Let’s discuss the business’s accounting practices and administrative load, a topic unfamiliar to many small business owners. Few transactions occur in the early stages of the firm, leading many business owners to choose a do-it-yourself (DIY) accounting method or employ an accountant to handle their taxes at the end of the year.
But as your company expands, having thorough and accurately documented accounts becomes increasingly beneficial. And it all starts with bank reconciliation. This post will review why is it important to reconcile your bank statement, bank reconciliation procedure and how small business accounting automation can benefit your business growth.
What is Bank Reconciliation?
Bank reconciliation is comparing your business books to your bank statements. It is similar to checking and balancing your personal and company bank accounts. The aim is to find any differences between the two sets of records to guarantee the accuracy of your financial picture.
Why is Bank Reconciliation Important for Small Businesses?
Regular financial reconciliations are essential for any small firm to avoid financial fraud. The bank reconciliation examples are some justifications for finishing a bank reconciliation:
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They Assist You in Monitoring Your Expenditure
During reconciliation, you find areas where your company could spend more. For instance, you might have many accounts or current subscriptions you no longer require. It’s also possible that the price of some goods or services has increased over time, in which case your business would be better off looking for a less costly solution.
As a small business, you may effortlessly monitor your finances and identify areas for savings by comparing your business activities with personal accounts.
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They Allow You to Monitor Your Accounts Receivable
When reconciling your accounts, you can identify which clients or vendors are current on their payments and who needs to catch up. Examining your accounts receivable might help you identify areas where adjustments may be necessary if cash flow is a concern.
For instance, if you need help to make ends meet, you might give your consumers too much time to pay. You may want to consider shortening the payment terms, like going from Net-60 terms—where the client has to pay within 60 days of receiving the invoice—to Net-30 terms, which require payment within 30 days.
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They Aid in Fraud Prevention
Examining your bank and financial statements every month and contrasting them with your company’s documentation makes it more straightforward for fraud detection in small businesses bank reconciliation. Workers may make personal purchases with the company credit card or utilize their expense accounts for non-business purposes.
Analyzing your bank statements also enables you to identify instances of payment fraud, such as supplier cheque manipulation.
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They Aid in Identifying Bank Mistakes
Banks are only perfect sometimes. A check register can be misread, with a decimal point placed incorrectly or an extra zero added. You can take prompt action and request that the bank fix any problems.
Challenges Faced by Small Businesses with Bank Reconciliation
An accountant’s usual problems while reconciling differences between their bookkeeping and bank statements are as follows. The following are some common difficulties encountered when performing bank reconciliations:
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Uncleared Cheques
These are issued payments that the bank still needs to process. During reconciliation, accountants have to consider these uncleared checks. Likewise, customers check that the company records might still need to pass the banking system and be adjusted.
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Voided Checks Clearing
Sometimes, the bank clears a cheque that the business invalidated. Even though this doesn’t happen often, improved accuracy depends on finding and documenting it during the reconciliation procedure.
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Returned Checks from Deposit Slips
The bank may occasionally be unable to process a payment. A stop payment order may cause this, inadequate funds in the customer’s account, mistakes like an unsigned cheque, or other factors.
Furthermore, a cheque may be returned if a business fails to deposit it until it is past due or more than six months have passed. During reconciliation errors, these returned checks must be found and considered.
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Bank Service Costs
Bank services, including account services, electronic transactions, and expedited payments, have associated costs. The exact amount of these fees is frequently known once they appear in the bank account. Therefore, the company’s books must be adjusted appropriately to reflect these costs.
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Interest Income
Interest received on bank accounts is another amount that might only be known once it appears on the bank statement. Adding this revenue to the business results in enhanced financial reporting, which is necessary for reconciliation.
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Manual Errors
Mismatches can result from human errors in entering information, such as transferring numbers or entering quantities incorrectly. Finding and fixing these mistakes is a crucial step in the reconciliation procedure.
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Transactions that are Recorded Twice
Transactions may occasionally appear twice in the bank statement or the company’s books. Ensuring that financial records are accurate requires finding and removing these duplicate entries.
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Transactions Not Recorded
The company’s records may occasionally contain business errors related to transactions like direct debits, bank charges, or automatic payments. These unrecorded transactions must be reconciled to ensure correct accounting.
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Changes in Currency Values
Changes in exchange rates might lead to disparities between recorded amounts and actual bank transactions for businesses that operate in different currencies. Accounting for these variations is an essential component of reconciliation.
How to Perform Bank Reconciliation – Step-by-Step Guide
Here, the procedure has been streamlined into five easily absorbed phases. Ideally, you should carry out these once a month.
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Gather your Documents
Your cash book and banking statement’s unadjusted final balances for the same time (often one month) are required. As a result, you should have your cash book and bank statement visible.
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Mark-Off Each Transaction
Place each side by side and go through each, ensuring that your financial records and the bank statements match up for every transaction. Make sure to cross out any transactions that don’t match in the bank reconciliation by marking them all.
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Spot and Look into Inconsistencies
It’s time to determine the reason behind the differences in the closing balances. Any discrepancies could result from unpaid checks that need to be subtracted or deposits that are in route and appear in your ledger but have yet to arrive at the bank.
Inconsistencies may also result from bank fees that must be noted in your cash book or missing receipts. Discrepancies can also result from mistakes made in your cash book.
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Update your records to reflect accurate information
After deducting all deductions from your bank statement and adding all outstanding checks, you will have a figure representing your company’s actual cash balance.
Then, proceed in the same manner on the opposite side of your cash book. Look out for items not yet listed in your cash book, such as missing receipts, interest you’ve received, bounced checks, and bank fees. You may have an unreconciled amount that needs to be reconciled after including it in your bank reconciliation.
5. Find the Outstanding Balance and Final Checks
It’s time to look for mistakes in your cash book. Early detection of errors will help you avoid making careless errors later on; it may be a simple typo. You can now verify that your updated adjusted totals line up.
Congratulations! Your bank reconciliation is now complete!
Tools to Help Reconcile Your Small Business Bank Account
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SolveXia
SolveXia is a digital work environment for finance automation. A key advantage of using SolveXia for account reconciliation automation is the significant (100x) increases in team productivity that many organizations find beneficial.
Because SolveXia can alter and enrich data, it is more expandable than other financial closure providers, making it stand out from other solutions. You generate analytics utilizing more integrated data, such as overlap with commission and rebate computations or management dashboards, rather than just your general ledger or bank data.
Key Benefits:
- By automating data handling, reporting, and reconciliation processes, SolveXia increases team productivity and frees team members to concentrate on exception analysis and investigation.
- When data processing, reporting, and reconciliation are automated, teams may concentrate on analysis and exception investigation.
- Enables complicated data matching, integration with several data sources, and data ingestion in any format.
- Quickly expands to meet the needs of growing companies with adaptable workflows.
Pros:
- Strong ability to match and consume data
- Connects to several data sources
- Notifies and warns users of deviations
- Easy user management and rapid setup
- Scalable to support expanding companies
- Workflows that are adaptable to unique requirements
- Thorough audit trails to ensure tax compliance
- Robust reporting and analytics capabilities
Cons:
- Setting up processes may take some time at first
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Xero
With Xero’s user-friendly online accounting software, you can view your cash flow management in real-time. From any location with an internet connection, finance teams can use Xero to quickly track inventory, handle invoices, monitor cash flow, and reconcile accounts.
Key Benefits:
- Monitor cash flow in real time to improve your financial management.
- Effectively handle account reconciliation, inventory, and invoicing from any location.
Pros:
- Better cash flow management in real-time
- Users are unlimited on all plans
- Detailed reporting and connection to transactions
Cons:
- It may get pricey for larger companies with more complex requirements
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Blackline
Blackline is a cloud-based financial close software system designed to help your company grow over time. It automates financial closure procedures, such as reconciliations, to ensure accuracy and compliance across several currencies and regions.
Key Benefits:
- This ensures accuracy and compliance by streamlining financial close procedures, such as reconciliations.
- Effectively manages various currencies and geographical locations.
Pros:
- Thorough handling of the financial closing
- Small business accounting automation and reconciliation
- Enhanced financial control and assistance with compliance
Cons:
- Pricing details are not easily accessible; one must speak with sales
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Bank Rec
The best option for automated bank account reconciliation is Bank Rec from Treasury Software, which uses transaction management to reconcile accounts automatically. By automatically comparing transactions and pushing forward unmatched records, Bank Rec minimizes human labor and frees teams to concentrate on analyzing and making choices.
Key Benefits:
- Enables teams to concentrate on analysis and improved decision-making by automating the reconciliation, resulting in reduced risk
- Provides adaptable, adjustable matching rules to meet particular requirements for reconciliation and increased efficiency
Pros:
- No startup costs
- Adaptable modes of payment
- Adaptable matching guidelines
Cons:
- Five users maximum under the basic plan
Conclusion
Comparing your internal financial records with the records your bank has given you is the simplest way for reconciliation in banking. This procedure is crucial because it guarantees that any anomalous transactions resulting from fraud or accounting mistakes will be easily recognized. The practice can assist you as a firm in identifying inefficiencies and managing cash flow.