The clearing account

The clearing account is an interim account used to record temporary transactions. It is specifically used in the following cases:

• Post self-taxation and recovery operations on purchase tax (VAT on services abroad).
• Import data into the main accounting from the cash book and credit cards.
• Record the net salaries debited by the bank, pending the complete recording of the gross salaries with the various monthly deductions.
• Recording incoming payments in camt.054 and camt.053 formats to avoid duplicate credits.

Use of the clearing account when importing data from the cash book or credit card

When the cash book or credit card movements are kept in separate files from the main accounting, it is used as a counterpart account in order not to create overlapping records in the import, regarding payments from the bank to the cash or credit card accounts.

• In the cash book or credit card file, the receipt of funds will be recorded (the cash book or credit card account balance is increasing).
• The outflow from the bank or postal current account and the increase in cash book or credit card will be recorded in the main accounting file.

The internal transfer account must be used as a counter-entry, both in recording the withdrawal from the bank (main accounting), and for payment at the cash book or on the credit card (separate file).

When you import the cash book or credit card data, into the main accounting file, the internal transfer account is reset to zero:

• The data imported from the cash file or the credit card account will be recorded as credits in the clearing account.
• The movements relating to payments already recorded with debit on the bank or post office account, will be credited to the clearing account.

More details on importing with the clearing account are available on the Importing data from the Cash book file.

Using the Transfer Account for camt054 and camt053 Receipts

Those who collect payments via QR-IBAN can use the camt054 XML file to automatically import and record incoming payments. At the same time, they can import the entire electronic bank statement using the camt053 XML file.

• The camt054 XML file contains only the details of receipts for each customer.
• The camt053 XML file, on the other hand, reports the total daily credit without details.
• Payments received on the QR-IBAN account, imported via the camt054 XML file, are transferred daily to the associated IBAN account (bank account listed in the chart of accounts).

Problem: If both XML files (camt054 and camt053) are imported into the bank account ledger, the same credit is recorded twice: once with the details of individual receipts (camt054) and once with the total daily amount (camt053). This results in a duplication of credited amounts.

To solve this issue, the transfer account is used by following the procedure described on the page Bank Statement Camt ISO 20022 Switzerland (Banana+).