Reconciling the bank

The bank accounts

Finance, Banking, Accounts lists every bank account the firm keeps: what the books hold for it today, its latest statement, the day it was last reconciled and reviewed, the reconciliation being worked and how many statement lines no match clears yet. Open an account to match it.

Importing a statement

Choose Import statement, the account and the format. OFX is read by its own tags. A CSV is read through the bank's statement profile, which names once how that bank lays out its file: the delimiter, the rows before the first line of money, the columns of the date, the details, the reference, the amount (one signed column, or debits and credits apart) and the balance. Profiles are kept under Settings, Statement profiles.

Read the file shows every line as it will be kept, marks the lines already on file from an earlier statement, and names any row that could not be read. Then give the span and the opening and closing balances the bank printed. The import is refused, with the amount missing, where the opening balance and the lines do not come to the closing balance.

The account's first statement opens with a line for the balance brought forward, so the book lines from before the bank's history can be matched against it.

Matching the books to the bank

The account's matching page sets the book lines beside the statement lines. Tick the lines on each side that are the same money and choose Match once their totals agree; several lines may match one, and lines on one side that cancel each other, such as a receipt and its reversal, match together. Auto-match proposes pairs of the same amount within the firm's window of days, a reference or cheque number the bank printed scoring higher; nothing is matched until you choose Match them. A match is undone from its line's menu, with the reason.

Working a reconciliation

Choose Start reconciliation and the statement to reconcile to; the reconciliation runs to its closing day. While it is being worked its figures move with every match:

• the statement balance, plus deposits in transit, less payments not yet presented, is the adjusted bank balance;
• the books, plus the bank's lines not yet in the books, is set against it;
• the difference between them.

Each item is listed by kind: payments not yet presented, deposits in transit, bank lines not in the books, and book lines naming no bank account where the firm keeps several. Explain every bank line not in the books and every book line naming no account before preparing.

Preparing and reviewing

Prepare asks for your password again and freezes the figures and every item with its explanation. Where a difference stands, say why. A person other than the preparer then chooses Review, with their password again; the database refuses a review by the preparer. Nothing the reconciliation reads may change while it waits for review, and a review is refused if the books or the bank moved since it was prepared. Return to be worked sends it back with the reason.

A reviewed reconciliation is kept as it was reviewed, for good, with every match it relies on. Open report PDF draws it on the firm's letterhead: the account, the day, the figures, each item and its explanation, and who prepared and reviewed it.

The three way reconciliation of a client account

For a client account the reconciliation also sets the client bank control account against the sum of the matters' client ledgers on the day. It balances only where all three agree: the statement adjusted for what is in transit, the control account, and the ledgers, with nothing on the bank's side left out of the books. Post a bank charge or interest on a client account by journal and match it before the reconciliation can balance.

Closing a month

A month closes only once every bank account with money moving in it has a reviewed reconciliation to the month's end or later that balanced. The month's page says which accounts are still owed.