Build your books from a folder of documents

If your records are a pile of files, you do not have to sort them first. Put everything in one folder, drop it on TALISK_HQ, and it works out what each file is, shows you what is covered and what is missing, and builds your books from it with you checking each part before anything is recorded.

You will find it in three places: Ledger › Setup › Build from documents, the I have a folder of documents option when you start setting up your books, and the last screen of sign-up.

What to put in the folder

Whatever you have, in any order and any folders inside folders:

Bank and card statements for every account, from your starting date: when the business started, or your last year-end. PDF, CSV or OFX.
Your accountant's last trial balance or year-end financial statements, if you have them.
GST/HST returns you filed, or the notices of assessment. Provincial sales tax returns too.
Bills and receipts, as PDFs or photos. Emailed bills you saved count.
Sales reports from your payment processor or invoicing app. A trade or service business can include copies of the invoices it sent.

Payroll documents are not needed. If some are in the folder, they are set aside and not used.

If you sell on Shopify or WooCommerce, leave the payout reports out. Connect the store in Ledger › Setup instead: its sales, fees and payouts come straight from the store, and a payout report as well would count them twice.

The list on the drop screen follows your kind of business, so a store, a trade business and everyone else each see the version that fits.

How to drop it

Drag the folder, or a zip of it, onto the drop area. You can also use Choose a folder or Choose files or a zip. A zip is opened in your browser, and hidden system files such as .DS_Store are skipped. Each file can be up to 25 MB, and one drop can hold up to 2,000 files.

Each file is sent on its own, so a slow connection only delays the files still waiting. A file you have dropped before is recognised and shown as Already here, and it is never imported twice.

Watch a folder in the desktop app

In a recent version of the TALISK_HQ desktop app you can point TALISK_HQ at a folder on your computer instead of dropping it each time. On this screen, under Watch a folder on this computer, press Choose a folder to watch. While the app is open, TALISK_HQ looks in the folder when you come back to the app and every ten minutes, and sends any new or changed file as a drop of its own. Files it has already sent are not sent again.

The folder belongs to the book you chose it in. In any other book nothing is sent from it, and the screen offers Watch it for this book instead. It also pauses while you work in someone else's books. Stop watching forgets the folder; the files in it are not touched.

What TALISK_HQ does with each kind of document

First it sorts every file and says what it is. While it works the drop shows Sorting; when it is done it shows Sorted and a coverage map: which months each bank and card account has, the gaps, your sales tax periods, and what was set aside and why.

Then each file goes to the part of TALISK_HQ that already handles that kind of document, with that part's own checks:

Bank and card statements are read into the account they belong to, and each statement must tie: opening balance plus the transactions equals the closing balance. A line of credit works like a credit card: money you draw from it raises what you owe and a payment lowers it, whichever way round the statement prints the amounts.
Bills and receipts become bills waiting for review, checked for a total that adds up and for a duplicate of a bill you already have. Each one gets a suggested account: your own rule for that supplier when you have one, otherwise a suggestion from what the bill is for. A bill with no date on it is left undated for you to fill in. It is never given today's date.
A trial balance sets up your chart of accounts and your opening balances, the same way as switching from another system.
A QuickBooks general ledger or transaction detail report is read as evidence only. It can work out your balances when there is no trial balance, suggest which account each supplier usually goes to, and cross-check your opening figures. Its lines are never posted as entries, because your bank and bills already supply that activity and posting both would double it.
A sales tax report or a notice of assessment gives the figures for a filing period, checked so its lines add up to the totals printed on it. Those figures are a proposal until you confirm them.
A filed return gives the figures exactly as you filed them, including total sales and other revenue (line 101). That means the CRA's GST/HST NETFILE confirmation, a BC eTaxBC PST return, or the return and summary pages QuickBooks prints. Every figure must be printed on the document and the return's own arithmetic must hold. A filed return takes the place of a tax report for the same period, and it is still a proposal until you confirm it.
Bank reconciliations, aging reports, transaction lists, fixed asset schedules, inventory counts, tax slips and tax payment confirmations are kept with your documents. Nothing is imported from them.

The first build: you review, one section at a time

Nothing from your first drop is recorded until you commit it. When sorting is done the drop shows Ready to review, and the review takes one section at a time: opening balances first, then each bank account, then bills, then each tax period. Each section shows the figures to check and whether its checks passed, and you commit it with one tap. Opening balances come first because everything after them depends on your starting date.

Committing a section uses the same steps you would use by hand, so the result is the same as if you had entered it yourself.

Committing bills approves each bill whose supplier name can be read, whose total adds up, whose date is outside any locked period, and whose account is your own rule or a confident suggestion. A supplier you have not had before is added to your vendors as the bill is approved. Anything else waits with the reason, and you can choose a different account for a bill before you commit. When a bill's payment looks like a bank line that TALISK_HQ would not pair on its own, the review lists it under Payments that match your bills, for you to accept or reject.

Bank and card sections

While your statements are read, TALISK_HQ also suggests a category for each bank and card line, the same way it does in Ledger › Banking. A suggestion is only a suggestion: nothing is coded until you commit the section. Each bank section shows the categories it suggests, how confident each one is, and how many lines committing will code.

When you commit a bank section:

Lines that match a bill, a receipt or a store payout are matched first.
A payment from your bank account to your credit card or line of credit is recorded as a transfer, when it shows on both statements. TALISK_HQ pairs two lines only when the card line reads as a payment, the amounts match to the cent, the card line is dated the same day or up to five days later, and neither line could pair with anything else. When several equal payments could pair with several equal card lines, such as two payments of the same amount on consecutive days, TALISK_HQ pairs them in date order, but only when every pair fits that window and the payments all go from one account to one card. The review lists every pair it found, and you can leave any of them out. An interest line is never paired: the interest your bank account pays on a line of credit is an expense, not a payment on the line.
Money you draw from a line of credit into your bank account is paired the same way, the other way round: the line of credit's line reads as a withdrawal, an advance or a transfer, and it is dated the same day as the deposit or up to five days later.
Your own supplier rules code what they cover.
The confident suggestions are coded. You can also accept every suggestion, or only the categories you pick.

Once your starting point is committed, TALISK_HQ takes one more look at the suggestions it made before your chart was in place: the bank lines and bills it had no suggestion for, or was not sure about, are suggested again against your full chart. Anything you already chose or answered is left as it is.

A line that looks like the payment of a bill already in your books (same supplier, same amount) is never coded by the commit: it is left for you to match to that bill, so the cost is not recorded twice.

Anything that cannot be coded, such as a line in a locked period, is listed with the reason. A section counts as done only when no line is left to code, or when you choose to leave the rest for Ledger › Banking. It never looks finished while lines are still uncoded.

Deposits from Shopify, Stripe, Square or PayPal are store payouts, and they are never offered a category. Each payout is a sale net of fees and tax, so coding it by hand would record the sale wrong. If that store is not connected yet, TALISK_HQ asks you to connect it in Ledger › Setup; once it is, its payouts are matched to these deposits. Until then the account is not done: connect the store, or leave those deposits for Ledger › Banking. If you don't sell through that service, say so and its deposits are treated like any other bank line. Money a service lends you, such as Shopify Capital, is never treated as a payout.

A combined statement that repeats months whose statements are already in, such as a year-end statement covering twelve monthly ones, is set aside so nothing is imported twice.

In the review screen

A bank account's section lists What TALISK_HQ will code: each category, how many lines and their total, and whether TALISK_HQ is Confident or Not sure of it. Choose Code the confident ones (the default), Code every suggestion, or Choose by category and tick the ones to code, then Commit this account. Leave the rest for Banking review commits the account too, and leaves every line it did not code for you in Ledger › Banking.

Payments between your own accounts are listed under Transfers between your accounts, each pair ticked. Untick one that is not a transfer and it is left for you to code in Banking.

Payouts from a store you have not connected are listed with a link to connect it, so the sales behind them come in from the store. Until you connect it, the account can only be committed with Leave the rest for Banking review, which leaves those payouts uncoded.

In Bills and receipts, each bill shows the category it will be coded to and where that came from: your rule, the supplier's last bill, or a suggestion. Change it with the category picker before you approve. A supplier TALISK_HQ has not seen before is marked New supplier. A bill with no supplier is not approved; it waits in Bills review. A bill whose payment is already recorded as a coded bank line from the same supplier, for the same amount, is not approved either, because approving it would count the cost twice. Match it to that line in Ledger › Expenses instead.

Payments that match your bills lists each bank line that pays one of the drop's bills, all ticked. Untick any that is not that bill's payment, then match the rest.

Questions it may ask

Where a file does not settle something, TALISK_HQ asks rather than guesses. The drop marks those files Needs you. Typical questions:

Which account a statement belongs to, when it cannot tell from the statement.
Your starting date, when the folder does not make it clear.
Whether a tax report is the return you actually filed. See Why TALISK_HQ asks whether a tax report is the return you filed.
Which of two trial balances is right, if they disagree.
What a file is, when it cannot tell. If it is a lease or agreement behind a regular charge, say so and choose the supplier. It is attached to that supplier's rule in Ledger › Banking › Rules, where it stands behind every charge from them, so those charges stop asking for a receipt.
After you attach a lease or agreement, which account its charges go to. Your answer becomes that supplier's rule, and its charges are coded to it.
What a group of payments was for, when TALISK_HQ had no usable suggestion for them, such as several wires to one supplier. Choose an account and it becomes your rule for that payee, and those payments are coded to it. If they paid bills, say so and match them in Ledger › Expenses instead. Or leave them for Ledger › Banking. A payment that looks like it pays a bill already in your books is never coded this way: match it to the bill.
What one payment was for, when the bank line does not say who was paid, such as a wire or e-transfer that shows only a reference number. TALISK_HQ asks about each one of $1,000 or more on its own. If an approved bill in your books could be what it paid (exactly the same amount, or close to it after converting a bill in another currency), TALISK_HQ offers that bill, and choosing it matches the payment to the bill as matching does in Ledger › Expenses. A bill still waiting for review is not offered: approve it first. You can say you will add the invoice: nothing is recorded, and the question comes back offering the bill once it is in your books. Or choose an account: only that one payment is coded, and no rule is made, because the next payment with the same description may be for something else. While a bill in your books could be the payment, TALISK_HQ names it and does not code the payment to an account, so the cost is not recorded twice. Or leave it for Ledger › Banking. If the payment was one of several towards an approved bill in another currency (a US-dollar bill paid by Canadian wires, for example), TALISK_HQ offers that bill as "It paid part of" it: enter the US dollars the wire settled, from the wire confirmation, in the field it opens (TALISK_HQ fills in an estimate) and the payment is matched to the bill as one instalment. A wire sent more than 30 days before the bill's date is not offered as part of it: money sent that early is an advance. If an open proforma in Ledger › Expenses › Proformas carries its date and the wire went out between 7 days before that date and 120 days after it, TALISK_HQ offers that the wire was a deposit on that supplier's proforma: enter what it sent in the supplier's currency (TALISK_HQ fills in an estimate) and confirm. The payment is recorded on the proforma's deposit, which TALISK_HQ starts if there is none yet, ready to apply to the bill when it arrives. See Proformas and supplier deposits. When several such wires together come to about what one bill still owes, TALISK_HQ asks about them in one question, with a field for each wire, and records them against the bill together. It never puts a wire in that question when the wire is exactly the payment of another bill, and it asks no combined question when two different sets of wires fit about equally well. See Pay a foreign-currency bill in instalments.
Whether a shareholder account from your trial balance, such as a "Due to Shareholder" or "Shareholder Loan" account, is your account with the company. TALISK_HQ asks once your opening balances are in, or as soon as you choose that account for a group of payments. Until the account is linked to a shareholder it cannot take those payments, and TALISK_HQ says so. Say yes to link it to you, or pick one of the shareholders already in your books. If it belongs to someone else, type their name in the box and say it belongs to another shareholder. Linking posts no entry; it says whose balance the account is, the same as Link account under People in Ledger › Setup. Someone who is not yet a shareholder is added as one first, and on a corporation's books that also adds an empty shareholder loan account in their name, as adding a shareholder there does. If it is not a shareholder's account, say no and it stays as it is. An account a bank or card posts to is never offered.
Whether a payment to the CRA or to your province is the payment for a return you recorded. TALISK_HQ asks only when the payment is exactly the amount the return came to. Choose the return and TALISK_HQ records the payment the same way Tax payment does in Ledger › Banking. If it does not fit that return, nothing is recorded and TALISK_HQ says why.
Whether to connect a store, when its payouts are in your bank statements.
Whether something is missing, when your books for a filing period come out far from a return you recorded. For example, your books might show a refund of $257.77 for March to May while the return you filed said $2,197.09 owing. That usually means sales or purchases for the period are not in yet, and TALISK_HQ says what it can see: a store that is not connected, or months with no statement. TALISK_HQ asks when the difference is at least $100 and at least a tenth of what you filed. Recording the return never changes your books, and answering posts nothing. Choose I'll add what's missing and TALISK_HQ asks again in a week if the difference is still there, or choose The difference is right and it does not ask about that period again unless the difference changes by as much again. Once the missing documents are in and your books come close to the return, the question goes away on its own. TALISK_HQ asks this about any return you recorded as filed somewhere else, whether or not it came from a folder, so it can appear on a book that has never had a drop. Those questions are listed at the top of Build from documents, and your Today list names the return, for example "Your books don't match the GST/HST return you filed for Mar–May 2025".

Later drops

Once your first build is committed, a later drop works without the review step. Anything that passes its checks is recorded automatically: a statement that ties, or a bill from a supplier you already have that passes its total and duplicate checks. Everything else waits for you, and a tax return is always a question, every time.

A drop never changes a period you have closed or locked. If a document belongs to one, it becomes a question instead.

What it never does

Payroll. Pay slips and T4s are set aside.
Your judgement calls. Whether a purchase is equipment or an expense, whether a payment was an owner draw, whether a charge was personal: it asks, it never decides.
Filing. It records what you filed when you say so. It never files a return for you.

The setup AI allowance

Reading documents uses AI. Your plan includes a one-time setup allowance for it, separate from your monthly AI budget, so building your books does not use up the month. Once the allowance is spent, later reading counts against your monthly budget as usual.

Each drop also has its own spending ceiling, so one very large folder pauses instead of running on. A paused drop shows Paused with the reason, and Continue and allow more lets it carry on. Files TALISK_HQ can recognise on its own, such as a QuickBooks trial balance, a bank CSV or an OFX file, cost nothing to sort.

Your original files are kept, encrypted. Each file name in the drop opens the original.