Something most of the accounting and even personal financial systems will allow you to do is to download your statement into your computer. This has a number of advantages: there is a lot less typing in of numbers when it comes to reconciling your statement, and you can download at any time instead of waiting for the monthly or quarterly document to arrive on paper. There are, however, a number of elements over which care needs to be taken. The first of these is that the opening balance has to be entered manually and this absolutely must be right since all of the other transactions will be overlaid on top of it, and will be thrown if the initial data was wrong.

Another point to note is that once you have started downloading your statements it is advisable to do so regularly. Should you miss a month and the bank downloads the next set of figures into your system, you will find the balance is thrown again. The solution will be to enter the missing figures manually, which works but defeats the object of online banking.

You will need to edit your figures after downloading them, since they will be received as uncategorised items: the software at the bank will be able to tell your system whether money has gone out of the account or into it, but it will go no further. Categorising so that the right account code attaches to the system is up to you. Clearly this can have implications for VAT and tax records if done incorrectly.

The banks' systems are as secure as customers will have the right to expect; most of the risks attached to downloading data are at the customer's end. Most of the security you will need to put in place will be a matter of common sense: restrict people's access to the computer with your accounting system on, and password-protect it; if you have a constant connection to the internet make sure you have a firewall installed ( this is good practice regardless of where you keep your accounts); and avoid the most common mistake - log off your account manually when leaving the computer unattended.

More security breaches happen because someone has left their connection open and unattended than most people would want to believe. If you log off simply by shutting down your browser or the window in which your account details are being displayed, many online banks will remind you not to do so again in a fresh screen!