Bank Reconciliation: Purpose, Example, Process

After adjusting all the above items, you’ll end up with the adjusted balance as per the cash book, which must match the balance as per the passbook. The bank statement and the company’s records now both show a $6,975 balance. Next, prepare the business records, which can be maintained on a software tool or manually on a spreadsheet.

Add book transactions to your bank balance

Reconciliation reports provide a summary of the reconciliation process and help to identify any errors or discrepancies. Failing to review these reports regularly can lead to errors in the reconciliation process. John Franklin is a staff accountant for the computer hardware company, ABC Widgets, who has been tasked with reconciling the company’s cash accounts for month-end. The first step involves identifying any deposits and checks that the bank has not processed at the statement date. Here are a few reasons why reconciling your bank statements is so important.

We strongly recommend performing a bank reconciliation at least on a monthly basis to ensure the accuracy of your company’s cash records. A monthly reconciliation stale dated checks helps to catch and identify any unusual transactions that might be caused by fraud or accounting errors, especially if your business uses more than one bank account. Bank reconciliation is the process of matching a company’s cash records with bank statements to identify discrepancies and ensure accurate financial records. A company prepares a bank reconciliation statement to compare the balance in its accounting records with its bank account balance. A bank reconciliation statement is a valuable internal tool that can affect tax and financial reporting and detect errors and intentional fraud.

Record To Report

1. Regular reconciliation and review of financial records can help identify and resolve errors promptly, reducing the risk of financial issues.
2. This is especially common in cases where the check is deposited at a different bank branch than the one at which your account is maintained, which can lead to the difference between the balances.
3. You’ll need to adjust the closing balance of your bank statement in order to showcase the correct amount of withdrawals or any checks issued that have not yet been presented for payment.
4. By understanding and implementing bank reconciliation, you can keep polished financial records, detect any bookkeeping discrepancies, and ensure that your recorded cash balances are precise.
5. Note that this process is exclusively for reconciliations performed by hand.

The reconciliation process also helps you identify fraud and other unauthorized cash transactions. As a result, it is critical for you to reconcile your bank account within a few days of receiving your bank statement. As a key part of the balance sheet reconciliation process, month-end bank reconciliations are performed at the end of each month how to write a grant proposal for a small business to ensure that all bank transactions for the period are accounted for. This process involves matching the bank statement with the company’s general ledger account balance, identifying discrepancies, and making necessary adjustments. The bank reconciliation process should be carried out at regular intervals, across all your bank accounts, because running a reconciliation at regular intervals ensures that your business’ records are correct. In the absence of proper bank reconciliation, the cash balances in your bank accounts could be much lower than expected, which may result in bounced checks or overdraft fees.

Understanding the Bank Reconciliation Statement

Before you reconcile your bank account, you’ll need to ensure that you’ve recorded all transactions from your business until the date of your bank statement. If you have access to online banking, you can download the bank statements when conducting a bank reconciliation at regular intervals rather than manually entering the information. When all these adjustments have been made to the books of accounts, the balance as per the cash book must match that of the passbook. If both the balances are equal, it means the bank reconciliation statement has been prepared correctly. Typically, the difference between the cash book and passbook balance arises due to the items that appear only in the passbook. So it makes sense to record these items in the cash book first in order to determine the adjusted balance of the cash book.

Therefore, an overdraft balance is treated as a negative figure on the bank reconciliation statement. If you find any bank adjustments, record them in your personal records and adjust the balance accordingly. If you’ve been charged a fee in error, contact your bank to resolve the issue. If not, you’re most likely looking at an error in your books (or a bank error, which is less likely but possible).

Adjusting Discrepancies Between Books and Bank

Interest is automatically deposited into a bank account after a certain period of time. So the company’s accountant prepares an entry increasing the cash currently shown in the financial records. After adjustments are is quickbooks self made, the book balance should equal the ending balance of the bank account. Some businesses, particularly those with high-volume financial transactions, may benefit from weekly or even daily ongoing reconciliations. A bank reconciliation statement can help you identify differences between your company’s bank and book balances. Using cloud accounting software, like Quickbooks, makes preparing a reconciliation statement easy.