Bank reconciliation - speed issues

Caroline Plowman
Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
edited July 2020 in Accounts Hosted
We reconcile all our branches bank accounts on a daily basis, but only finalise the reconciliation on a monthly basis. I.e. when we have ticked the transactions for the day for each bank account we choose 'leave' and we only choose 'reconcile' at monthend.
We find that especially during the second half of the month the bank reconciliation process becomes very very slow for each branch (I guess due to the quantity of transactions that are included). How do others do this: do you recommend reconciling the account bi-monthly or even weekly? Or are there any other tips on how to make this process quicker? Thank you

Comments

  • John Graetz
    John Graetz Member Posts: 1,651 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020
    Hi Carolie.  I will ask you the obvious question - what is stopping you finalising the reconciliation each day, instead of only at the end of the month?
    John L G
  • June Hong_9508447
    June Hong_9508447 Member Posts: 7
    edited December 2018
    We reconcile daily so it is good most of the time. Maybe just try a daily or weekly basis.
  • Acctd4
    Acctd4 Accredited Partner Posts: 3,366 Reckon Accounts Hosted Expert Reckon Accounts Hosted Expert
    edited July 2020
    I always recommend entering transactions/maintaining correct balance daily but RA "Reconciling" as per actual Statements only.  This allows matching of all totals - opening, closing & debits/credits - with the source document.

    Shaz Hughes Dip(Fin) ACQ NSW, MICB

    *** Reckon Accredited Partner (AP) Bookkeeper - specialising EXCLUSIVELY in Reckon Accounts / Hosted ! ***

    * Regd BAS Agent (No: 92314 015)* ICB-Certified Bookkeeper* Snr Seasonal Tax Consultant since 2003 *

    Accounted 4 Bookkeeping Services

    Ballajura, WA

    shaz@accounted4.com.au

    https://accounted4.com.au

    (NB: Please give my post a Like or mark as Accepted Answer if I have been able to resolve your query as this helps others when seeking solutions!)
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    That's what we do but as of about halfway through the month, the speed slows down a lot and given we have ten branches, this takes a considerable amount of time to load each statement daily...
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    Yes that's exactly why we do it: do you not get any speed issues though? Maybe we just have too many bank transactions...
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    Because then we would have way too many bank reconciliation reports: this way there are 12 per year per branch (times ten branches: which is sufficient)...
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    No I mean when you open up the bank reconciliation to tick the cleared items off: the opening itself takes a long time during the second part of the month when there are a lot of transactions...
  • John Graetz
    John Graetz Member Posts: 1,651 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    So Caroline, why don't you get your bank to issue your bank statement twice a month, or even weekly.  That will provide you with the audit trail of opening and closing balances, together with debits and credits for the period, as a further matching means.  Yes, will will end up with more completed reconciliations throughout the year, but it doesn't take too much time to complete a full reconciliation.  Compare the time that this takes, to the extra and increasingly extra time that is taking for Reckon to open up an increasingly longer time each day because of the extent of your myriad of transactions that you have and the frustrations that you are currently experiencing.
    John L G
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    Thanks John, yes I can print bank statements for whichever period I choose too, that's not the problem. I just prefer to have less reports to revert back to when there is an issue but we are going to try and see whether one report for 1-15th and one for 16th to 31st resolves the problem:) hopefully a happy medium...
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    No we are not importing any qif files; just clicking reconcile in Reckon and opening up the page with bank transactions takes a few minutes per branch. It is the speed and that times ten on a daily basis which concerns me and is a waste of time.
  • Caroline Plowman
    Caroline Plowman Member Posts: 10
    edited December 2018
    So what is your solution Kevin to deal with the speed issues?