Reconcile a bank account

A bank reconciliation proves that your books and your bank agree. In Verasol you bring in the bank's statement for a period, and every statement line is matched to an entry in your books. A line that is not in your books yet (a bank charge, interest, a receipt nobody recorded) is booked from the line itself. When every line is matched and the difference is zero, you finalize the period: it is then locked for that account, so the reconciliation stays true.

Periods follow each other without gaps. Each one starts where the previous finalized one closed.

Start a reconciliation#

Open Banking › Bank Reconciliation. On the left, under "Which account?", each account shows how far it is reconciled: Never reconciled, To do, In progress or Up to date. Click an account to work on it.

1. Check the period: 1 From and 2 To. After a finalized period, From is fixed to the next day and the opening balance is carried forward from that reconciliation. To can be yesterday at the latest.
2. For the first reconciliation of an account, check the Opening balance against the statement.
3. Type the 3 Closing balance on the statement.
4. Choose how to bring in the statement lines:
   • 4 Upload a file: the CSV or Excel export from your online banking. Verasol recognises the columns by itself; it needs a header row with a date column and either debit and credit columns or an amount column.
   • 5 Type the lines: for a paper statement. You enter the date, description and amount of each line.
   • From the bank stays greyed out with "Connect the bank first": connecting a bank directly is not available yet.
5. Click 6 Start matching.

Lines already imported, and lines dated in a period that is already finalized, are skipped, so you can upload the same export twice without duplicates.

For a credit card, overdraft or loan, the screen asks for the Amount owed at the start and the Amount owed on the statement instead, as the bank shows them.

Match the statement lines#

The matching screen lists the statement lines on the left. On the right are the selected line and the reconciliation at the end of the period.

Each line has a status:

Click a line to see its suggestions. Verasol looks for entries in your books on the same account, in the same direction and for the same amount, from up to 60 days before the line to 15 days after it, including items still open from earlier periods. Each suggestion shows a score and why it fits: the same amount, the same day, the bank's reference or the customer's name in the line.

• 1 Accept all confident matches every line whose best suggestion scores 90% or more, in one go.
• 2 The line's status, here Suggested. Accept on the line takes its best suggestion. The tabs above the lines (All, Not booked, Suggested, Matched) show one kind at a time.
• 3 Match pairs the line with that entry.
• 4 Not this one turns a suggestion down.

Matching only pairs a line with an entry that is already in your books. Nothing new is booked.

Find the entry yourself#

When Verasol has no suggestion but the entry is in your books, click Find it in the books on the line. Search by number, name or description, or tick Same amount, click Find, and Match the right entry.

Match with a difference#

Banks often keep something back: a fee on an incoming transfer, or interest added to a deposit. The statement line is then a little different from the entry in your books. When no entry has the exact amount, Verasol suggests entries in the same direction, up to 15 days apart, that differ by a small amount (up to 50.00, or up to 2% of the line when that is more), and says by how much. Such a suggestion is never counted as confident.

1. On the suggestion, click the button that names the difference, for example "Match, 52.50 differs…".
2. Choose where the difference goes: Bank charge (when the bank paid out or credited less), Interest paid or Interest received, or Another account….
3. For a bank charge with VAT, enter the VAT inside the charge, with the bank's name and TRN.
4. Click Match and book.

Verasol books the difference to the account you chose and matches the line to both entries, in one step. The difference must be smaller than the entry itself: a larger gap is another transaction, not a fee. Booking the difference to Another account… needs the right to post journal entries.

Book a line that is not in your books#

Bank charges, interest, card settlements and receipts that nobody recorded are in the statement before they are in your books. Book them straight from the line.

1. Click Book it on the line, or click the line.
2. Choose what it is. For money out: Supplier payment, Bank charge, To own account, Interest charged, Refund to a customer, Other expense or Other account. For money in: Customer receipt, From own account, Cash deposited, Card settlement, Interest received, Refund of bank charges, Refund from a supplier, Other income or Other account.
3. Fill in what that type asks for: the customer and the invoice it pays, the other account of a transfer, or the account to book to.
4. Check the entry Verasol shows before you book it.
5. Click Book and match.

1 Bank charge, 2 the VAT the bank charged (ticked for a bank charge; untick it when the charge carries no VAT), 3 the bank's Supplier TRN, 4 Book and match.

The entry is dated on the statement line. A customer receipt or supplier payment is recorded as a payment, exactly as if you had entered it on the invoice or bill, and settles that document. A line booked as From own account or To own account is a transfer between your accounts.

What Verasol books#

A monthly account fee of AED 105.00 including VAT, booked as Bank charge from its statement line:

Interest of AED 1,783.13 credited to a deposit account, booked as Interest received:

Undo a line#

On a matched line, Unmatch takes the pairing back and leaves the entry in your books. When the entry was booked from that line, the button is Undo (storno): it reverses the entry, and the line is to be booked again. This includes a post-dated cheque cleared from the line: undoing it reverses the clearing on its own date, and the cheque waits for the bank again, offered on the line as before.

Add lines to the statement#

Add lines opens a window to type lines the import missed: the date, description, reference and the amount as the bank shows it (money in positive, money out negative). Import file adds lines from another export. If the closing balance you typed was wrong, click the pencil next to the statement closing balance in the reconciliation panel.

The reconciliation panel#

The panel on the right of the matching screen shows the reconciliation at the end of the period. It starts from the balance in your books and adjusts it for:

• Deposits in transit: money you recorded that the bank has not credited yet.
• Outstanding payments: payments and cheques you recorded that the bank has not paid yet.
• Earlier items cleared later and Booked after the period, cleared in it: timing differences across periods.

The result is what should be on the statement. The Difference with the Statement closing balance must be 0.00 before you can finalize. If the opening balance plus the lines does not give the closing balance you typed, a warning says the statement doesn't add up: check the closing balance or look for missing lines.

Finalize the period#

When every line is matched and the difference is 0.00, click Review and finalize.

• 1 The Bank reconciliation statement: the balance per bank statement, the deposits in transit and outstanding payments when there are any, the adjusted bank balance and the balance per books.
• 2 The Checks: the period follows the previous one without a gap, the statement adds up, every line is matched and the books agree with the bank. Verasol also warns about old open items and drafts waiting on the account; those warnings do not stop you.
• 3 Print / PDF gives you the statement for your file or your auditor.

Add a note if you like, and click Finalize for the period.

Click Start the next period to go on with the following month.

History and reopening#

Click History on the reconciliation pages to see every reconciliation by year, with its status, statement closing balance, book balance and lines. Continue opens one in progress, Statement opens a finalized one.

If the books change after a period was finalized, History marks it Needs review. To change a finalized period, click Reopen, enter the Reason (required) and confirm. The matches stay; the lock is lifted so entries on the account dated in that period can change again. Later finalized periods of the same account are reopened too. The reason is recorded with your name. When you are done, finalize the period again.

Related#

• Bank, cash and card accounts
• Transfers between accounts
• Payments
• Post-dated cheques
• Period closing