Unique, Transaction, and Remote IDs

These three unique identifiers help you track financial records when working with them in an external process (like Google Sheets) and Bkper.

1. Unique ID (Your Sheet’s ID)

• What it is: A unique ID that you create and add to a row (a record or transaction) in your Google Sheet or any other financial data source.
• The main job: It prevents you from recording the exact same transaction twice. Once a row with a Unique ID is recorded in Bkper, it is recognized as idempotent (meaning it cannot be saved again with that ID in the same book), which prevents duplication.
• Best use: This is most helpful if you are using an external process that already assigns IDs to your records; it ensures no duplication when those records move into Bkper.
  • To use this feature with the Bkper Add-on, label a column with id in the sheet and freeze the first row (headers).

2. Transaction ID (Bkper’s ID)

• What it is: This is the unique ID that Bkper creates and assigns to the transaction once it’s successfully saved in your book. It is a different ID than the one you provided in your Google Sheet.
• The main job: This is the primary key for managing the transaction inside Bkper. Unlike the Unique ID (which prevents duplication on initial input), the Transaction ID is used for maintenance: it allows you to search for and update an existing transaction. Crucially, once this ID is present on a row in your sheet, any future save action will update the corresponding transaction in your book.
• Where to find it: On the transaction’s edit window within Bkper.

3. Remote ID (The Link to the Outside)

• What it is: When you fetch a transaction back into your Google Sheet, the original Unique ID that you assigned is now referred to as the Remote ID on that row.
• The main job: The Remote ID is kept as a reference, linking the transaction back to the original source or external process that created the ID. If you want to update the transaction in Bkper, you must use the Transaction ID.