7.5 Reconcile Account

Reconciliation is the process of ensuring that Beacon's Ledger and your bank statements are synchronised, enabling any discrepancies to be identified. See 7.10 Financial Approaches for a recommended alternative way of working to reconciling bank accounts.

Select Reconcile account from the Home Page or the Ledger. Select the Account to be reconciled, enter the bank Statement End Balance and select the Statement End Date.

Press the Show button.

A list of all uncleared (unreconciled) transactions for the account will be shown together with the Balance Difference between Beacon and the bank statement at the top of the list. The Balance Difference starts as the balance at the last reconciliation (or balance brought forward) minus the amount entered from the bank statement.

A positive Balance Difference means there are an excess of funds (credit transactions, i.e. deposits) in the ledger still to be cleared. Conversely, when negative then debit transactions (withdrawals) in the ledger need to be cleared.

The aim of reconciliation is to reduce the balance difference to zero and to ensure that any difference is understood (e.g. caused by timing differences).

Go through the bank statement in order and identify matching entries in the reconciliation list. Tick the Cleared checkbox for each entry that agrees until the Balance Difference is reduced to zero.

Transactions can be checked or unchecked as a batch by clicking Cleared at the top or bottom of the right hand column, followed by Select All or Clear All:

When the Balance Difference has been reduced to zero, press Reconcile Account at the bottom of the list:

After Transactions have been reconciled, the Cleared date is displayed in the Ledger and on the Transaction Record.

It is still possible to edit the Categories of cleared Transactions in the current or previous financial year. Transactions prior to the previous financial year may not be edited.

It is also possible to Un-clear a transaction that belongs to the current or previous financial year by checking Tick to Un-clear and Saving the Transaction.

Revision History

v1	2020-04-03	Graeme Bunting	First version from old User Guide
v2	2021-10-13	Graham Tigg	Clarified how the amount reduces and what it means
v3	2024-01-30	Graeme Bunting	Batch selection of Transactions and Unclearing of Transactions added. Graphics Updated.