Common Issues and Solutions

What is this page about: The most common problems Light users run into: logging in, bank sync, invoice extraction, expense categorisation, finding transactions, reconciliation, reports, permissions, and integrations, plus what to do about slow performance. Also covers edge cases like multi-currency and payment errors, duplicate invoices or bank matches, file upload limits, rate limiting, and locked or closed accounting periods.

# On this page

• Issue 1: Can't Log In to Light
• Issue 2: Data Not Syncing from Bank
• Issue 3: Invoices Not Extracting Data Correctly
• Issue 4: Expenses Missing Categories
• Issue 5: Can't Find a Transaction
• Issue 6: Reconciliation Not Matching Transactions
• Issue 7: Report Not Showing Expected Data
• Issue 8: Getting "Insufficient Permission" Errors
• Issue 9: Integration Is Not Working
• Issue 10: Performance Is Slow
• Issue 11: Multi-Currency and Payment Errors
• Issue 12: Duplicate Invoice or Bank Match Errors
• Issue 13: File Upload Rejected or Won't Attach
• Issue 14: "Rate Limit Exceeded" Errors
• Issue 15: Can't Edit or Post a Document
• Getting More Help
• Related Articles

This article covers the most common issues Light users encounter and provides straightforward solutions for each.

# Issue 1: Can't Log In to Light

Applies to: Login & Authentication

# Symptoms

• "Invalid credentials" error when logging in
• Password reset email not received
• Locked out after multiple login attempts

# Solutions

1. Wrong Credentials: Verify caps lock is off and you're entering your correct email and password

2. Reset Password:

   • Click "Forgot Password" on the login page
   • Enter your email address
   • Check your email (including spam folder) for reset link
   • Click the link and create a new password

3. Account Locked: If you've had several failed attempts in a row, wait a while and try again. A temporary block is applied after repeated failed sign-in attempts

4. Using SSO: If your company uses Single Sign-On, click Log in as usual and you'll be redirected to your company's SSO provider automatically

5. Browser Cache: Clear browser cookies and cache, then try again

Tip: Password reset links are single-use. If the link has already expired or been used, request a new one rather than reusing the old email.

# Issue 2: Data Not Syncing from Bank

Applies to: Bank Accounts

# Symptoms

• Bank transactions missing from Light
• Balance doesn't match your bank
• No new transactions for several days

# Solutions

1. Check Connection Status:

   • Go to Settings (gear icon) → Bank accounts
   • Look for red warning icons next to account names
   • Click the account to view connection status

2. Reconnect Bank Account:

   • Click the account with sync issues
   • Select Renew connection
   • Re-enter bank login credentials through secure connection
   • Complete any multi-factor authentication

3. Wait for Sync:

   • Bank feeds sync automatically on a schedule, either daily or every 12 hours depending on the feed
   • New transactions can typically take up to 24 hours to appear
   • Don't add transactions manually if waiting for sync

4. Check Bank Connection Limits:

   • Some banks limit API connections
   • Contact your bank to verify they allow Light to access accounts
   • A sync-frequency option is available when first connecting a new account, but isn't adjustable later on an existing feed

5. Provider-Specific Issues: See Bank Connection Troubleshooting

# Issue 3: Invoices Not Extracting Data Correctly

Applies to: Invoices

# Symptoms

• AI parsing missed key invoice details
• Amounts extracted incorrectly
• Vendor names not recognised

# Solutions

1. Improve Image Quality:

   • Retake photo with better lighting
   • Ensure entire invoice is visible
   • Avoid glare or shadows
   • Keep camera steady

2. Verify Invoice Format:

   • Standard invoice formats extract better than custom formats
   • Ensure text is horizontal (not angled)
   • Handwritten invoices may need manual entry

3. Manually Correct After Extraction:

   • Review and edit extracted fields before saving
   • Set defaults (such as a default ledger account) on the vendor record so future invoices from the same vendor are coded correctly

4. Adjust Extraction for Your Company:

   • Extraction quality is guided by AI instructions your company admin can edit directly
   • Go to Agents → Bill parsing agent and update the Instructions field to better match your invoice formats

# Issue 4: Expenses Missing Categories

Applies to: Expenses

# Symptoms

• Receipts uploaded but no category assigned
• Wrong category auto-assigned to expenses
• "Uncategorized" appears for multiple transactions

# Solutions

1. Assign Categories Manually:

   • Go to Expenses
   • Find transactions with missing or wrong categories
   • Click the category field
   • Select the correct category from dropdown
   • Save the transaction

2. Set Vendor Defaults:

   • Set a default ledger account on the vendor record
   • Future purchases from the same vendor will be categorised using that default

3. Check Available Categories:

   • Your company may have custom categories
   • Ensure you're selecting from your company's defined list
   • Ask your admin if categories need to be added

4. Categories Are Set Per Transaction:

   • Each transaction's category is set individually, since expenses don't currently have a bulk status or category picker

# Issue 5: Can't Find a Transaction

Applies to: Transactions

# Symptoms

• Transaction missing from ledger
• Search doesn't find the transaction
• Transaction appears on bank but not in Light

# Solutions

1. Check Filters:

   • Transactions may be filtered by date, account, or status
   • Click Filters and verify date range includes the transaction
   • Remove any filters restricting results

2. Verify Account:

   • Transaction may be in a different account than expected
   • Check all connected bank accounts
   • Look for similar amounts in different accounts

3. Check the Right Tab and Filter:

   • The reconciliation page has four tabs: Unmatched, Matched, Excluded, and All transactions
   • Date filtering is available on every tab (labelled Transactions on Unmatched, Period on Matched/All transactions)
   • Db/Cr filter only appears on the Unmatched tab; Currency filter only appears on the Matched tab
   • Status filter (Unmatched/Matched/Excluded) only appears on the All transactions tab
   • Account and Entity are selectors you choose before searching, rather than filters

4. Check If Posted:

   • Pending transactions may not appear in searches
   • Look in Pending Transactions section
   • Review reconciliation status

5. Multiple Document Posting:

   • Transaction may be in multiple places (invoice and payment)
   • Search across all document types
   • Consider filtering by document type

# Issue 6: Reconciliation Not Matching Transactions

Applies to: Reconciliation

# Symptoms

• Bank transactions won't match with accounting entries
• AI suggestions are incorrect
• Manual matches won't save

# Solutions

1. Verify Amounts Match:

   • Reconciliation requires amounts to balance
   • Add up accounting entries, which must equal the bank transaction
   • Check for bank fees or currency conversion

2. Check Dates:

   • Bank transactions may post a few business days after accounting entries
   • Adjust dates if transaction was misdated in accounting

3. Review Existing Matches:

   • Transaction may already be matched
   • Search to see if it's in a reconciliation group already
   • Unmatched transactions: delete the old match first

4. Create Supporting Documents:

   • For unmatched bank activity, create accounting documents
   • Create journal entries for bank fees
   • Create credit memos for returns
   • Then reconcile the new documents

5. Check Status:

   • Verify reconciliation period is open
   • Some statuses prevent new matches
   • Ask admin to unlock reconciliation if needed

# Issue 7: Report Not Showing Expected Data

Applies to: Reports

# Symptoms

• Report is blank or incomplete
• Data doesn't match what you expect
• Report hasn't updated recently

# Solutions

1. Check Filters and Date Range:

   • Verify report date range matches what you want
   • Remove any active filters
   • Check if filters are hiding data

2. Verify Permissions:

   • You may not have access to all data
   • Ask admin if you need access to restricted entities
   • Confirm you can view the accounts/departments in the report

3. Check Data Entry:

   • Data may not have been entered or posted
   • Verify transactions were posted (not still pending)
   • Confirm posting date matches report date range

4. Change Report View:

   • Try a different report type or format
   • Export data to CSV for manual review
   • Contact support if specific reports consistently fail

# Issue 8: Getting "Insufficient Permission" Errors

Applies to: Permissions & Roles

# Symptoms

• Can't access certain accounts or reports
• "Permission denied" messages
• Unable to approve or post transactions

# Solutions

1. Verify Your Role:

   • Go to Settings (gear icon) → Profile → Organization details
   • Check the Access roles field to see your assigned role(s)
   • Certain roles have limited permissions

2. Request Access:

   • Contact your Light administrator
   • Ask for the specific permission you need
   • Provide business justification if needed

3. Check Entity Access:

   • You may have access to your role but not your entity
   • Verify you're assigned to the company/department you need
   • Ask admin to add you to the right entity

4. Clear Browser Cache:

   • Permission changes typically take effect shortly without needing to log out, though some menu options may not visibly update until you refresh or re-login
   • Clear cookies and refresh the page if it still looks out of date

5. Ask a Colleague:

   • Ask someone with the required permission to complete the action

# Issue 9: Integration Is Not Working

Applies to: Integrations

# Symptoms

• Connected app doesn't sync
• Integration shows "disconnected" or "error"
• Data not flowing between systems

# Solutions

1. Verify Integration Is Active:

   • Go to Settings (gear icon) → Integrations
   • Look for your integration in the list
   • Check the status badge. Possible values are Setup, Active, Expired, or Inactive (green = Active, red = Expired). Stripe is an exception: it shows Connected/Disconnected instead

2. Check Credentials:

   • Many integrations require re-authentication
   • Click the integration to view status
   • Select Re-authenticate and re-enter credentials

3. Review Logs:

   • Click integration to view error logs
   • Logs show specific reasons for failures
   • Common issues (rate limits, auth failures) are usually clear

4. Check Third-Party Service:

   • Verify the connected service is operational
   • Check third-party status page for outages
   • Some integrations require services to be up

5. Reset the Connection:

   • Gmail is the only integration with a general on/off toggle
   • Every other integration (Slack, Salesforce, Stripe, and similar) is reset by disconnecting it and reconnecting from scratch, rather than through a disable and re-enable switch

# Issue 10: Performance Is Slow

Applies to: General Performance

# Symptoms

• Pages take a long time to load
• Scrolling or typing is sluggish
• Reports take many minutes to process

# Solutions

1. Check Your Internet:

   • Slow internet causes slow application
   • Test your connection speed
   • Move closer to WiFi or restart modem

2. Clear Browser Cache:

   • Accumulated cache can slow browsing
   • Clear cache from browser settings
   • Refresh the page
   • Log out and back in

3. Use Faster Browser:

   • Modern browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari) perform best
   • Avoid older browser versions
   • Update your browser to latest version

4. Close Extra Tabs:

   • Multiple Light tabs use more resources
   • Keep only necessary tabs open
   • Close other browser tabs to free memory

5. Smaller Reports:

   • Large reports with much data process slowly
   • Filter data to smaller date ranges
   • Run reports during off-peak hours
   • Contact support for persistent slow performance

# Issue 11: Multi-Currency and Payment Errors

Applies to: Multi-Currency, Payments

# Symptoms

• "Exchange rate for [currency] on [date] is not available" when paying a cross-currency invoice or running a report
• "No matching [currency] price found" when adding a line item
• "Amount must be positive" or "cannot exceed remaining balance" when registering a payment
• "Decimal precision must be null or 4" when setting a custom invoice-rate precision

# Solutions

1. Missing Exchange Rate:

   • An admin (or user with the right permission) can add a manual FX rate override at either the entity or company level
   • Otherwise, wait for the day's automatic rate to become available, or choose a reporting currency that already has rates

2. Product Not Priced in That Currency:

   • Add a price for the product in the invoice's currency before adding it as a line item

3. Overpayment or Negative Payment:

   • Enter a positive amount that's less than or equal to the invoice's outstanding balance

4. Custom Rate Precision Rejected:

   • This is controlled by an admin setting at Settings (gear icon) → Invoice settings → Unit price precision
   • The dropdown offers exactly two choices, currency default or 4 decimal places, and accepts no other values
   • This only affects how the unit price displays on invoice PDFs, not invoice totals

# Issue 12: Duplicate Invoice or Bank Match Errors

Applies to: Invoices, Bank Reconciliation

# Symptoms

• "Invoice number already exists" when creating or importing a vendor invoice
• "Already matched" or "duplicate transactions" during bank reconciliation

# Solutions

1. Duplicate Invoice Number:

   • Use a unique invoice number, or archive the original invoice if it's no longer needed

2. Bank Transaction Already Matched:

   • Open the matched transaction group on the Matched tab of the reconciliation page
   • Click Undo matching to release the transactions back to Unmatched
   • Then create the new match

# Issue 13: File Upload Rejected or Won't Attach

Applies to: File Uploads

# Symptoms

• "Unsupported file type" when uploading a receipt or document
• Company logo upload fails silently
• A PDF invoice fails during extraction with no clear reason

# Solutions

1. Check the Right Format for Where You're Uploading. Accepted formats vary by surface, so there is no single list:

   • Receipts/expenses: JPEG, PNG, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, PDF
   • Bills (accounts payable import): CSV, PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF. HEIC/HEIF is not accepted here
   • Ledger AI import: JPEG, PNG, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, PDF, CSV, plain text
   • GIF is not accepted anywhere, on any surface

2. Logo Won't Upload:

   • Logos must be under 5MB and in PNG, JPEG, or WebP format
   • The format is checked by file content rather than the file name, so renaming a file to change its extension won't help

3. PDF Fails During Extraction:

   • Password-protected or corrupted PDFs aren't explicitly caught at upload, so the failure may only show up during extraction
   • Remove any password protection and confirm the file opens normally before re-uploading

# Issue 14: "Rate Limit Exceeded" Errors

Applies to: API & Integrations

# Symptoms

• An integration or API-based tool fails with a "Rate limit exceeded" message
• Bulk operations through an API key or integration suddenly stop working

# Solutions

1. This Only Affects API/Integration Use:

   • Rate limits apply to external API keys and OAuth-connected integrations. Normal use of Light through the web app or mobile app is not affected

2. Back Off and Retry:

   • Wait a minute or two and try again, since the limit resets automatically. The error itself shows no countdown

3. Persistent Rate Limiting:

   • If an integration hits this regularly, contact support. Your company's request limit can be raised

# Issue 15: Can't Edit or Post a Document

Applies to: Accounting Documents, Approvals

# Symptoms

• "Accounting period is closed/locked" when posting
• "Cannot modify... with the current status" when editing a document
• "You are not the expected approver at this time" in an approval workflow
• Can't add an invoice to a payment batch

# Solutions

1. Accounting Period Closed or Locked:

   • An admin can go to the period's detail page and click Reopen period to unlock it, or the document can be posted to a currently open period instead

2. Editing a Posted Document:

   • Once a document moves from Draft to Posted, it can no longer be edited directly, even after its period is reopened
   • Reverse the document and recreate it with the correct information

3. Out-of-Sequence Approval:

   • Approval workflows are ordered, so the current approver in the sequence must act before it moves to the next person

4. Invoice Already in a Payment Batch:

   • Remove the invoice from its existing batch before adding it to a new one

# Getting More Help

If these solutions don't resolve your issue:

• See Contacting Light Support
• Gather relevant information (error messages, screenshots, transaction IDs)
• Contact support through your preferred channel

# Related Articles

• Bank connection troubleshooting
• Integration sync issues
• Data import errors
• Contacting Light support