Reconciling the Operating Bank Account

This guide helps you reconcile your operating bank account reports and General Ledger account. If your account balances aren't matching up, try these steps to troubleshoot. 

Finding the Difference

1. Check for any Journal entries.
   1. Go to Financials > General Journal.
   2. Click the dropdown arrow to select the view, general.
   3. Leave the dates blank.
   4. Enter the operating bank under GL Acct.
   5. If any, add up all values posted to that GL account and see if that is the difference. Please consult with your accountant on how to address it.
      NOTE:  Journal entries posted on controlled accounts only affect the GL and not the sub-ledgers or reports.
      

2. Check if the GL Opening Balances were entered correctly and agree with the Operating Bank Journal.

   1. Go to Financials > GL Opening Balance (click Cancel first to refresh the balances). Note the date and balance for the account.

   2. Go to Reports > Banking > Operating Bank > op (Operating Bank Journal), run it as of the GL opening balance date.

   3. Confirm that the balances match. If not, please contact us and provide as much details as possible. 
      

      NOTE:  If the months have been closed, the GL Opening Balance tab will disappear. Run a General Ledger report as of Legal Accounting start date, the opening balance on that report will show what was entered as GL Opening Balance.
3. Find the first date of the imbalance. 
   1. Go to Reports > Banking > Operating Bank > op (Operating Bank Journal).
   2. Leave the Start Date blank and set the End Date, start with last year or last month.
   3. Go to Financials > Trial Balance.
   4. Select the operating bank GL and set the same End Date as the Operating Bank Journal report.
      NOTE:  Run the reports using the binary search approach; divide the period to quickly narrow down the date range to find out the first date of the imbalance. e.g. prior year, prior month, prior week then on each day.
      
      
4. Find the entry or entries in question.
   Once you've identified the date when your balances first went out of sync, your next step is to find the specific entry or entries that caused the problem.
   
   To do this, you'll need to compare the entries shown on your operating bank GL with the operating bank journal report.
   • Run a detailed General Ledger report for the Operating Bank GL account for that specific date.
     Go to Financials > General Ledger > basic (General Ledger)
     
     
   • Run the Operating Bank Journal for that specific date.
     
     Look for any entries that appear on your operating bank GL report but are missing from the other report, or vice-versa. The numbers on all your subledger report (Operating Bank Journal) should be reflected in your Operating Bank GL report as follows:
     • Positive Money In will show as a Debit.
     • Negative Money In will show as a Credit.
     • Positive Money Out will show as a Credit.
     • Negative Money Out will show as a Debit.

Fixing the Entry that Caused the Imbalance

Once the entry or entries have been identified, please consult with your accountant should the entry need to be corrected or deleted, and if it's no longer an option, to create a journal entry to account for the difference.

If all steps and suggestions in this document have been followed and there are still issues that cannot be found/resolved after finding the exact days that the balances go off, please contact us.