Reconcile First Time
  • 22 Dec 2023
  • 2 Minutes to read

Reconcile First Time


Article Summary

Prepare to reconcile your bank statement for the first time.

Overview

To reconcile bank statements you’ll need to choose a point in time to begin. For example, you may want to start with your first statement of the fiscal year, or with your current bank statement. Once you’ve picked a date, you’ll mark as reconciled any items in Procare that have previously been reconciled. Lastly, you will enter any new outstanding transactions to prepare for your first reconciliation. If you are catching up entries for the year see: Enter Previous Transactions.

Allow Extra Time

Depending on how far back you are entering detailed transactions, balancing your account the first time may take some extra time because transactions that appeared on your prior bank statements may not yet be recorded in Procare. After you enter those transactions and reconcile them, reconciling your account each month will be easier.

Reconcile Previous Items

If you have deposits, checks, or other items (like EFT transfers, etc.) you have already reconciled outside of Procare, you’ll want to mark those old transactions as reconciled before reconciling your current bank statement. See: Using Edit Register to Mark Old Items Reconciled

Outstanding Transactions

Before you reconcile your current statement you may need to enter outstanding transactions, those that have occurred but have not yet been reconciled.

  • Be sure that all expense and transfer transactions are entered in Procare. Include all Payroll Checks and Vendor Checks you’ve written, plus any ATM transactions or electronic payments / transfers recorded either as checks or Journal Entries.
    Note: Interest and bank fees, on your current statement, may be entered at the time you reconcile so may be excluded from this process.
  • If necessary, enter any deposits not yet reconciled. Normally this is done by recording the individual payments on each Family Ledger Card and then closing a Deposit Report. Another option would be to make a Journal Entry for each outstanding deposit.
  • When ready, go to Reconcile Bank Accounts to reconcile the current statement.

Enter Previous Transactions

If you are starting to use the Expenses & Ledger module after the beginning of your fiscal year, you may want to record transactions for previous months, so you can create more comprehensive reports. For example, you could enter all transactions from January 1st and forward so your records for the year are complete.

  1. Pick a date when you’d like to start.
  2. Enter all transactions as described above for Outstanding Transactions.
  3. Pick the statement you would like to reconcile first, such as January. In this example the December statement would be the ‘last’ statement and the January would be the ‘current’ statement.
  4. Reconcile Previous Items, all items already reconciled from the prior year, in our example.
  5. Enter any new transactions as needed.
  6. When ready, go to Reconcile Bank Accounts to reconcile one month at a time, until you are caught up.

Was this article helpful?