Period-end tasks

Out of balance information -- reconciling accounts

If your account is out of balance, when you click the Reconcile button, a window will indicate the out-of-balance amount, and will provide you with a few ideas about what might have caused the problem.

Here are some more ideas:

• Did you enter the correct date in the Bank Statement Date field? (No transactions will appear until a date is entered in the field.) Only unreconciled transactions dated on or before this date will appear.

• Did you make the correct entry in the New Statement Balance field? (Be sure you entered the ending balance from your statement, not your beginning balance.)
  
  Note also that you must enter a negative amount in the New Statement Balance field if the account you are reconciling is an overdrawn asset account.

• Are all the checks and deposits that appear on your bank statement marked in the Reconcile Accounts window?
  
  Be sure the amounts on the statement are exactly the same as the amounts of the AccountEdge transactions.
  
  Check to be sure the deposit and withdrawal amounts that appear on the Total Cleared line near the bottom of the Reconcile Accounts window are the same as the total deposit and withdrawal amounts on your bank statement.

• Are all deposits accounted for? If the bank statement shows a balance that is higher than the calculated balance, it is possible that a previously cleared deposit may have been deleted and not re-entered, or it may have been re-entered but not marked as cleared.

• Have you entered your bank fees and interest? If you haven't, you can use the Bank Entry feature to do so. (Using the Bank Entry Feature)

• Did you mistakenly mark a transaction that doesn't appear on your bank statement?

• Could the bank statement calculations be incorrect?

• Is it possible that someone accidentally reconciled a transaction?
  
  Check the Last Reconciled Date in the Reconcile Accounts window. Is the date the same as the closing date of the bank statement that was last reconciled?

• Was the checking account's opening balance changed? To see the account's opening balance choose Setup > Balances > Account Opening Balances.
  
  If you suspect it may have been changed, restore a previous backup of your company file and compare the opening balance of the account in the restored file with the amount in your current file.

• Was the previous reconciliation "fudged"? That is, was the account reconciled to an incorrect amount?

Related topics

• Reconciling bank accounts
• Using the Company Data Auditor Assistant