Use of the Reconciliation Wizard helps to simplify the reconciliation process by comparing opening and closing balances reported by the institution against the sum of the transactions as you mark them as reconciled. You receive instantaneous visual feedback as you mark transactions, and at the end of the process you should have a net difference of zero.
The image of the account register shown next is representative of a small but typical reconciliation period. The amounts and balances shown correspond with the other images as the Reconcile Wizard is explained in this chapter. Refer back to this image as necessary for clarification.
Take note of the Reconciled Balance: $2,614.43 and that it is the last transaction marked as reconciled. Also, take note of the transaction dated 03/25/14 and the corresponding balance of $1,369.70. You will see these same values later in the Reconcile Settings dialog.
The Reconcile Wizard is started by using the context menu in the Account List, or by clicking the
button in the transaction register. A small dialog will be shown requesting some information.
This is the closing date for the reconciliation period. This should be reported on your account statement. The date will typically be the end of the month, but may be different due to institution or locale rules. Transactions entered after this date will not appear within the Reconciliation Wizard
The opening balance should also be provided by your institution and should be equal to the closing balance of the last reconciliation period. In your account register, this will also be the account balance of the last reconciled transaction.
This amount should also be provided by you institution.
These values should be provided to you by your banking institution in paper or electronic format and it's important these values are entered correctly, otherwise balances will not zero out.
Pay special attention to the account type, the selected option for Reverse Displayed Account Balances and if you are entering a positive or negative opening and ending balance.
After clicking the Transactions marked as cleared will be shown.
button, the settings dialog will be replaced by a dialog showing all of the transactions prior and inclusive of the statement date that have not been marked as Reconciled.The next step is to go through the institution provided statement and mark every matching transaction as reconcilable by clicking on the transactions. As you click each transaction, totals will update and you should see the Difference value approach zero. The symbol in the Clr column will also change when marked as Reconciled. When the Difference is zero, the button will become active. Transactions marked as cleared will also need to be selected if they are to be reconciled.
It is not unusual to find transactions that go unmarked for reconciliation near the end of the statement period. These are transactions you have entered that were not processed through the system fast enough to show up on your statement and impact your account balance. Simply ignore these transactions and they will be captured at the start of the next statement and reconciliation cycle.
Clicking on the
button will close the dialog and will mark the selected transactions as Reconciled. Depending on the number of transactions and type of file format being used, it could take awhile for the changes to be saved. A wait message will be displayed during the change process.What do you do if you have marked all transactions as reconciled and the difference is not zero?
Not all paper and electronic statements clearly identify fees, earned interest, etc. Make sure you have captured these transactions.
Were any transactions amounts entered incorrectly?
Transactions manually marked as Reconciled during the statement period will not show in the transaction columns and are guaranteed to throw off balances. Mark the transactions as Cleared instead.
Do you have your Reconcile Settings configured appropriately for the process you are using? If in doubt, use Automatically reconcile Income and Expense Accounts.
Incorrectly entered opening and ending balances will cause errors in calculated balances.
If you need to to exit the Reconciliation Wizard before finishing, the Cleared. This makes it easy to restart the process with transaction you have already marked as reconcilable identified. You will still need to reselect those transactions when you restart the process.
button may be used. This will close the dialog and mark selected transactions as