Maintaining precise and current financial records is crucial for any enterprise to monitor its revenue and expenditures effectively. Bank reconciliation stands out as one of the most crucial financial procedures. In this blog, you will find comprehensive information about bank account reconciliation.
What is a Bank Reconciliation?
Bank account reconciliation is a crucial financial management process that involves comparing a company’s bank transaction records with those of the bank to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the company’s records. If we define reconciliation, it can be said that this process helps to identify any discrepancies or errors that may exist, and it plays a critical role in ensuring that a company’s financial records remain up-to-date and accurate.
Bank reconciliation is the procedure of cross-checking the transactions listed in a company’s bank statement with those in its own records. This is accomplished by verifying the amounts, dates, and other particulars of each transaction. Any inconsistencies or inaccuracies are subsequently analyzed and rectified.
How to Prepare Bank Reconciliation Statement?
It is important to know how you can reconcile your bank statements accurately. Take a look at the following steps to know the process of preparing the statement of bank reconciliation:
Collecting all the required documents
It includes the bank statement, financial records of the company, and any invoices or receipts.
Matching the bank statement with the records of the company
Check each transaction on the bank statement and match it to the records of the company. It includes withdrawals, deposits, fees, and any other charges.
Recognising any discrepancies
When bookkeepers reconcile bank statements, they find discrepancies if there are any differences between the company’s records and the bank statement. They check the reason behind the discrepancy. It could be because of timing differences, wrong-entered records, or an unauthorised transaction.
Managing the company’s records
After identifying the cause of the discrepancy, the bookkeepers will make adjustments to the records of the company. It could include recording a transaction that was skipped or correcting an error when recording a transaction.
Importance of Bank Reconciliation
Basically, to ensure financial accuracy, bank account reconciliation is done. By daily reconciling bank accounts, companies can identify errors that may indicate fraudulent activity. It can help you take action to prevent further losses. There are various benefits of reconciling bank accounts. Apart from keeping the cash flow of the company in order, consider some of the benefits of a consistent reconciliation process:
- With bank account reconciliation, bookkeepers can help you identify errors (if any) and resolve them. Bookkeepers can help you spot errors, such as addition/subtraction mistakes, double payments, missed payments, fraudulent transactions, etc.
- Reviewing expenditures is the best method to get to know about suspicious activities.
- Tracking a set of numbers on a daily basis will help you know how your business is doing.
- For lodging taxes, it is important to reconcile business records, income and expenses correctly to prevent yourself from paying any penalty.
- Keep an eye on accounts receivables and accounts payable.
Who is Responsible for Preparing a Bank Reconciliation Statement?
If you are the one who is managing business books on your own, then you should prepare a statement of bank reconciliation. Otherwise, if you have a bookkeeper by your side, then they will be responsible for reconciling bank accounts on your behalf. Now, the question arises, how often to reconcile your bank accounts? Well, it completely depends on the complexity and size of the company’s operations. Generally, Melbourne bookkeepers help you reconcile your bank accounts on a monthly basis. It allows them to spot any discrepancies in a timely manner. Companies with more complex accounting systems must reconcile more frequently. Basically, it can help ensure that the records of the company are accurate.
Conclusion
The blog outlines the importance of reconciling bank accounts along with the steps involved in this process. Many business owners seek help from bookkeepers for bank account reconciliation. If you don’t have enough time to match each transaction of your business records with a bank statement, you can reach a Reliable Bookkeeping Services provider.