# Transactions and automatic matching

How Ha Tang reads each transfer's description to find the payment or order it pays, what happens when the customer forgets the code, and how to handle unmatched money.

Every balance change the bank reports for your linked accounts is listed under **Payments → Transactions**, whether or not it paid one of your payments. This article explains how Ha Tang decides which payment or order a transfer belongs to, and what to do with the ones it cannot place.

![Transactions: two transfers without a matching payment, then transfers matched to payments](https://hatang.dev/help/img/en/payments/transactions.webp)

## What the list shows

| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Booked** | When the bank booked the transfer |
| **Description** | The transfer description as the bank reported it |
| **Code** | The payment code or your own order code found in the description |
| **Amount** | `+` for money in, `-` for money out |
| **Match** | **Matched** when it paid one of your payments; **Unmatched** otherwise |
| **Source** | How Ha Tang learned about it: `push` (the bank notified it), `reconcile` (read from the account history), `import` (a statement you imported) or `simulator` (development) |
| **Reference** | The bank's own reference number |

Filter with **Money in**, **Money out**, **Matched** and **Unmatched**.

## How a transfer is matched

When a transfer arrives, Ha Tang reads its description in this order:

1. **Clean the description.** Accents are removed, `đ` becomes `D`, everything is put in capitals and every space and punctuation mark is dropped. `ck htbf7rdgvq - cảm ơn` becomes `CKHTBF7RDGVQCAMON`.
2. **Look for a payment code.** A generated code is your prefix (`HT` by default) followed by 8 letters and digits that never include `0`, `O`, `1` or `I`, so a customer copying it by hand cannot confuse them. If the cleaned description contains the code of one of your open payments on that account, the transfer pays it.
3. **Look for your own codes.** If you gave a payment your own transfer code (for example `DH000016`), Ha Tang finds it anywhere in the description. When one code is part of another (`DH1002` and `DH10024`), the longer one wins.
4. **Look for your order code format.** If the account has **Your own order code** set (for example `DH` followed by 6 digits), Ha Tang notes the order code it finds, even when there is no payment for it, and passes it to your systems.

What follows:

- The transfer paid a payment: it is **Matched**, the payment becomes **Paid**, **Partially paid** or **Overpaid**, and your website is notified.
- No payment matched: it is **Unmatched**, with any order code that was found in **Code**. Your systems are still told about it, so a shop that works with order codes only can confirm the order.
- A transfer is never counted twice: if the bank reports the same transfer again (same reference and amount on the account), it is ignored.

> [!WARNING]
> With an order code format using **letters+digits**, the words after the code run into it once spaces are removed: `DH1001 cam on` becomes `DH1001CAMON`. Prefer **digits**, or make every code exactly as long as the maximum length.

## When the customer forgot the code

The transfer arrives **Unmatched** with an empty **Code**. To settle it:

1. Find the order: compare the amount, the time and the sender's name (shown on **Reconciliation** under **From**). Ask the customer if needed.
2. Open the payment under **Payments → Payments** and click **Mark paid**, with a note such as `CK thiếu mã, ref FT2610...`.

The payment is then **Paid**, and your website is notified as usual.

| Situation | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Customer forgot the code | **Unmatched**, no code | Find the order and **Mark paid** |
| Wrong amount | The payment is **Partially paid** or **Overpaid** | Ask for the rest, or refund the difference from your bank |
| Paid twice | Two transactions; the payment is **Overpaid** | Refund from your bank |
| Paid after the payment expired | The payment becomes **Paid** anyway | Decide whether to deliver |
| Paid into another account | Nothing: Ha Tang only sees linked accounts | Check with the customer |
| Transfer in your bank app, missing here | The bank did not report it | [Import the statement](https://hatang.dev/help/payments/link-bank-account) for that day |

## Shops that only use their own order codes

A shop with a printed QR at the counter, or a system that already has order numbers, does not need to create a payment per order. Set **Your own order code** on the account (for example prefix `DH`, 6 digits) under **Payments settings → Bank accounts → Matching and notifications**. Every transfer carrying such a code is then reported to your systems with the code found, ready to be matched to the order on your side. Your developer can generate a VietQR with the order code already in the description; see [Receive transfers without orders](https://hatang.dev/docs/guides/payments/transactions).

## Test it in development

In development, **Simulate a transfer** at the top of **Transactions** sends a transfer into the simulated account with any amount and description, without a payment, like a customer paying your own order code. Try `DH123456 thanh toan` with an order code format set, or a description with no code at all.