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Just to let everyone who is using Xero know - CAF has reinstituted a QFX download on the transactions screen which works the same way as an OFX without needing to be amended. You need to use the download button when you're looking at your account and it will give you options of dates to download and output options. DON'T use the historic transactions tab, just the download icon on the banking screen where you can see your recent transactions.

Hope that helps a bit.

Commiserations to anyone who's had time sucked into the CAFBank systems upgrade wormhole.

Sue

Hi Everyone, I so agree with all the comments of CAF Bank!

To those people who are thinking of opening an account with CAF-

DONT we have dealt with them for years they are so difficult to deal with and everything on their system is not user friendly especially the new system.

Lloyds is excellent for charities and has a much better online system.

I spent an hour and half on the phone to CAF Bank and their comment was that Xero has to approach them, for as they don't approach software providers.

They also have the "we don't really care we support QuickBooks" attitude.

Given the disastrous change to a new system ( and the old one was pretty dreadful too) I would recommend changing banks !

We really need a bank feed from CAF ASAP and any planned timeframes.would be greatly appreciated. Please raise this as a priority for the product team.

Yes, please, can we have this as soon as possible?

Hello,

Is there any update on when this will happen?

Please can you address this as soon as possible as this would significantly help all the charities that bank with CAF and use Xero.

Hello Kelly

Thanks for your response. While it’s encouraging to hear that the product team is aware of the need for a CAF feed, the lack of any time frame is a concern, especially given how critical this functionality is for our operations and I am sure others too.

We need a clearer indication of when this issue will be prioritised and addressed. Even a provisional or indicative timeline would help us plan accordingly. Could you please escalate this request and come back with a realistic timeframe for when exploration or delivery of this feature is expected to begin?

We appreciate your efforts in keeping us updated, but at this stage, more concrete information is essential.

Hi All -

As a small charity we have just moved to Xero and wish to leave QuickBooks going forward. However our main accounts are with CAF and due to the volume of transactions manual imports are time consuming.Now that CAF have implemented external bank feeds we hope that Xero can rapidly include a feed.

Hi Clive

Just as another option you can also now use the .csv export from CAF as they have given debits a negative figure and credits a positive figure in the new export, which was not the case in the old system!
I have tried it and it works ok. You will have to re-map the fields but it will prompt you to do so when you upload the file to Xero.

Dear Mat Mellor,
I have finally signed on to the new CAF Login, (apparently I wasn't swiping right firmly enough in HID) and Firefox is giving problems.
Now I am getting the USD warning. When I open the .qfx in Notepad there is no refernce to USD. Where can I find it?

Yes please - make this happen!

Another Vote for this!!!

Tell everyone you know to vote for this to bring it to the top of the pile for Xero Dev Team.

It is critical for Xero to provide a bank feed for CAF bank ASAP especially since CAF bank have updated their banking platform to enable this to happen. The upgrade has also removed several useful features making the banking feed even more critical especially as Xero's competitors allow a bank feed from CAF bank

Bank Feed it vital now as others have said, I thought it might be helpful to list some of the issues I have identified and reported to CAF bank about statement exports since their "upgrade":

1) You need other select more than 1 day for an export to contain any data
2) QFX is the one to choose instead of OFX
3) CAF are coding their files as US dollars so Xero rejects them. Workaround is to open the QFX file in a text editor (notepad for PC or Textedit for Mac), search for "USD" and overtype with "GBP". Import will then work.
4) Any purchase on a CAF Card will import just as "POS" no more data about Merchant.
5) For incoming Faster Payments, the Account name and reference are now reversed vs old online banking so this caused several of our bank rules to not work.

I have reported these all to CAF Bank, and I hope they can fix them, but the need for a bank feed it even more urgent now.

Hope this helps others.

The CAF "upgrade" is going swimmingly so far isn't it?!

CAF bank have removed the OFX download option, so please prioritise this

This is even more critical as CAF banks shiny new "update" has removed the option to download transactions as an OFX file!
Please prioritise this feed

I have found Xero not much quicker than the spreadsheets I created 30 years ago, when I inherited the hand written ledgers the Charity had been using. However I find that the standard Xero formats seem to be aimed largely at limited companies and their layout requirements.
Charity accounts are different, especislly for below the line overhead expenses. I have created a new Chart of Accounts, so that the profit and loss account will need minimum attention at the end of the financial year. As well as creating a feed from the CAFBank, it would help to have a standard balance sheet as specified for Charities.
I am in my mid 80's and feel like Ian Kelly

Thanks for the update Kelly. I suppose as this has been going on for 5 years, another 5 years won't make a big differece. Except as I am in my 60's, I might well not live to see it.

I am so glad too, that this has gotten the attention of the product team. How on earth did they find out?

I also agree this has been requested for a very long time, but to be fair to Xero until very recently it has not been possible for them due to CAF Banks refusal to implement standard Open Banking APIs. However as CAF are now totally overhauling their online banking systems it will now be possible for Xero to link to CAF using Open Banking. Let’s keep reminding Xero how many people require this to happen ASAP. 👍🏼