How to reconcile your bank account & Investments

Modified on Thu, 6 Mar at 11:50 AM

A Bank reconciliation should normally be done monthly for all bank accounts, including checking accounts, savings, GICs, and investments. Bank reconciliations will also allow you to 'close the month,' meaning preventing transactions affecting the bank account for the reconciled month.

Otherwise, be aware that as soon as an account is marked as a bank account, you must perform reconciliation as of the end of the fiscal year to close the financial statements.

This operation consists of comparing transactions and the balance of each bank account in the accounting software with the same information in the bank statements of the property accounts. This allows you to:

Justify discrepancies: Example: You issued a check to a supplier and they have not yet cashed it. The deduction is therefore present in the accounting software's records but not in the bank transactions. The check is therefore said to be in circulation.
Adjust transactions: Example: Add withdrawals that may have been made (e.g., bank fees) and deposits you may have received (e.g., bank transfer from a resident for payment of condo fees) to the accounting system transactions. These transactions often come without notice and are not normally known until you receive your bank statement or check it online.
Detect fraudulent or missing transactions: Although rather rare, some transactions may or may not affect your bank account. For example, a check that went through your account but does not come from your property (bank error when clearing a check that was applied to the wrong bank account) or perhaps you made a deposit to your bank account and it doesn't appear there. In both cases, by performing your bank reconciliations regularly, you can quickly follow up to correct the situation.
Confirm the cash you hold: As the bank balance and the book balance (in the accounting software) often differ, you are able to better know the funds you have available and better manage them.

TABLE DES MATIÈRES

OPENING RECONCILIATION

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Have all your bank accounts configured
Have your bank statements on hand
Make sure your bookkeeping (invoices, payments, deposits, etc.) is up to date. If elements are missing, discrepancies will prevent you from completing the reconciliation and you will not be able to perform another one for this account.
Excel license will be required

WHERE TO FIND THE FUNCTION

Go to your property portal
In the ACCOUNTING menu, click on RECONCILIATIONS

OPENING RECONCILIATION

The opening reconciliation aims to indicate the balance of an account as well as the items in circulation on the first day of operations in the accounting system.
Every bank account of a property entered into the system must have an opening reconciliation.
As soon as the first reconciliation is added, the system will automatically detect that it is the opening reconciliation.

In the new section below, add all deposits and payments in circulation by clicking the ADD A RECONCILIATION ELEMENT button as many times as necessary.

For each item, provide the following information:

1	Choose the item type from the dropdown menu
2	Select the date
3	Enter the amount debited or collected
4	Summary description or any indication allowing identification of the item in transit at the time of reconciliation (check number, payment issuer, etc.)

Click on SAVE
The items in circulation can then be reconciled in subsequent reconciliations."

REGULAR RECONCILIATION

1 - Once a bank account has an opening reconciliation, you can proceed with regular reconciliations."

2- Fill in the applicable fields before clicking on CREATE to be redirected to the reconciliation page.

1	"Bank account to be reconciled"
2	Source of transactions Attach your bank statement as an attachment
3	Statement closing date
4	Closing balance as stated on the bank statement

The reconciliation page includes the following elements:

1	Gap The goal is to ensure that the account transactions match those recorded in the software. The difference presented at the end of the reconciliation should be 0."
2	To offset or cancel multiple reconciliations, select the items from the list and then use these buttons
3	To reconcile a transaction To add interest or bank fees applied to the account
4	Excel export of bank transactions as recorded in the software, along with their status (reconciled or not)."
5	List of all bank transactions (bill payments and deposits) as recorded in the software.
6	Shows whether a transaction recorded in the software is in circulation or reconciled.
7	To reconcile a transaction or cancel it individually.
8	The bank statement uploaded in the previous step will appear here i. To replace the displayed bank statement, press MANUAL BANK STATEMENT and select the new file from your computer.

RECONCILE:

Compare your bank statement with the list of transactions on the portal
When a transaction recorded on the portal appears on the bank statement, click the icon to indicate that it has been reconciled.

If you reconcile a transaction by mistake, click the icon again to cancel the reconciliation.

You can also select transactions and then reconcile or cancel their reconciliation in bulk.

It is possible that some transactions appear on the portal but not on the bank statement. This simply means that the item was still in circulation between the time it was issued and the bank statement closing date.These items will appear in the transaction list for subsequent reconciliations.
Conversely, if transactions appear on the bank statement but not on the portal, you can investigate the nature of the transaction and add it as needed or take the necessary measures if the transaction is not valid.

CREATE AN ADJUSTMENT:

A new window will open where you must fill in the applicable fields.

CONTINUE (depending on the type of adjustment): Page to add a journal entry or an invoice.
CREATE: Directly adds the chosen adjustment type. Once the amount appears in the transaction list, reconcile it.

INTEREST :

BANK FEES

ACTIONS

You will be able to perform the following actions

1	Excel export of the bank reconciliation results once the transactions have been reconciled.
2	When the reconciliation difference is zero (0), you can finalize the bank reconciliation for this month and proceed with the next one. As long as a bank reconciliation is not completed, you will not be able to create another one for this account Additionally, if you need to make a retroactive correction, you will have to reopen and cancel all subsequent reconciliations for this account, one by one, until you reach the reconciliation that needs to be corrected. You will then need to restart the process up to the current date
3	To edit the account's closing balance according to the bank statement
4	To delete the bank reconciliation

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Do reconciliations need to be done every month?

R: Ideally, yes, but this is not a requirement imposed by the system. Since it may be impossible to reconcile certain accounts at this frequency (such as investments, GICs, and others), the system does not enforce a specific reconciliation frequency.

Q: Which accounts need to be reconciled?"

R: All 'Bank' account types must be reconciled, except for 'Bank - Other' accounts. .