How to Use the Xero Bank Rules Spec Prompt When Onboarding a Bookkeeping Client

The first month with a new bookkeeping client is mostly pattern spotting. You open the Reconcile tab, scroll through a few hundred statement lines, and start noticing the same payees over and over: the rent, the phone bill, the card processor, the weekly transfer to savings. Xero bank rules are built for exactly those repeats, but a rule written in a hurry causes more cleanup than it saves. The Xero Bank Rules Spec for Onboarding a New Bookkeeping Client (Spend, Receive, and Transfer Rules) prompt turns a sample of statement lines into a written rule spec you can review before anything goes live.

What a bank rule actually does

A Xero bank rule does not post anything on its own. It looks at an incoming statement line, checks your conditions, and proposes a coding in the Reconcile tab. Someone still has to click OK. That is good news, because it means a careful spec can be checked line by line, but it also means a rule that is too broad will quietly suggest the wrong account every day until someone notices.

Each rule has a type (Spend money, Receive money, or Transfer), a match mode (Any or All conditions), one or more conditions on Payee, Description, Reference, or Amount, a contact, allocation lines with account and tax rate, and the bank account it runs on. The prompt asks for every one of those fields, in a table, so nothing is left to memory.

What the prompt produces

1. A pattern scan that groups your statement lines by payee text and labels each group as fixed amount, variable amount, mixed purpose, or a transfer between the client's own accounts.
2. A rule spec table with one row per rule: title, type, Any or All, each condition written as field, operator, and value, the contact, allocations using only codes from the client's chart of accounts, tax rate, tracking option, and the bank account.
3. A processor payout plan. When a card processor such as Square or Stripe pays out net of fees, the prompt recommends a clearing account instead of guessing a percent split between Sales and Bank Fees.
4. A rule order, with specific rules above broad ones, and the reason for each position.
5. A no-rule list for owner purchases, refunds, and mixed items, with what the bookkeeper should do instead.
6. Client questions to send before switching anything on.

How to fill the inputs

StatementLines is where the value comes from. Paste two or three months of real lines with date, payee or description, reference, amount, and whether money went in or out. Recurring items need at least two or three occurrences before a pattern is visible. ChartOfAccounts should be the client's actual codes and names, because the prompt is told to write NOT IN CHART rather than invent an account.

TaxRates names the region and the tax rates in use in that Xero organisation. Tracking lists categories and options if the client uses them. BankAccounts should match the names exactly as they appear in Xero, since transfer rules depend on them. ClientContext is where you mention the industry, the payment processor, and any habits like personal purchases on the business card.

Walking through the example

The sample client is a cafe with a Square payout most weekdays, a weekly food supplier, fixed rent with a reference, a monthly phone bill, a weekly savings transfer, irregular hardware store purchases, and quarterly tax payments.

A few choices in the output are worth copying:

• The phone bill rule includes an amount condition. If a new handset charge from the same provider shows up, it falls out of the rule and gets reviewed by a person instead of being coded as the usual monthly bill.
• The rent rule matches on payee and reference together, so it cannot catch a different payment to the same landlord.
• Square payouts go to a clearing account. Sales and fees are recorded from Square's own summary, and the payout rule only moves the net amount out of clearing. When clearing nets to zero, sales and fees are both complete, and tax on income sits on gross sales rather than the payout.
• The hardware store gets no rule. It is mixed purpose, so each line is coded from the receipt, with private items flagged for the accountant to decide the equity account.

Mistakes to avoid

• Conditions that are too short. "Contains AMZ" will match far more than one supplier. The prompt is told never to write a condition that broad.
• Percent splits on net payouts. Fees change with volume and card mix, so any fixed split will drift.
• Rules for tax office payments. The amount depends on the return, so those lines should be matched to the liability, not coded by a rule.
• Ignoring order. When two rules could match one line, the one higher in the Bank rules list is suggested first. Specific rules belong at the top.
• Treating the tax rate column as final. The prompt flags tax choices for the accountant to confirm. It is setup guidance, not tax advice.

Who it is for

This prompt fits bookkeepers onboarding a new small business client, practice managers writing a standard setup checklist, and business owners who want to understand what their bookkeeper is about to switch on. It is most useful before the first full reconciliation, when rules can be reviewed together rather than fixed one by one later.

Related PromptDig links

• Prompt: Xero Bank Rules Spec for Onboarding a New Bookkeeping Client (Spend, Receive, and Transfer Rules)
• More business and finance prompts: Browse more prompts
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