Bank Reconciliations: Tips and Tricks

Laura Hofstrand

Diocese of Des Moines

Set Up

“Recalculate” button

For bank accounts that have a lot of activity this is a

nice feature to activate.

Setup>>User Options>>Check box.

This will turn off the automatic recalculation

Set Up

Set Up Interest/Service Charge

Accounts

Have the system

create the Journal

entry for you for

Interest and service

charges!

Accounts>>Select

Account>>Select

Interest Income

Account and Service

Charge Account

Column 2

Reconciliation Process Process>>Bank Reconciliation>>Create New Statement

Select Bank Account

Enter Statement Ending Date

The date you enter will determine which transactions

appear on the reconciliation.

Enter bank statement ending balance along with the

service charge amount and interest income (if any)

Reconciliation Process

If at any time you realize you

have selected the wrong bank

account or the statement date is

wrong you can delete the

reconciliation by clicking the

“delete” button.

TIP: if you just can’t get the

reconciliation to balance and you

know it’s probably because you

have something marked wrong

on the reconciliation deleting the

reconciliation and starting over is

always an option!

Reconciliation Process

Clear all deposits and checks as you see them on the

bank statement.

Reconciling Checks: Using the “Clear Range” button will

allow you to clear sequential checks at one time

If you are missing a deposit or journal entry, click

“submit” and go to “deposits” or “journal entries” and

enter the item missing. You then return to your bank

reconciliation. Process>>Bank Reconciliation>>Choose

the Reconciliation

Reconciliation Process

Voided Checks:

Be sure to clear the voided check along with the associated

journal entry that the system created. Clearing these two

items should net to a $0 change on your reconciliation.

If you don’t clear these transactions, you can still reconcile

to $0, but it makes your reconciliation look messy because

you have outstanding voided transactions.

Checks voided in a different month than they were issued

should not be cleared until the month they were voided in

ConnectNow.

Trouble Shooting

Make sure that you understand all of the transactions

you see on the bank statement. If you see something

strange, contact your bank to get more information.

Returned Deposits/Checks? Make sure ConnectNow

Accounting reflects these

Automatic deposits/withdrawals? Make sure that these

have all been entered.

Trouble Shooting

Compare the following amounts to

the bank statement:

Cleared Checks

Cleared Deposits

Cleared Other (Journal Entries)

If any of the above are off, further

research those items by comparing

each item to the bank statement.

Trouble Shooting Review the Account Balance report:

Reports>>Accounts>>Account Balance

Review the account for transactions that appear incorrect:

Line items that show a debit and a credit of the same

amount (so a net of $0 for that transaction).

Still not balancing?

Export the account balance report into Microsoft Excel for

further investigation and sorting.

General Tips

If you can’t get your account to reconcile, take a break.

Come back to it later. Sometimes just stepping away for

awhile can make all the difference.

Ask another person to look at your reconciliation if you

are having difficulties reconciling.

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Still not reconciled?

Call ParishSOFT Support at 1-866-930-4774 ext. 2 and

a representative will assist you.

Finishing up Before clicking “reconcile” make sure you double check

the date you entered for the reconciliation.

If you click reconcile and later realize you put in the

wrong date, you need to contact ParishSOFT to have

them delete the reconciliation.

Be sure to print the Reconciliation Report:

(Reports>>Transactions>>Account Reconciliation

Report) and file this report with your bank statement.

This report can be printed at any time and for all

previous reconciliations.

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Questions/Comments?

Do you have any tips/tricks for reconciling bank

accounts?

What problems do you come across when reconciling

your bank accounts?