Bank Reconciliation After Allocating Payment

Newbee

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I recently allocated a payment to an invoice in the the last financial quarter to the previous i.e to the Jan - Mar 2021 financial quarter and the 'beginning balance' in the bank reconciliation area has now increased by exactly this amount. So instead of having an opening balance of $180'000.00 its showing a balance of $182'000, the $2000 representing the transaction in question.

Being new to reckon, I'm not what's the best way proceed as the notes suggest that on screen balance should reflect exactly the beginning balance in Reckon. How can I correct this such that balances match?

Cheers,

Newbie:)

Acctd4

Hi Newbie

Allocating an (existing) payment doesn't affect the bank account reconciliation however entering a new payment will, so I'm assuming this is what you mean.

There are a couple of ways to correct this but my preference is always to undo the previous Bank Reconciliation(s) & Redo them again in order to preserve reconciliation accuracy. You can do this in the Begin Reconciliation window by clicking on Undo Last Reconciliation then Continue. Repeat this process until you get to a point where the Beginning Balance as at the date shown matches the beginning balance on your applicable Statement. (TIP: You will usually need to close out of these Bank Rec windows completely & then go back into Begin Reconciliation again in between each Undo ... in order for the balance figures to properly refresh each time!)

NOTE: It's essential that your Opening & Closing Balances match with your Statements every reconciliation, not just in Reckon Accounts but in any accounting software! This is often the only way duplications, errors & omissions are identified & ensures the figures you are maintaining & reporting are accurate & reliable.

Newbee

Hi Accntd4, thanks a lot for the advice, it's greatly appreciated.

I think the payment was mistakenly processed as a debit, or the exported ABA file never made it to our bank - either way it meant that the loaded invoice was not paid until June. When it was payed, it was linked to that original bill/payment, which if correct explains the increase in the 'beginning balance' from 180 to 182K.

Thinking aloud, I'm guessing Reckon recalculates the opening balance because payment was applied after that reconciliation period. That is, the later payment prompts Reckon to recalculate the reconciled period by adding unapplied funds for the period to the opening balance of the next, is that correct, or is there something I'm missing?

Cheers,

Acctd4

Yes, it’s recognising additional funds within the reconciliation period 😬

Newbee

Thanks for clarifying. Ill be attempting this tomorrow and will let you know how I go:) Cheers again,

Newbee

Sorry Shaz,

I understand that re-doing the reconciliations is your preferred way, but in this instance for a single transaction is there any other way I can do this that will achieve the same result. If not this will involve undoing three reconciliation to fix one problem. I'm just reluctant to undo so much to reach a single impugned transaction?

Cheers,

Kris_Williams

Personally there are many reasons why my opening balance doesn’t agree as it should, but I always know why, because I may have deleted an entry and reentered it, sometimes by mistake and sometimes for a valid reason.

all I do is enter the correct balance and continue and the guilty entry is in there waiting for me to tick it - difference zero as it should be and hit done. I never undo bank recs. Mind you I know what to look for and always know that my actions will cause a difference and how to handle it, but for someone who’s new to the whole experience it is always better to see the opening balance correctly

Kris_Williams

Your explanation as to why the difference is spot on, and if I were you I would just enter the correct closing balance and tick the entry you have added, all should reconcile. Happy to help if necessary 0415940843

Newbee

Thanks Kris,

Already started on the previously suggested path but still it would have been great to know an of an alternative without creating a mountain of work that's now behind 5 recons for one transaction in Jan of this year and still uncertain if this is going to work.

Cheers,

Acctd4

@Newbee If you’ve already reconciled the transactions previously (& you keep your transactions accurate/relevant eg don’t have a heap of old, irrelevant ones still sitting there), you can tick the checkbox to show only those for the relevant reconcile period, then select Mark all & it should reconcile to zero. This allows you to re-reconcile in seconds ☺️

Newbee

Thanks,

Already de-reconciled all reconciliations for this year. Hope this works!

Cheers,

Kris_Williams

What Shaz is suggesting will help you to rereconcile - if all of your transactions are accurate, and you know they should be because apart from one they were all reconciled before. If you go to the reconcile window and enter the last date, the most recent one, then tick the box up the top to only show transactions up to that date, and then select tick all, you should immediately reconcile all of them in one go.

good luck