Common questions about the Bank Reconciliation module in EasyACCT

1. Go to Bank Reconciliation and select Bank Accounts.
2. On the Main tab, enter a Bank ID.
   • Enter the Bank Name, Bank Address and City/State/Zip fields.
   • Under Account Information, enter the G/L Account Number, Bank Account Number, Bank Routing Number and select Checking or Savings.
3. Go to the Check Printing tab.
   • Enter the information required for either pre-printed or laser MICR encoded checks
4. If using direct deposit for payroll processing or paying tax liabilities electronically, go to the Electronic Funds Transfer tab.
5. Enter information as required by the financial institution that will process the ACH files for your client's account.
6. Click Save.

If you want to reconcile a bank account, follow the instructions below to set up the bank account for reconciliation.

1. Go to Bank Reconciliation > Bank Accounts.
2.  Select the bank account you want to reconcile.
3. Go to the Reconciliation tab.
4. Use the previous period's bank reconciliation to enter the following information:
   • Prior Period Ending Date
   • Prior Period Deposits in Transit
   • Prior Period Outstanding Checks
   • Prior Period Reconciling Differences
   • Ending Balance per Bank
   • Ending Balance per Books
5. Click Save.

1. Go to Write Up > Enter Transactions.
2. Enter a reference number of 100 or higher for any checks.
   • After entering a check, you need to make a cash disbursement (CD) entry for the total amount of checks to the default bank GL account number.
   • You may enter a single cash disbursement for multiple checks. 
   • The program will automatically create a cash disbursement entry after closing the Enter Transactions screen if a default bank is selected in Company Information and the default bank has a GL account number assigned in the Bank Account Update screen.
3. Enter a reference number of 99 or lower for any journal entries.
   • Journal entries need to be balanced with both the debit and credit before closing the screen.
4. Enter the transaction date.
   • We recommend that the transaction date shares the same month as the Now Entering date.
5. If you're recording an employee payroll check or vendor payment, code the entry with an E/V in the Type field if applicable.
   • This is important if printing W-2s and 1099s.
6. If recording an employee or vendor transaction, enter the corresponding employee or vendor ID. 
7. Select the General Ledger Account.
8. Enter the dollar amount.
   • Credits should be entered as negative amounts, and debits should be entered as positive amounts.
   • Debits must equal credits.
9. Enter a Description.

It's important to follow these exact steps in order to get the transactions to import to the Bank Reconciliation module.

The transactions need to be entered in a particular order to reconcile multiple bank accounts correctly.

1. Enter the Checks associated with Bank 1.
   • Checks are numbered 100 and above.
2. Enter the Cash Disbursement (CD) entry for Bank 1.
   • This should be the next line after a group of checks.
3. Enter the Checks associated with Bank 2.
   • Checks are numbered 100 and above.
4. Enter the Cash Disbursement (CD) entry for Bank 2.
   • This should be the next line after a group of checks.
5. Enter balanced Journal Entries for each bank in consecutive lines.
   • The program imports checks listed above each CD entry in the Enter Transactions screen.
   • These checks are coded to the same GL account as the one assigned to that bank. It continues doing so until it reaches a CD entry coded to another GL account.
   • Each bank should be assigned a different GL account in the Bank Account Update screen for the program to differentiate between them.

1. Go to Write-Up > Enter Transactions and access the month to be reconciled.
2. Enter any unrecorded bank transactions on the bank statement that have not been recorded in the following fields:
   • Interest
   • Service Charges
   • Overdraft Fees
3. Go to Print Reports > Transaction Reports and select the General Ledger report to post the transactions. 
   • Entering transactions is necessary for successful bank reconciliation.

1. Go to Bank Reconciliation > Reconcile Bank Accounts and select the Bank ID to reconcile.  
2. Enter the Period Beginning and Period Ending dates for the month being reconciled.
   • Bank reconciliation is date-sensitive to the transaction. If a transaction is entered as 3/31/21 in the Now Entering date of 3/13/21, it won't be included in an import from 03/01/21–03/31/21.
3. Enter the Ending Bank Balance from the current month's bank statement.
   • Entering the book balance will create an out of balance situation. The book balance is calculated from the bank reconciliation process.   
4. Check the Import EasyACCT Transactions box.
   • The book transactions are automatically imported into the Current Book Transactions tab.
5. Select the applicable modules to import transactions from:
   • General Ledger Entries
   • Payroll Checks
   • Accounts Payable Checks
6. Leave the defaults of 100 to 9999999 in order to pick up all checks assigned to the bank account being reconciled.
   • The program looks to the Bank ID first, then to the checks assigned in the date range specified. Because of this, it's rarely necessary to restrict or change the check range unless you're reconciling a bank account that does not span the first and last dates of a single month. 
7. Click Continue.
8. Go to the Current Book Transactions tab and use the bank statement to mark any transactions that cleared the bank.
   • This copies the transaction from the Current Book Transactions tab onto the Bank Transactions tab. 
   • When finished the difference displayed at the top of the screen should be $0.00. This indicates the book transactions are reconciled with the bank. 
9. Print the Proof of Cash and Bank Reconciliation reports.

1. Go to Print Reports > Bank Accounts/Reconciliation > All Transactions and select all cleared and uncleared. 
   • Printing this report may uncover the problem causing errors. If not, it's a resource for the next steps.
2. Go to Bank Reconciliation > Reconcile Bank Accounts and enter the Bank ID.
3. Click Continue and accept the existing dates and bank balance.
   • These will be reset later. 
   • Do not delete the Previous Outstanding Transactions tab line items prior to the current month from the left side. 
4. Delete (Alt+D) each line from Bank Transactions, Previous O/S Trans (right or bank side), and Current Book Transactions (left or book side) tabs.
   • Do not delete the Previous Transactions tab line items prior to the current month on the left side.
   • The Previous Outstanding Transactions tab can retain transactions that aren't cleared on the last day of the previous month. If you're redoing the bank reconciliation for the current month, list all uncleared transactions earlier than the last day of the previous month in this tab. 
5.  Total all the outstanding checks, and then total all outstanding deposits. 
   • Keep these 2 totals aside for use later in the reset.
6. Go to Bank Reconciliation > Bank Accounts and enter the Bank ID. 
7. Go to the Bank Account Update screen and select the Reconciliation tab.
8. Delete all entries from all fields on this screen, including dates, using the F3 key.
9. Click Save.
10. Follow the steps in the previous section of this article to set up a bank account for reconciliation.

Below are the most common issues that cause incorrectly imported checks:

1. The transactions are not entered in the correct order.
   • To fix this, correct the order of the transactions in Write-Up > Enter Transactions.
2. There are transactions that have been entered with the wrong date.
   •  To fix this, correct the transaction date and re-import the book transactions into the bank reconciliation module.
3. The date range has been restricted and doesn't include the check numbers as entered in the Enter Transactions screen.
   •  To fix this, correct the transaction date and re-import the book transactions into the bank reconciliation module.
4. There is no check mark in front of a module to import checks from that module (General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable).
   • To fix this, manually delete transactions that don't belong and enter ones that didn't import.

The Bank Reconciliation module imports transactions based on the range specified in the Reconcile Bank Accounts screen. If the above solutions don't fix the problem, you may have to reconcile each bank account individually.

1. Go to Bank Reconciliation > Reconcile Bank Accounts.
2. Check the Import EasyACCT Transactions box.
3. Make sure the check number range is correct.
   • As a general rule, use ranges from 100 to 9999999.
4. Make sure all appropriate modules are selected.
   • If payroll and vendor checks are written from this account, check those boxes as well.

The Bank Reconciliation module imports all journal entries that affect the GL account assigned to the bank. Journal entries are JE, AJ, CR, and references between 1 and 99. Each journal entry has the debit or credit to the bank account GL assigned to the bank in the Bank Account Update screen.