Bank Reconciliations

NOTE: Actionstep offers in-built Accounting to users on our Practice Pro + Accounting plan.  This article covers functionality only available with that option.

Bank reconciliations are the process where you compare transactions that have been entered into your accounting software (Actionstep) with the transaction in your bank account

In this article, you will learn how to process reconciliations for regular (non-trust) bank accounts and do the following:

• Create a bank reconciliation
• Complete a printed bank reconciliation
• Complete an electronic statement upload bank reconciliation
• Access existing bank reconciliations
• Open, unlock and delete previous bank reconciliations

Create a new bank reconciliation

Use the Global Create button, make sure it is the expanded version. Look under Accounting and choose Bank Reconciliation.

In the New Bank Reconciliation Screen, you will need to:

1. Select the bank account
2. Enter the details of the bank reconciliation (statement reference, closing date and closing balance amount)
3. Choose how to deal with deposit slips (as separate payments or grouped together)
4. Select the appropriate statement format (whether creating a Printed or Electronic reconciliation)
5. If electronic, upload a file and choose a file type
6. Click the Create button

The fields and options are explained in more detail below.

Field	Description
Bank Account	Choose the bank account that you are going to create a reconciliation for.
Statement Reference	Enter the statement reference as it appears on your bank account. If you are using an electronic bank statement, there may not be a reference to enter. Most users will therefore just enter the date of the statement.
Closing date on statement	Enter the closing date of the bank statement you are reconciling against. This is not always the date of the last transaction on the statement.
Closing balance on statement	Enter the closing amount on the bank statement. This is the amount that was in the bank account after the last transaction for the statement period is accounted for.
Deposit slips	Select if you want to combine transactions that were placed into a deposit slip together or have them appear separately.  Actionstep allows you to create Deposit Slips for any cash or check receipts. If you choose 'Group payments together', then any individual transactions that were deposited at your bank using Actionstep's deposit slips will appear as one deposit for the total amount. If you choose 'Separate payments', the transactions will appear individually in the bank reconciliation.
Printed bank statement	There are two methods to doing a bank reconciliation in Actionstep. By selecting 'Printed bank statement', you are going to compare the list of unreconciled transactions in Actionstep to a statement on paper or screen.  Using this method, you will have to manually click on each transaction in Actionstep that matches a transaction on your statement to have it 'marked' as reconciled.
Electronic statement upload	There are two methods to doing a bank reconciliation in Actionstep. By selecting 'Electronic statement upload', you will upload a file that you download from your internet banking which will provide the bank transactions used in your reconciliation.  An Electronic statement upload will be faster for you to process. Actionstep will automatically review all transactions that are in the uploaded file and reconcile any transaction that matches one in Actionstep.
Electronic file	The field only shows if you have selected 'Electronic statement upload' (above). Use the 'Choose File' button to search your computer for the file that will have been downloaded from your online banking.
File type	Choose the type of file that you are uploading.  Actionstep supports all file formats used by the majority of banks.   TIP:  CSV FILE FORMAT If your bank provides a download in a 'CSV' file format, you will not see an option in the 'File type' drop-down menu, but you can create one.  Click on the  button to be able to create a Bank reconciliation import specification.

Completing a bank reconciliation

There are two types of bank reconciliations available in Actionstep. We explain each below.

Completing a Printed bank statement reconciliation

Using this reconciliation method, Actionstep will display all the transactions in your system that are unreconciled up to the 'Statement date'. To help highlight if transactions have had the wrong date entered, Actionstep will also show transactions for the week after the 'Statement date'.

Understanding the Printed bank statement reconciliation screen

At the top of the screen will be displayed details about the reconciliation you are working on and how much your reconciliation is out by.

In the lower half of the screen will be the listed transactions including a column called 'Match' which has a series of switches in it.

Completing the Printed bank statement reconciliation 

Check each transaction as it appears in your printed bank statement and if you find it matches a transaction in Actionstep, click the switch under the 'Match" column to show that transaction is matched. 

TIP: People will normally tick off the transaction on their printed statement to show it has been matched as well.

As you match off items, you will notice that the 'Out By...' amount at the top of the screen will update. The amount will increase or decrease by the amount of the transaction you just matched.

Once you reconcile all appropriate transactions, the grey 'Out by..." will turn into a green  button. Click on this button to finalise the reconciliation.

Completing an Electronic statement upload bank reconciliation

Using this method, Actionstep will find any transactions in Actionstep that match transactions in the electronic file that you uploaded and automatically mark them as reconciled.

The reconciliation will be broken down into two views, one with the transactions in Actionstep and another with the transactions in the uploaded file.

Understanding the electronic statement upload bank reconciliation

At the top of the screen will be displayed details about the reconciliation you are working on and how much your reconciliation is out by.

In the lower half of the screen will be the listed transactions including a column called 'Match' which has a series of switches in it.

In between these two parts will be buttons that allow you to toggle between the 'Actionstep View' (showing all transactions entered into Actionstep) and the 'Bank View' (all transactions from the file that you uploaded).

Completing your reconciliation

If the transactions in Actionstep fully match the transactions in your uploaded file, you will see a green  button in the top part of the screen. Click this to finalize your bank reconciliation.

If you do not see the green  button, you will instead see a grey 'Out by...' button. You will need to manually match some remaining transactions before you can finalize the reconciliation.

Compare any unmatched transactions in the 'Actionstep View' to unmatched transaction in the 'Bank View'. Click on the switch in the 'Match' column to match a transaction.

When you do, you will be presented with the remaining, unmatched transactions from the other view. Click the switch in the 'Match' column beside the transaction that should be matched. You can select more than one transaction to match at once. 

There will be a grey 'Out by...' button in the top right of the screen. When you click the switch in the 'Match' column, it will update by how much you are out by to complete matching the transaction. Once the transaction amounts match, the 'Out by...' will turn into a 'Match' button. Click this to finish matching the transaction.

TIP:

If you find a transaction that should not have been matched you can click on the switch in the "Match" column to be able to remove the match.

 

Accessing existing bank reconciliations

To access a list of bank reconciliations go to the Banking screen, under the Accounting menu. Use the 'Options for this account' button to choose Reconciliations.

Bank reconciliations that appear in orange are still in draft.

Opening, unlocking and deleting previous bank reconciliations

To open a previous bank reconciliation, click on the number for the reconciliation to the right.

If the reconciliation is in draft, the 'Reconciliation' screen will be opened and you can make changes to it. 

If the reconciliation is not in draft, a summary of the completed reconciliation will be shown.

To Unlock a previously completed reconciliation, tick the box to the left of the line representing the reconciliation and choose Unlock from the toolbar above.

To Delete a draft reconciliation, tick the box to the left of the line representing the reconciliation and choose Delete from the toolbar above. You must unlock a bank reconciliation before you can delete it.

TIP:

You are also only able to unlock the most recent bank reconciliation for a bank account, based on the 'Statement Date.

You can only have one reconciliation per bank account in draft at a time.

If you wish to alter a previous bank reconciliation, you must unlock, then delete each reconciliation for that bank account that has a statement date after the chosen reconciliation before you can unlock and edit the one you want to.