Hi Annie:

Generally the reason you have those separate cash clearing, and sales clearing accounts is to alleviate problems with the bank reconciliation. With discounts taken on credit card charges and daily fees or just understanding how multiple payments came in or out it just makes it easier to reconcile the bank. Setting up an Interact clearing account is acceptable if it is going to make the bank rec easier to do. What usually happens is a journal entry is made to clear the clearing account and add/subtract amounts to the bank account in one entry rather than multiple payments or deposits to account for.

I hope this helps you understand the reasoning for creating clearing accounts.

I have found that Interact payments go directly to your bank for each payment. If this is your experience why not record the receipt directly to your bank as the entry will then match that on the bank statement. If you find the receipts are being bulked together for each day on your bank statement, then yes a clearing account may make the reconciliations easier as Agate has mentioned.