Matching links a bank transaction to the receipt or invoice that documents it. In the Transaction Manager, SparkReceipt does most of this for you automatically and asks you to confirm the rest. This article covers how automatic matching decides what to link, how to handle Suggested matches, and how to match by hand, including one transaction with several receipts and one invoice paid in several payments.
How automatic matching works
Whenever transactions are imported, from an uploaded statement or a connected bank account, SparkReceipt compares each one against your unmatched receipts and invoices and scores how well they fit on four things:
- Amount: the biggest factor. Same-currency amounts have to be close (within roughly 1% on an uploaded statement; on a connected bank account the amount still counts for less up to about 5%). When the receipt and the transaction are in different currencies the tolerance is wider (around 6%) to allow for exchange rates and processor fees.
- Date: a card purchase usually posts to the bank a few days after the receipt date, so candidates are searched in a window around the transaction (roughly 10 days before to 3 days after).
- Merchant / vendor name, including abbreviations and payment-processor prefixes on the bank line.
- Currency and direction: money-out transactions match expenses, money-in transactions match income, and a direction mismatch is never linked.
Based on that score, SparkReceipt does one of three things:
- Confident match → Matched. The receipt is linked automatically.
- Plausible but not certain → Suggested. The transaction is marked Suggested with a confidence percentage and waits for your decision. Hovering the suggestion explains it's an AI-suggested match to review and approve.
- No good candidate → Unmatched. Nothing is linked and the transaction waits for you.
For matches that the main engine leaves unmatched, SparkReceipt also runs an AI pass that can propose additional Suggested matches. These are always suggestions for you to confirm, never automatic links.
Approving and rejecting suggestions
A Suggested transaction shows two actions:
- Approve confirms the receipt matches and marks the transaction reconciled. Tooltip: "Confirm this receipt matches the transaction and mark it reconciled."
- Reject dismisses that suggestion. The receipt won't be linked and the transaction goes back to Unmatched. A rejected suggestion is remembered and won't be proposed again.
To clear a batch quickly, switch to the Needs review queue, select several transactions, and use Approve in the bulk action bar.
Matching a transaction by hand
If no receipt was suggested, or the suggestion is wrong, open the match panel: click the transaction row (or Select a receipt on it), or press F. The panel is titled Match transaction and has two parts:
- Suggested matches: SparkReceipt's ranked candidates, each with a match percentage and the reasons it scored well (for example Exact amount, Vendor matches, Date within window, Same currency). Click Use this match to link one.
- Search all documents: search your whole library by text, date range, or amount when the receipt isn't in the candidate list. Select the document and click Link to transaction.
If the receipt you pick is already linked to another transaction, SparkReceipt warns you (Already linked elsewhere) and offers Add here, which keeps both links, or Move here, which moves the receipt to this transaction.
Upload a missing receipt
On the web, open an unmatched transaction and choose Upload receipt. Select receipt images or PDFs. You can select several files for one transaction.
SparkReceipt uploads the files and links the resulting documents to that transaction after scanning. You can also drag receipt files onto the transaction row. Uploading is unavailable for transfers, locked transactions, or accounts that cannot add documents.
Matching one transaction to several receipts (multi-match)
Sometimes a single bank charge covers several receipts, for example an aggregated card settlement. In the match panel you can select more than one document. The panel keeps a running total and tells you how much of the transaction amount is still unaccounted for. When the selection is complete, use Link documents (the button shows how many).
The selected receipts should add up to the transaction amount. If they don't, SparkReceipt warns that "These documents don't add up to the transaction amount", and you can either adjust the selection or choose Link anyway. A transaction matched to several documents is labeled as matched to that number of documents. Use the Unlink documents panel to detach individual receipts or all of them.
One invoice or receipt paid in several transactions (instalments)
The opposite case is just as common: one invoice paid in two or more instalments, an order receipt whose items were charged to your card separately, or a monthly invoice that settles several card charges. Link all of those transactions to the one document:
- Select the transactions (at least two).
- Open More in the bulk action bar and choose Link to one document….
- Pick the receipt or invoice and confirm with Link and the number of transactions.
The dialog compares the transactions' total with the document's total. If they don't add up exactly, it tells you how much is uncovered or over, and you can still choose Link anyway. The transactions must be unmatched or suggested, in the same currency and the same direction (all money out or all money in), and a group can hold up to 200 transactions. Each linked transaction then shows 1 of and the group size, and counts as Manually linked.
You can also build a group one transaction at a time. When you pick a document in the match panel that already settles another transaction, SparkReceipt shows Already linked elsewhere. Add here keeps the existing link, so the document is settled by both transactions. Move here moves it to this transaction instead.
A document doesn't track how much of it is still unpaid, so there's no "partially matched" status. If an invoice is waiting for more payments, link the payments that have arrived and keep the invoice's Payment status set to Unpaid until the rest comes in. See How do I see which invoices are paid or still outstanding?
One charge that is partly business and partly personal
If a single bank charge covers a business purchase and a personal one, split the charge so each part can be handled on its own. On a transaction from an uploaded statement, open the row's actions menu and use Split line to divide it into two lines. Match the business part to its receipt and Exclude the personal part. Transactions from a connected bank account can't be split. In that case, match the business receipt and add a note to the transaction (Add note) about the personal part. See How do I edit, sort, select and export transactions?
Credit-card payments that cover many purchases
The payment from your bank account to your credit card is a transfer, not an expense. The purchases it pays for are the expenses, and they are matched to their receipts on the credit card's own statement or connected card account. So:
- Bring in the credit card's transactions too, by uploading the card statement or connecting the card.
- Match each card purchase to its receipt.
- Mark the payment on the bank account as a transfer to the card. SparkReceipt often suggests this itself ("Looks like a payment to" your card). See Transfers, exclusions, and creating entries in the Transaction Manager.
If you keep the card statement as a document and want it behind the payment, open the payment's match panel, turn on Include statements in results under Search all documents, and link the card statement. This works like marking it as a transfer, with the statement attached.
Matching to another statement (rental or property statements)
Matching links a bank transaction to a document, not to a line inside another statement. You can't match a bank transaction to one line of a rental, property or broker statement. What you can do:
- Link the bank transaction to the whole statement document: in the match panel, turn on Include statements in results and pick it.
- Or upload the rental statement as an expense or income document, so its totals can be matched like any receipt or invoice.
Where a receipt shows its match
On the web, an expense or income document shows its bank match at the top of the right-hand column of the document page: Matched to statement (or Suggested match to statement) with the transaction's date, name and amount and a View statement link that opens the statement. When the document is matched to several transactions it says how many.
This block covers automatic and approved matches. Links you made yourself (in the match panel, with Link to one document… or with Add here) aren't listed there. To find those, use the Transaction Manager's search, or open the statement from a transaction row with View statement. The mobile app doesn't show the match on the document page.
To list every document linked to a particular statement, use the Matched to statement filter in the Documents view. To find documents by match state, use the Match status filter (Matched, Suggested match, Unmatched). Documents you linked yourself in the match panel count as neither Matched nor Unmatched there. Entries created from transactions with Create expense, Create income or Create entries have no file and are listed under the Source filter's Integration option, together with documents from other integrations. There's no separate color or badge for them in the Documents list. To mark them, tag the transactions after creating the entries: select them, open More, choose Assign tags… and pick a tag. The tag is added to the entries too, so you can filter documents by it.
Confirming or unlinking from the receipt page
The document page doesn't have Approve, Reject or Unlink buttons. Approve a suggested match or unlink a receipt from the transaction instead: click View statement on the document page to open the statement, find the transaction, and use Approve, Reject or Unlink there. To work through all suggestions at once, open the Needs review queue in the Transaction Manager.
Re-running matching after adding receipts
When you add or edit a receipt, SparkReceipt checks it in the background against the unmatched and suggested transactions around the receipt's date, so a receipt added after the transactions were imported can still be matched or suggested on its own. On an uploaded statement, this check only links a new receipt it's very sure about. If a transaction still has no match, select it and use Re-match (in the bulk action bar). SparkReceipt runs the matching engine again against your current documents in the background, and the results appear shortly.
Unlinking
To undo a match, use Unlink on the transaction. For a transaction matched to several receipts, the Unlink documents panel lets you remove just one receipt while the transaction stays matched to the rest, or Unlink all.
How matching improves over time
SparkReceipt learns from what you confirm and correct:
- Rejected suggestions never come back. Once you reject a suggested match, that pairing is excluded from future matching.
- Your confirmed matches teach the merchant patterns. When you consistently match a cryptic bank descriptor (say, "AMZN MKTP US") to a merchant, SparkReceipt remembers the association and uses it to match similar lines later.
- Your manual categorizations inform categorization. Recent categories you set by hand are used as context when new transactions are categorized.
Keyboard shortcuts
The Transaction Manager has shortcuts for fast review: navigate between transactions, approve, reject, exclude, unlink, select, find match, create expense, and destroy expense. The full list is in the Keyboard shortcuts helper in the view.
Troubleshooting
If a receipt you expected to match didn't, see Why aren't my receipts matching bank transactions? and I can't find my receipt to match. For transactions that have no receipt at all, or that are transfers between your own accounts, see Transfers, exclusions, and creating entries in the Transaction Manager.