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Common errors and how to avoid them

Reconciling a bank statement is an important step to ensuring the accuracy of your financial data. To reconcile bank statements, carefully match transactions on the bank statement to the transactions in your accounting records. With QuickBooks, you can easily quickbooks online reviews pros and cons reconcile bank accounts to ensure that the dollars you record are consistent with the dollars reported by the bank. When you have your bank statement in hand, you’ll compare each transaction with the ones entered into QuickBooks. If everything matches, you know your accounts are balanced and accurate.

You may need to go back to previous months to locate the issue. To remote bookkeeping services reconcile means to “make one view or belief compatible with another.” In accounting, that means making your account balances equal to one another. More specifically, a bank reconciliation means balancing your bank statements with your bookkeeping. You should perform monthly bank reconciliations so you can better manage your cash flow and understand your true cash position. Read on to learn about bank reconciliations, use cases, and common errors to look for.

(If you’re in the middle of reconciling, stay on the page you’re on and skip to step 4). Reconcile bank statements in minutes with QuickBooks. For a more hands-off reconciliation experience, QuickBooks can help. We offer reconciliation reports, discrepancy identification, and live accountants to work with for ease and confidence when closing your books.

Beginning cash balances

It’s important to perform a bank reconciliation periodically to identify fraudulent activities or bookkeeping and accounting errors. This way, you can ensure your business rent receipt template is in solid standing and never be caught off-guard. If not, you’re most likely looking at an error in your books (or a bank error, which is less likely but possible). If you suspect an error in your books, see some common bank reconciliation errors below.

Save time on monthly reconciliations with QuickBooks

We recommend reconciling your checking, savings, and credit card accounts every month. The information on your bank statement is the bank’s record of all transactions impacting the company’s bank account during the past month. Compare the ending balance of your accounting records to your bank statement to see if both cash balances match. We recommend reconciling your current, savings, and credit card accounts every month. Check out our complete reconciliation guide to understand the full workflow. Connect QuickBooks to your bank, credit cards, PayPal, Square, and more1 and we’ll import your transactions for you.

1. Now, simply compare the transactions on your statement with what’s in QuickBooks.
2. If you suspect an error in your books, see some common bank reconciliation errors below.
3. You need to review your accounts in QuickBooks to make sure they match your bank and credit card statements.
4. You can also make small edits if needed right within this window.
5. If you’re reconciling an account for the first time, review the opening balance.

The bottom of the screen contains a running total of items you have checked off, and thus have been reconciled. This is useful for comparing the totals in your books to the totals on your bank statement. To complete the reconciliation, make sure the difference shown is zero. If your beginning balance in your accounting software isn’t correct, the bank account won’t reconcile. This can happen if you’re reconciling an account for the first time or if it wasn’t properly reconciled last month.

Transposition error

Since all of your transaction info comes directly from your bank, reconciling should be a breeze. You can see transactions that have come directly from your bank feed, and transactions that you’ve manually added in QuickBooks. QuickBooks has built-in compatibility with time-tracking  and payroll.