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In ContactsLaw, the general account reconciliation activity is used to reconcile the transactions in the system for a particular account against a bank statement, credit card statement or other independent source.
 
You can select any general account which is marked as 'reconcilable'. Typically, you would reconcile:
  • Bank accounts
  • Credit cards
  • Other loan accounts
  • ATO running balance account
  • Accounts used to post non-cash disbursements
The creditors controlled account cannot be reconciled using the general reconciliation activity; creditor transactions are separately reconciled using the creditor reconciliation activity.

Bank accounts 

In general, the reconciliation process for bank accounts is as follows:

  1. Obtain (and optionally register) the bank statement for the desired period.
  2. Enter the statement details (reference, start and end dates, closing balance, total debits and credits) into the activity.
  3. Working from the earliest transaction to the newest, match the transactions on the bank statement with the items in the grid. If the dates or amounts are wrong, amend the transactions accordingly. Mark transactions that match with a checkmark.
  4. Be sure to mark any cancelled cheques occurring within the period as reconciled; this will ensure that they are reported correctly.
  5. Review any transactions which are unmarked in the grid. If they represent unpresented payments, you can leave them unmarked and they will roll over onto the next reconciliation. Payments which remain unpresented for 15 months or longer are considered stale cheques and can be cancelled. Any other unmarked transactions may require further investigation (and possible corrective action).
  6. If any transactions on the bank statement do not appear within the grid, first try searching for them within the system - they may have been recorded on the wrong date. If they have not been entered into the system, do so retrospectively and mark the the transactions as reconciled.
  7. Verify that the reconciled balance matches the statement balance, as well as the total debits and credits. If so, you can finalise the reconciliation. Otherwise, you must rectify any errors before proceeding. You can save a draft reconciliation if you need to return to the activity later.