Sotozeo: Speeding reconciliations

Sotozeo

Signs of numbers

Within a column, Sotozeo automatically interprets every format indicating negative (or positive) numbers which we have come across.
E.g.: -5, (5), 5-, 5DR, 5CR, 5+ve, 5-ve
If you have a format that is not interpreted correctly by Sotozeo, please let us know.
Until we add such formats, you can manually amend the inputs, either on the Sotozeo screen or in an intermediate spreadsheet.
In the unlikely event of multiple formats on different lines in one entry field, the system will attempt to interpret them, and show you its interpretation before you Submit the list.
(5) on one line and -5 on another will resolve as you would want.
If the interpretation is wrong, click on the Back button in the browser, and amend the relevant number, E.g. by adding a - sign in front of it.

One subtlety is that DR/Dr/dr are interpreted as negative, unless CR/Cr/cr is also present, in which case the DR/Dr/dr values are considered positive.

When there are two columns, inputs are required and output is formatted, based on the sign convention in the two columns being the same, i.e. +200+30 matches with +150+80 (not with -150-80)
If the source Values in the two columms (whether different outputs from one system, or from different systems) have opposite sign conventions, there is a check box at the bottom of the second values column on the Input page for you to swap the signs of that column.
Do check the display on the Confirm Submission window that it is showing in the way that it will match the numbers you want.

Decimal separators

Sotozeo automatically interprets whether the decimal separator is . (period) or , (comma)
For most input lists this will work appropriately, but Sotozeo does assume that all values in a given column have the same separator.
So 23,765.787 and 34.158,458 on different lines in one column are unlikely to be interpreted as you intend (what is the meaning??)
Below each column is a selector for Decimal Separator which you can explicitly choose if the automatic interpretation is wrong.

All integers		The Sotozeo functionality to deduce whether the decimal separator is point or comma assumes that numbers with pennies/cents are more likely. So if all your value are integers, with any thousand separators, 1,000 will be interpreted as one rather than one thousand. To resolve this, either: explicitly choose the decimal separator in the box underneath the relevant column(s) avoid pasting in any thousand separators put a Decimal Separator at the end of any one of the input values E.g. if inputs are 905 and -2,139 and 1,234 then a decimal point at the end of any of them will cause them Sotozeo to treat them all as integers.
Target		If using SumToNumber, the prompt by Sotozeo does assume that the decimal separator on the input column is the same as your chosen output Number Format. Do check on the Confirmation page that the value is what you want.

Copying in from Excel

Your default settings in Excel may cause Pivot Tables to round numbers to the closest integer.
If you want two decimal places, then possible approaches are:

change the formatting on the Pivot Table (which requires redoing each time it is refreshed), or
add a column to the source data which is the starting Amount field * 100, and use that in the Pivot Table, or<\li>
if you want just one number, then double-click on the amount in the Pivot Table, and calculate the Sum of the Amount field in the expanded list.

Source Data comes as rows including Labels and Values

Some systems present you with strings like this: Settlement of invoice from ABC Ltd …………ABDFTY ……………… 3456.78DR
So long as there are no digits other than the ones making up the amount at the right, you can enter a whole column of these strings into the box labelled Values and Sotozeo will remove what is not necessary, as well as interpreting the sign.
In order to prevent the multiple periods being confused with the decimal separator, any multiple periods are ignored completely.
Which does mean that 1..234 is intepreted as an integer …
If you paste the same long string into the Labels box, it will store the first 50 characters.
So it may be feasible for you to past the same column of data into Values, and Labels, and get useful output.
If in doubt, try with a list of fewer than 20 values to see what happens, before using up any PAYG credit.

If pasting the whole line doesn't give what you need, there are two ways to help get just the Values part, for pasting into the Sotozeo Input page:

paste into Excel, with blank columns to the right, select the column, and from the ribbon choose: Data | Text to Columns, and follow the options, or
paste into Notepad++ (or Notepad). Then do a new copy from Notepad++ to Excel. It is perhaps surprising that this gives a different result than pasting directly into Excel, but sometimes it does.

Note that it is possible to enter copy two (or more columns) from your source and paste into just one of the label fields, but you can only sort by the leftmost in Labels 1.

List size

Lists entered can have up to 1000 lines if you have a subscription on the Account; otherwise 60 lines.
One-to-one matches are removed first, for free.
The Pricing (including free for up to 20 lines) applies to the numbers of lines not matched at that stage.

Large numbers

Sotozeo will accept a maximum of 15 significant figures, i.e. 1,234,567,890,123.45 or 123,456,789,012,345
So in the range -9,999,999,999,999.99 to +9,999,999,999,999.99 or -999,999,999,999,999 to +999,999,999,999,999 depending on whether your currency has cents or not.

Very precise numbers

The 15 significant digits can be 0.123456789012345
Do note that 12.05 will not match with -12.05000000000001 unless there is a non-zero Corridor
So if you have Values for input calculated in Excel, or from an accounting system which does not round, do round to a consistent number of decimal places.
Or include a Corridor of 0.001

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