Initial Bank Reconciliation

Compare your banking source information (such as your checkbook and deposit book) with your bank statements for the period that includes your conversion date. If you find transactions that have not been cleared by your bank as of this date, you will need to record the details of these transactions in your company file.

For example, in December, the month before your conversion month, you wrote a check for $1,000 and deposited the $500 you received from a customer. If these transactions have not appeared on a bank statement by 31 December, you need to record both transactions in your company file.

You need to record uncleared transactions so that the opening bank account balance is unaffected. To do this, you must post a debit and a credit of equal amounts for each transaction against the applicable bank account.

To Record Uncleared Withdrawals:

1. Go to the Banking Command Center and click Spend Money
2. In the Pay from Account field, type or select the bank account you want to reconcile
3. In the Check # field, enter a reference number for the withdrawal
4. In the Date field, type the first day of your conversion month. For example, if your conversion month is January 2017, enter 01/01/17
5. In the Amount field, type the amount of the withdrawal
6. In the Acct # field, type or select the bank account you want to reconcile. This must be the account entered in step 2 above
7. Enter details of the withdrawal in the Memo field
8. Click Record
9. Repeat from step 3 above for each uncleared withdrawal

To Record Uncleared Deposits:

1. Go to the Banking Command Center and click Receive Money
2. In the Deposit to Account field, type or select the bank account you want to reconcile
3. In the Date field, type the first day of your conversion month. For example, if your conversion month is January 2017, enter 01/01/17
4. In the Amount Received field, type the amount of the deposit
5. In the Acct # field, type or select the bank account you want to reconcile. This must be the account entered in step 2 above
6. Enter details of the deposit in the Memo field
7. Click Record
8. Repeat from step 3 for each uncleared deposit

1. Go to the Banking Command Center and click Reconcile Accounts
2. In the Account field, type or select the account you want to reconcile
3. In the New Statement Balance field, type the closing balance that appears on the statement from your bank
4. In the Bank Statement Date field, type the closing date on your bank statement and press the TAB key. Only unreconciled transactions dated on or before that date will appear in the list

You can manually reconcile your bank accounts by clicking the cleared transactions from your bank statement one by one. You can also reconcile your accounts by importing a digital bank statement file. For more details, visit this guide’s Import a Bank Statement section.

5.  For each entry on your bank statement, click the column to the left of the matching transaction to mark it for reconciliation. The selected line is highlighted, and the amounts in the Calculated Statement Balance and Out of Balance fields are updated.
6. If there are entries on the statement relating to bank charges or interest that do not appear among the transactions on the Reconcile Accounts window, you need to manually enter these transactions. Click Bank Entry and fill in the appropriate transaction details and click Record.
7. Click Reconcile. A window appears indicating whether your account is ready to be reconciled or if it is out of balance.

If your account is ready to be reconciled, you have the option of printing the Reconciliation report by clicking Print. Once the report is printed, the Reconcile Accounts window reappears. Click Reconcile again to complete the reconciliation process. If you don’t want to print the report, click Reconcile. The transactions you selected are considered cleared and won’t appear in the Reconcile Accounts window the next time you display them.

If your account is out of balance, the window will indicate the amount by which your account is out of balance and will provide you with some reasons why the account might be out of balance. To correct the out-of-balance amount, visit this guide’s Correct an Out-of-Balance Reconciliation section.