Having successfully configured the Bank Feeds feature within Sage 50 Accounts (v26.2.139), it has become apparent to me that the software is not fit for the purpose it is intended to fulfil and requires urgent amendments. I have listed below the initial changes required (not in order of priority).

1) Within the Edit Rule Action window the language used as "Add a friendly narrative to your transactions (optional)" is misleading. From the description and the use of the word 'narrative' this field would be more aligned with the 'Details' field used within a transaction, when in reality this relates to the 'Reference' field and as such it should be labelled as such and made a mandatory field.

2) At present, when the "Add a friendly narrative to your transactions (optional)" is left blank, the transaction narrative imported using Bank Feeds is used to populate the 'Reference' field when processing rules. This narrative is not necessary suitable for use as the 'Reference' field but may provide essential information and I would strongly suggest that the information populates the 'Ex Ref' field (not ideal), or better still a new field is added to the database for the bank feeds narrative (preferred).

3) After renaming the "Add a friendly narrative to your transactions (optional)" to 'Reference', re-site the field in line with other fields shown under the "Then add some details to the transaction" header.

4) When creating rules that relate to a Nominal posting there is no ability to enter the 'Details' which would appear in the nominal description, this effectively renders the feature useless and it is imperative that the user has an ability to create a meaningful narrative to use. With this in mind, a 'live' field which provides the user an ability to enter a free-formatted text description when creating a 'nominal' posting is essential, the same field can be used to display the "Purchase Payment" or "Sales Receipt" narrative for Supplier or Customer transactions.

4) When creating rules that relate to Nominal postings there is currently an option to specify the Tax Code, however the user should also have the ability to specify the individual Net and VAT amounts where the rule is based on a specific transaction amount. The ability to apply a Tax Code is disabled for Customer and Supplier transactions but may be required when a cash accounting VAT scheme is in use.

5) The [Bank Feeds Approval] button shown in the 'Bank accounts' window should also be available in the [Bank feeds] screen for use when reviewing [Bank Feeds].

6) Transactions identified by the rules should remain as outstanding in the 'Transactions from your bank' information within [Bank Feeds] and matched when rules are processed.

7) Transactions identified by the rules and available for posting within the [Bank Feeds Approval] window should be editable prior to posting.

8) The program should allow for Rules to be applied to any unmatched transactions in the 'Transactions from your bank' section, not just new transactions.

9) The ability to sort the Rules list should be introduced.

10) Create rule names based on the contents of the rule and it's postings to provide consistency and structure to users.

11) The 'Transactions in Sage' window should be able to show un-reconciled bank transactions as an override to the 'Excluded transactions before' dates, include a checkbox for this purpose and set it on by default.

12) The date passed from the bank feeds windows to the 'Bank Rec on' field should be the date of the transaction as it appears on the bank, not the bank reconciled date used when reconciling the bank.

13) Transactions identified by the rules and available for posting within the [Bank Feeds Approval] window should update prior to posting if the Rule is amended.

14) It would also be useful to have the same 'tools' as listed on the Bank Reconciliation screen shown on the [Bank Feeds] screen for a user to create transactions from by simply clicking the bank transaction and selecting the correct 'tool', options that are not applicable to the transaction can be disabled, i.e. a payment option when selecting a bank receipt. This would prevent a user from having to go through a two-stage process of clicking [Create] then having to select the transaction type before posting the entry.

While some of the above are 'would like' options, others are essential to accurately process transactions in a meaningful manner and without them we cannot use bank feeds and I suspect the same would be said of many others.

I am happy to discuss these with you should you need any further information or clarification on the points raised.