Rent payments are scanned against active tenant leases to clear outstanding Accounts Receivable (1200).

4. Rules Engine: Standard rules (e.g., "Any charge at Home Depot goes to 5010 - Repairs") are executed.

5. AI Suggestion: If no rules apply, Mogul Books' AI classifies the transaction based on merchant heuristics and historical payees, pre-filling it in your review queue.