Reconciling your Primary accounts

Scope

This guide covers reconciling each Primary product in Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB and NetSuite. It is for the finance team, bookkeeper or accountant keeping the books for an organisation that uses Primary.

Primary does not post transactions to accounting platforms. Macquarie provides a Xero bank feed for the CMA and Accelerator, and Ebury provides one for the FX accounts it administers. All other products are reconciled from Primary's statements and exports. Steps are given for Xero, with differences for QuickBooks Online, MYOB and NetSuite noted.

Records

Statements are under Statements in the left navigation. The Transactions page has an Export button. The Activity statement is the import file for accounts without a bank feed. The Account and Monthly statements are for checking closing balances.

Linked external accounts (Mercury, Airwallex, and bank accounts connected through SISS or Akahu) are read-only feeds. They are excluded from the Activity and Account statements and included in the Balance statement only when Include linked accounts is ticked. Reconcile them from the bank's own feed.

Activity CSV layout

The format is Xero or NetSuite, set under Settings, then Reporting, under Activity statement format.

• Xero format: columns Date, Amount, Payee, Description, Reference, Check Number. Dates are yyyy-mm-dd. Credits are positive and debits negative, in the account's currency. Reference and Check Number are empty.

• NetSuite format: columns Date (MM/DD/YYYY), Payor/Payee Name, Transaction ID, Transaction Type (CREDIT or DEBIT), Amount, Memo, NS Internal Customer ID, NS Customer Name, Invoice Number(s). Requires a NetSuite internal customer ID for each business entity.

• Fund accounts are in dollars. Unit movements are converted at the unit price on the day.

• The file name gives the account, entity and period, for example activity_statement-macquarie_cma-acme_pty_ltd-2026-09-01-2026-09-30.csv.

The Description column uses a fixed vocabulary.

The Activity CSV includes pending transfers, so a transfer in flight at month end appears before the money lands. Fund managers report distributions and unit prices a few business days into the following month. Generate month-end files after the Monthly statement for that month is published. Statement periods are in Sydney time regardless of currency.

Chart of accounts

Recommended: one bank account in the ledger per Primary account, in the account's currency, named as Primary names it. The Activity statement is one CSV per account with its own running balance, so this layout reconciles directly. A single Primary ledger account, or one per currency, also works: import every CSV into it and REBALANCE pairs between Primary accounts net inside it. The per-account closing balance check is lost.

1. List the Primary accounts from the Accounts page, noting the business entity of each.

2. Add each as a bank account, including term deposits and money market funds, so statements can be imported and reconciled. The exception for floating-price funds is under Money market funds.

3. Set the currency to match the Primary account. USD funds and FX accounts need multi-currency enabled.

4. Enter an opening balance as at the day before the first import, taken from a Balance statement for that date.

5. Add income accounts for Interest income and Unrealised gain or loss on investments, and an expense account for Primary fees.

Bank feeds

Macquarie and Ebury feed Xero directly. Where a feed is in place, do not also import that account's Activity CSV.

• Macquarie CMA and Accelerator. Macquarie links CMAs to Xero on request; the self-service sharing in Online Banking covers other account types. Request it through chat in Macquarie Online Banking, or through Primary. Feed lines use Macquarie's narratives, for example MACQUARIE CMA INTEREST PAID and Primary license + service fee, not the Activity CSV labels.

• FX accounts with Ebury. Set up in Ebury Online under Connectivity: choose Xero, allow access, map each Ebury currency account to a Xero bank account or let Xero create one, and choose a feed start date up to a year back. Transactions flow daily from the day after setup. The connecting user needs access to both Xero and Ebury Online; the feed is deauthorised if that Xero user is removed. Contact Primary for an Ebury Online login. Steps: Ebury's help article.

No feed exists for money market funds, term deposits or FX accounts with other providers. Use the Activity CSV for those.

Platform notes

• Xero. Add accounts under Accounting, Bank accounts, Add bank account; pick the manual option if no feed is offered. Import under Manage account, Import a statement. The CSV uses Xero's own column headers, so no mapping is needed. Foreign currency accounts need multi-currency.

• QuickBooks Online. Add accounts in the Chart of accounts with type Bank. Import under Transactions, Bank transactions, Upload from file. Use the 3-column layout: map Date, Description and Amount to the matching Primary columns and select the yyyy-mm-dd date format. Source: Intuit's CSV formatting guide.

• NetSuite. Under Settings, Reporting, set the Activity statement format to NetSuite and enter a NetSuite internal customer ID for each business entity. The file does not generate without the IDs. If a different column layout is needed, send Primary a sample.

• MYOB. MYOB imports bank statements as OFX or QIF only. Convert the Xero-format CSV with a converter such as ProperSoft, or key the lines from the Account statement PDF.

If Primary's fee is posted from the invoice, add Primary Technology Pty Ltd as a supplier.

Macquarie CMA and Accelerator

The Macquarie CMA is a bank account in the entity's name. With the Macquarie Xero feed, lines arrive through the feed and the CSV is not imported. Without it, import the Activity CSV. The Accelerator is a separate account with its own CSV and the same interest cycle.

Interest timing

Macquarie pays interest on the last business day of the month for the period since the last payment, so the INTEREST line is dated the last business day. For accrual reporting, the Account statement gives the accrued figure. For cash reporting, the INTEREST line is the only entry.

Month-end check

After import, the Account statement closing balance for the CMA should equal the ledger balance. Common differences: a transfer in flight at month end, or a payout dated later at the receiving bank than at the CMA. If the CMA could not cover a fee direct debit, Primary moved the shortfall from the Accelerator first, which appears as a REBALANCE pair the day before the debit.

Term deposits

A term deposit has three events: funding, interest at maturity (monthly for some providers), and withdrawal or rollover. Between events the CSV is empty.

Interest is simple interest at the fixed rate. Most deposits pay at maturity; some providers pay monthly, as shown on the account page. The Account statement shows the rate, interest accrued this month, interest paid this month and total unpaid interest. For accrual reporting, journal the accrued figure to interest income and accrued interest receivable, and reverse it when the INTEREST line posts at maturity. For cash reporting, the INTEREST line at maturity is the only entry.

Principal and interest leave the deposit on the maturity date and arrive in the CMA one to two business days later, so the two CSVs carry different dates for the same transfer. An early break, arranged through Primary, carries the provider's interest adjustment and posts as a reduced INTEREST line.

Money market funds

Fund accounts hold units. Every Primary record shows them in dollars at the unit price on the day, so they reconcile in dollars. Funds differ in how the return arrives: a cash distribution, a rising unit price, or both. The Performance tab shows which: Yield paid lines mean a distributing fund; growth only means an accumulating fund.

Distributions

Code INTEREST to interest income. A REINVESTMENT pair nets to zero; code both sides to the same account. On a custody-held fund the distribution arrives as a single REINVESTMENT credit with no INTEREST line; code that credit to interest income. Distributions post in the following month's CSV. To accrue in the month earned, use the Monthly statement's Yield earned figure and reverse it when the line posts. On full redemption of a State Street holding, the final distribution is paid in cash to the Macquarie CMA early the following month and appears there as INTEREST.

Revaluation reporting

For the Floating Rate Fund and the BlackRock funds, cash lines alone do not reconcile to the closing balance because the unit price moves. Turn on Revaluation reporting under Settings, then Reporting, for each of these funds held, and set a start month. The Activity CSV then carries one UNREALISED REVALUATION line per month, dated the last day of the month, equal to the change in market value of the units held. The first line is a catch-up covering all earlier months.

The line arrives through the bank statement import, so the fund's bank account carries market value without a manual journal. Xero does not allow manual journals to bank accounts. Coding:

• Floating Rate Fund. INTEREST to interest income. UNREALISED REVALUATION to unrealised gain or loss on investments, treating the fund as a variable-price investment.

• BlackRock funds. The revaluation line is the whole return. Most clients code it to interest income, as the growth of an accumulating cash fund. Some carry it as unrealised gain until redemption. Confirm the treatment with your auditor.

With Revaluation reporting off, the ledger balance for these funds drifts from the Account statement by the monthly unit price movement. The difference can be posted manually from the Account statement, which shows unit price and unit balance at open and close.

Deposits, redemptions and custody

Purchases and redemptions appear as REBALANCE lines in dollars at the unit price on the day, with the other side in the CMA or FX account CSV. The BlackRock USD Liquidity T+0 and US Treasury funds can be held through Primary's custodian instead of in the entity's name. Custody accounts reconcile the same way. BlackRock statements for them come through Primary because the register shows the custodian.

Primary values fund balances at the fund's dealing price on the statement date. A fund manager statement for the same date can differ slightly because its price is struck at a different time.

FX accounts and trades

Primary FX accounts are one named account per currency, in the entity's name with the FX provider. They earn no yield. Movements are deposits, conversions, payments and, for forwards, margin. Set up one ledger bank account per currency account and reconcile from its CSV, or from the Ebury Xero feed where the accounts are with Ebury. The feed maps one Ebury account to one Xero bank account.

Spot conversions

A conversion is a transfer from the sold-currency account to the bought-currency account. It appears as two FX TRADE lines: a debit on the sell side and a credit on the buy side, each in its own currency. Code both as a transfer between the two ledger accounts. The accounting platform calculates the realised gain or loss from its carrying rate for the sold currency and the rate implied by the two amounts; Xero, NetSuite and QuickBooks all do this with multi-currency enabled. Primary posts no gain or loss line. Primary's FX margin is included in the quoted rate, so there is no separate fee line. The Account statement shows each conversion as BUY and SELL amounts at the rate.

A payment to a third party is a PAYOUT from the buy-side account, matched to the supplier bill. A PDF receipt is available from Download receipt on the transfer's page.

Forwards

A fixed or window forward moves no money when booked. Two movements follow.

1. Margin. Initial margin, where the provider requires it, is debited from the FX account when the trade is placed and refunded at settlement or on drawdown. Typed Margin on the Transactions page; described OTHER in the Activity CSV. Code the debit and the refund to a margin held asset account; the net is zero after settlement.

2. Settlement. On the value date, or on each drawdown of a window forward, the sell amount is funded into the FX account, usually a REBALANCE from the CMA, and the conversion posts as an FX TRADE pair at the forward rate.

Between booking and settlement a forward is a commitment, not a balance, and does not appear in any CSV. The Hedges tab on the FX page lists open forwards with rate, notional and value date for period-end disclosure or revaluation.

Foreign currency balances at month end

The accounting platform revalues foreign currency bank accounts at its own month-end rate and posts the unrealised FX gain or loss. The FX risk page in Primary shows a mark-to-market view of the same movement as a cross-check; its rate may differ from the platform's.

Transfers between Primary accounts

A transfer between two Primary accounts appears twice: a debit in the source account's CSV and a credit in the destination's, both described REBALANCE with the other account named. Code both to a transfer between the two ledger accounts. A DEPOSIT on the Primary side matches a payment on the operating bank feed, and a PAYOUT matches a receipt. These are transfers, not income or expense.

Each leg is dated when its account sent or received the money, not when the transfer was requested. A redemption from the State Street Floating Rate Fund leaves the fund on the trade date and lands in the CMA three business days later. A term deposit pays out one to two business days after maturity. A leg in one month and the other in the next is money in flight at month end.

Money in flight at month end

In-flight money is included in the Overview total, and the Transfers page shows what is moving and its expected arrival. Two ways to handle it in the ledger:

1. Wait. Generate month-end CSVs a few business days after month end, once the transfer shows Completed, so both legs carry their final dates.

2. Use a clearing account. Code the debit leg to a Primary clearing account and the credit leg to the same account when it arrives. The clearing account returns to zero when nothing is in flight.

The Activity CSV includes pending transfers, so a CSV generated while money is moving shows the source line before the destination line. This is the usual cause of an Account statement closing balance not matching the ledger on the first of the month.

More than one business entity

Each Primary account belongs to one business entity, named in the CSV file name. A transfer between accounts of different entities is intercompany: code it to the intercompany loan accounts in each entity's books.

Primary's fees

Primary's fee is calculated daily on balances held in yield products, billed monthly in AUD, and shown under Billing this period on the Monthly statement with GST. It is not deducted from rates or yield. A tax invoice from Primary Technology Pty Ltd is issued each month, with a licence fee line and a service fee line, due at the end of the month of issue.

Collection depends on the billing method in the agreement.

• Direct debit, where the agreement sets it and the organisation holds a Macquarie CMA. In the first business days of the month, after the Monthly statement is published, the fee including GST is debited from the CMA. The Macquarie narrative is "Primary license + service fee" with the month and a short reference. The line is described OTHER in the Activity CSV and typed Statement fee on the Transactions page. If the CMA balance is short, the shortfall is moved from the Accelerator first; if still short, the fee is invoiced.

• Invoice is the default, and applies where there is no Macquarie CMA or the balance is short. Pay by bank transfer. Months with a fee under $10 are not invoiced.

Posting it

Enter the tax invoice as a bill from Primary Technology Pty Ltd coded to the Primary fees expense account with GST, then match the CMA debit or bank payment to the bill. Do not also code the CMA line to the expense account. Alternatively, skip the bill and code the OTHER line on the CMA to the expense account with GST. In both cases the figure to agree is the Billing this period total on the Monthly statement.

A FEE line is a charge by the bank or fund manager; code to bank fees. A TAX line is tax withheld by a provider; code to withholding tax. Neither is Primary's fee.

Month-end checklist

Run after the Monthly statement for the month is published, within the first few business days of the following month.

• Generate the Activity statement for the month and import each account's CSV into its ledger account, skipping accounts that already have a bank feed.

• Code every REBALANCE, FX TRADE, DEPOSIT and PAYOUT line as a transfer, and match the other leg.

• Code INTEREST lines to interest income and REINVESTMENT pairs to one account so they net to zero.

• Code UNREALISED REVALUATION lines to unrealised gain or loss, or interest income for the BlackRock funds.

• Enter Primary's tax invoice as a bill and match the CMA debit or your payment to it.

• Generate an Account statement for each account and agree its closing balance to the ledger.

• Agree the Monthly statement's Billing this period total to the fee you posted.

• For term deposits on accrual reporting, journal the interest accrued this month from the Account statement.

Common differences

For anything else, send support@primary.tech the account name, the month and the two figures, with the Transactions export attached.