To help ensure your data has been entered correctly you should reconcile your balance accounts (eg: Bank account, Business Credit Card account)
We do this by checking each payment on the computer against each line on the printed statements and / or ensuring the opening and closing balances are the same.
Setting Up
Before we can reconcile we need to make sure the opening balance for the account for the financial year is correct. You can set the opening balance by selecting: Accounts from the Top Menu and then: Nominal from the Left Menu, then find the appropriate account, click Edit and edit the Opening Balance field.
If you are entering an Opening Balance for a previous financial year you can select the Year from the Drop-Down at the top of the screen.
The Opening Balance for the start of the financial year is the Computer (or True) balance and is based on the date you marked it Paid on the computer, not the date it eventually appeared on the printed statement.
However on the Reconciliation screen it is much easier to reconcile when working by the statement date. This is normally roughly the same as the Paid date, but we do need a system to adjust this for the year opening balance.
The computer closing balance at 30 June (by Paid Date) is 505.00. However the closing balance on the printed bank statement is 725.00. You should enter the 505.00 as the next years opening balance and Evopos will automatically work out the adjusted balance for the Statement date on the Reconcile screen as follows:
Year Opening Balance: 505.00, Paid<Statement: 220.00, Adjusted Opening Bal: 725.00
The idea is that as each item appears on the account statement (eg: your printed bank statement).Reconciling confirms everything has been entered correctly and should show the correct Current (Closing) Balance.
This example is for a Bank account, however other balance accounts such as Petty Cash, Business Cards and Loan Accounts should be Reconciled as in the same way.
Reconciling
- Select Accounts from the Top Menu, then Reconcile from the Left Menu
- Confirm the Account you want to reconcile (The default criteria is Un-Reconciled records)
- Get the appropriate statement(s) for that account (normally supplied by the Bank or Card Company).
- Make sure the Reconciled Balance (at the bottom right of the screen) is the same as your printed statement at the last ticked item. If it is not see the reference manual or Help for details on how to set this up
- Check the first item that is not ticked on the Printed statement and try to find it on the Reconcile screen. If it is the next item you can check the amount is the same and if OK tick it on screen and tick it with a pen on the printed statement. It is normally best to get the screen in the same date order as the printed statement. You can do this by changing the Statement Date on the screen to match the date on the statement.
- As a double check compare the new Reconciled Balance (at the bottom right of the screen) with the running balance on the printed statement. This is good for picking out errors when the amount are very similar but are not the same (eg: Transposed numbers)
- When you are sure this is correct repeat for the next line
- If there is an item on the printed statement but not on the screen check that you have entered it on the computer and it was paid from the correct account
- If there is an item on the screen but not on the printed statement check that the entry is not duplicated. Sometimes people do not pay in cheques for a while, if this is the case you can set the statement date forward to make reconciling other entries easier
- When you have finished a session select Save
Tip 1 – If you enter a payment into a previous year you will need to manually adjust the opening balance by that amount
Tip 2 – If the amount on the computer is different to the Statement and you decide the statement is correct you can enter Purchase Transaction for the difference, pay, and then in Reconcile select both items
Tip 3 - Keep an eye on the Current Balances (in the Accounts summary screen under key information) as this is your true balance and more up to date than your reconciled balance. For example the Bank balance should reduce when we pay purchases and increase when making a Banking.