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Bank Reconciliation

Shinjinee Sarkar
  • Updated

The bank reconciliation feature allows you to reconcile the balances between the bank accounts and BrightBooks on a date you specify. You can review and reconcile balances and un-presented lodgements, if applicable. You can perform multiple reconciliations on various dates. This topic gives you the steps to reconcile your BrightBooks and bank statements and assumes you have already recorded at least one transaction on BrightBooks. Click the links below to complete the reconciliation.

Reconciling Records 

To reconcile records, complete the following steps.

  1. Log in and click the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click Banking > Bank Reconciliation.
  3. The Bank Reconciliation page appears. To start setting up reconciliation, click [New].
  4. The New Bank Reconciliation window appears. Enter the following details.
FIELD STEP
STATEMENT DATE It displays the value of the General Ledger for that bank account up to the statement Date. You can set the statement date up to 5 years beyond the current accounting period.
BANK ACCOUNT An account with which the BrightBooks balance will be reconciled.
OPENING STATEMENT BALANCE I have the opening balance, as on the statement date you specified.
CLOSING STATEMENT BALANCE The closing balance is as of the statement date you specified.
NOTES Additional notes, if applicable.

5. To open the entered details, click Open.

6. The Bank Reconciliation page appears. The table below describes the various fields.

FIELD STEP
A Displays the name of the Bank Account along with the Statement Date.
B Displays the value of the General Ledger for that bank account up to the statement Date.
C Displays the value being entered on the New/Open Bank Reconciliation Form.
D Displays the un-presented payment which will be deducted.
E Displays the un-presented payment which will be added.
F Displays the difference between Un-presented Payments and Un-presented Receipts.
  
The transaction records are organised from the oldest in the top.
To move any particular transaction to the top, tick the tick box of the transaction. After that, if you tick any other transaction record, it is listed immediately
 below the earlier one.
If two receipts or payments values are recorded on the same date, the one with the smaller value comes up first.

 

What “Balance as per BrightBooks” means and how to verify it

The Balance as per BrightBooks shown on a bank reconciliation is the ledger balance for that bank account up to and including the statement date. It is based on posted transactions in BrightBooks, not on the bank feed itself.

What’s included:

  • All posted transactions dated on or before the statement date that affect the bank account (payments, receipts, bank charges/interest, bank journals), whether or not they were ticked in a reconciliation.

How to verify:

  • Run the Bank Account Ledger/Activity or the Trial Balance as of the statement date for that specific bank account; the result should match the Balance as per BrightBooks.
  • If it doesn’t match, check that you are using the same date, the correct bank account, and that filters (financial year, period, or status) are not hiding items.
  • If a balance looks unexpectedly high/low, review recent postings for duplicates, miscodings, or incorrect dates.
  • If advised to “resave” transactions, open each affected transaction and click Save to refresh reports; values will not change, but totals may recalculate in views.

 

7. To find out if there is a difference between the reconciled balance and BrightBooks balance, tick Select All.

8. The difference is displayed under the Difference heading.

9. If you are happy with the reconciliation, tick Bank Reconciliation Complete, and click Save.

10. The Confirmation Message window appears. Review the message and click Yes, if applicable.

11. The Bank Reconciliation page appears. The Status column shows the current status of the reconciliation.

You cannot run a new Bank Reconciliation until all previous bank reconciliations are ticked as Bank Reconciliation Complete. If you get an error/ are unable to create a new bank reconciliation, check that all previous bank reconciliations are marked as reconciled and not the previous one.

 

Editing a Completed or Incomplete Bank Reconciliation

To edit a bank reconciliation, ensure it is not marked as complete. If it is, untick the 'bank rec as complete' option to reopen it for editing. If attempting to create a new reconciliation but encountering errors indicating a previous one is incomplete, verify the status of all past reconciliations. Any reconciliation marked as 'Reconciled - No' needs to be completed by opening it and ticking 'bank reconciliation complete'. This will allow you to proceed with a new reconciliation.

Please note, it is not possible to upload a Bank Reconciliation into BrightBooks.

 

Viewing/Editing Reconciliation Record

To view/edit a specific reconciliation record, complete the following steps on the Bank Reconciliation page.

  1. On the Bank Reconciliation page, click the dropdown icon beside the row you want to view.
  2. Click Open.
  3. The Edit Bank Reconciliation window lets you edit the Statement Date, Bank Account, Opening Statement Balance, Closing Statement Balance and Notes. Click Save to open the Bank Reconciliation window. 
  4. A new feature has been introduced that allows to edit the detailed table for Bank Reconciliation. Click on the pen icon to edit the payment entered. 
  5. The page gets directed directly to the Edit Quick Payment window which lets you edit the required details.
  6. Click Save to update the details. 

Removing a Reconciliation Record 

You can remove an unreconciled record. To remove a record, complete the following steps.

  1. Log in and click the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click Banking > Bank Reconciliation.
  3. The Bank Reconciliation page appears. To remove, click the 'drop-down' icon for an unreconciled record and from the menu, click Delete.
  4. The Confirmation Message window appears. Click Yes.
  5. The Reconfirmation Message window appears. Click [Yes]. The record is removed.

 

Unreconciling Payments/Receipts from a Bank Reconciliation

If you need to unreconcile/unlock a transaction from a bank reconciliation, please follow the steps below:

  1. Log in and click the required business.
  2. The Customers page appears. Click Banking > Bank Reconciliation.
  3. Open the Bank Reconciliation the transaction(s) are locked on.
  4. Untick 'Bank Reconciliation Complete' and Untick the individual Transaction(s).
  5. Click Save.

 

 

Difference on Balance on Bank Reconciliation and Balance Sheet

If there is a discrepancy between your bank reconciliation and the balance sheet figures are showing incorrectly, below shows the few steps to consider:

  • Ensure all transactions are recorded correctly in both the general ledger and bank reconciliation.
  • When encountering discrepancies in transactions or when a transaction appears incorrectly coded, first check if the transaction exists by adjusting filters to show all rather than current transactions. If coding discrepancies persist, notably in bank feeds vs. cash book entries, be aware that changes to nominal codes post-import from the bank feed won't reflect back automatically due to system functionality. Ensure all transactions are appropriately matched and ticked off in the bank reconciliation process to prevent them from carrying over into future months. If discrepancies between reconciliation reports and the balance sheet occur, a bank revaluation journal might be required to amend balance differences, particularly for foreign currency adjustments.
  • Check for any un-presented payments or receipts that might affect the balance.
  • Verify the statement date and balances in the bank reconciliation process.
  • Additionally, you can run a nominal only validation check within Settings, as it is possible the issue is coming from Validation Errors if the postings are correct. 

Please note, validations can be resolved by either running a Nominal Only Recalculation or by contacting support to complete an enhanced Recalculation.