What reconciling is for
Reconciliation puts the bank's version of events beside yours. The goal is not to make two numbers equal by typing, but to find every entry that is in one and not the other — so that when they agree, you know why.
The bridge
Choose the Account and the As at date. The bridge shows four balances and two differences, because two very different things can be wrong:
| Difference | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Statement against the lines imported | The file is short, doubled or overlapping | Re-import the missing range. Matching will not fix this. |
| Statement against what is reconciled | The ordinary gap: lines not matched yet | Work through the queue below |
Work through the statement lines
The queue has four tabs. Bank only and Books only are the two halves of the work: what the bank did that your books do not have yet, and what your books hold that the bank has not shown yet. Reconciled and Excluded list the bank lines already dealt with.
- Under Bank only, each line shows the bank's own text on the left and what the product thinks it is on the right.
- To find one line, type in Find a line — part of the bank's description, the counterparty, the reference, or the amount (1,250). Sort puts the newest, oldest, largest or smallest first.
- Each suggestion shows the entry, its narration and why it matched. If it is right, press OK. The line shows Matching… and its buttons stay off until the list has caught up, so one press makes one match.
- If nothing matches — Nothing in the books looks like this on its own — the entry may be missing. Record the invoice, bill or payment it belongs to, and it appears here.
- If the line has nothing to do with the company, press Not ours — exclude.
- Matched a line wrongly? Press the unlink icon, Undo this match.
Reconcile one period at a time
From and As at, beside Account, set the period you are reconciling. Bank only, Books only, Reconciled and Excluded all keep to it: bank lines by the date the bank gave them, entries by their own date. Leave From empty to see every date up to As at.
Under the search, the period is spelled out, with the usual ones a press away: Statement period (the last statement imported that ends by As at), This month, Last month and All dates. A period that ends before it starts is refused: The period cannot end before it starts.
The bridge is different. It compares balances, and a balance is taken at a date, so it reads As at alone and counts everything before it. What explains the difference can therefore list an older item that a period's lists leave out.
When you choose entries or bank lines to match together, the list starts with the same period. Payments often clear a few days after they are written, so tick Include entries dated outside … (or bank lines) to see the rest.
One payment, split differently on each side
Sometimes one side splits what the other keeps whole. The bank shows one payment of 26,000, but you recorded it as 20,000 to rent and 6,000 to licence fees. Or you recorded one pay run of 1,000, and the bank paid it as 600 and 400. No single entry matches, so nothing is suggested. Match them together instead.
- The books split it: on the bank line, press Choose entries…. Tick the entries that make it up. The total under the list shows how far they come to: matches exactly when they add up to the line, or how much will stay open on it.
- The bank split it: open Books only, find the entry, and press Match to bank lines…. Tick the bank lines it arrived as.
- Press Match (or Match 2 together, and so on). Everything ticked is matched at once, or nothing is.
Each item you tick is used in full. A selection that comes to less than the other side leaves the rest of it open, to match later. A selection that comes to more is refused: untick one. Money in and money out are never matched together. Matching posts nothing to the ledger; it only records which entries the bank lines are.
In the books, not in the bank
Books only lists every entry on this bank account that no statement line has matched yet: a cheque not yet presented, a deposit not yet cleared, or a payment the bank shows differently. Each shows what is still open and the accounts on its other side. These are the same items the bridge lists under What explains the difference; Match them from the books' side opens this tab.
Find one with Find an entry: its number, narration, account name or amount. Most will clear on their own when the next statement arrives with them on it.