GL - Bank Reconciliation
Overview
The TASS.web ‘Bank Reconciliation’ program is used to reconcile your physical bank statement to the TASS.web Cash Book.
This program can be accessed by navigating to TASS.web Finance > General Ledger > Cash Book and selecting ‘Bank Reconciliation’ from the side menu.
When you open the program, the ‘Bank Reconciliation Search’ screen appears, allowing you to perform tasks in three search modes:
Mode 1: To start a new bank reconciliation.
Mode 2: To work on a partially completed bank reconciliation.
The data entry fields that you use depend on the search mode you are working in.
From this program, you can also:
Use the 'Bank Reconciliation Guide' to reconcile accounts and resolve imbalances between the Cash Book and the General Ledger.
Starting a New Bank Reconciliation
To start a new bank reconciliation, use the ‘Start a Bank Reconciliation' section of the 'Bank Reconciliation Search’ screen to enter and review the following details.
Fields that require further explanation | |
|---|---|
Bank Code | Use the ‘Bank Code’ drop-down list to select the bank account that you want to reconcile. |
BSB / Account Number | The ‘BSB / Account Number’ field is read-only and is determined by the bank code selected directly above. |
Opening Balance | The ‘Opening Balance’ field is read-only and automatically displays the closing balance from the last reconciled sheet for the selected bank account above. |
Statement Sheet Number | Each time a reconciliation is completed for this bank account, the ‘Statement Sheet Number’ will increment. This read-only field automatically displays the number of the current statement sheet. It is common to reconcile from bank account details provided by various online banking products. Statement sheet numbers are often not provided by these products; keeping this number in sync with the bank's physical paper-based statement number becomes irrelevant. |
Closing Balance | Use the ‘Closing Balance’ field to enter the closing balance from the bank statement that you are reconciling. |
Closing Balance Date | Use the ‘Closing Balance Date’ field to select the date up to and including which you want transactions to appear in the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen. You can use this date effectively to exclude cash book transactions beyond it if you are behind in your reconciliation process. This will reduce the number of transactions that appear in the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen, hence making it easier to tick items off against your bank statement. Select the current day to get all transactions that are in your Cash Book. |
Click on the 'GO' button at the bottom of the screen to display the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen.
Bank Reconciliation Screen
The ‘Bank Reconciliation' screen is accessed by entering data into the ‘Start a Bank Reconciliation’ fields on the ‘Bank Reconciliation Search’ screen, where you reconcile your bank statement with the TASS.web Cash Book.
The bank account details entered on the previous screen appear at the top, accompanied by a lock countdown.
When the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen is loaded, a counter will be displayed in the top-right corner. The counter displays the number of minutes and seconds left until the lock expires. Locks expire after 30 minutes. Once the lock expires, another user will be able to access the program, and any changes that you have made (since the last save) will be lost.
If you are about to run out of time, to reset the counter, click the 'Save/Hold' button and reload the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen.
In the grid section, the details displayed for each ‘Reconciliation Line Item’ include:
Grid Column | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Line | The ‘Line’ column displays the line on the physical bank statement where this transaction occurs. Unreconciled items are displayed as '999'. Once the item is reconciled, the next sequential line number will be inserted. Therefore, this is how you can tell whether an item has been reconciled. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date | The ‘Date’ column displays the date the transaction was saved to the TASS.web Cash Book. Because TASS.web support many different payment types for debtors, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the methodology used to derive this date. For further details, refer to 'Payment Type' in TASS.web Finance > Parent Accounts > Receipting > Receipts on the 'General' tab. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type | The ‘Type’ column displays the code that describes the transaction's origin. The possible types include:
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Ref | The ‘Ref’ column displays the transaction reference number (e.g., cheque number). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Description | The ‘Description’ column is either a description of the transaction type or the payee (in the case of cheque payments). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cheque / Debit | The ‘Cheque / Debit’ displays the amount of the cheque or direct debit, if applicable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Deposit / Credit | The ‘Deposit / Credit’ displays the amount of the deposit or sundry credit, if applicable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All | The ‘All’ column contains checkboxes for each line item. Selecting a line item's checkbox marks the transaction as presented for reconciliation. Tick the 'All' checkbox in the header to select all items. |
Below the line-item details columns, totals apply to the selected line items in the grid. Click the checkbox to include or exclude a line item from these totals.
Field Label | Description |
|---|---|
Out of Balance by | The ‘Out of Balance by’ field displays the outstanding amount to be reconciled. Upon successful completion of your bank reconciliation, this amount should be 0.00, indicating a balanced reconciliation against your bank statement. The 'Out of Balance by' fields are automatically updated as transactions are presented. |
Reconciled Totals | The ‘Reconciled Totals’ field displays the totals of the currently presented (reconciled) for ‘Cheques/Debits’ and ‘Deposits/Credits’ directly beneath the corresponding columns and line items. The 'Reconciled Totals' fields are automatically updated as transactions are presented. |
Once you have completed reconciling (ticking your reconciliation lines), two options are available:
Save/Hold | The ‘Save/Hold' button lets you save a partially completed bank reconciliation (for further reconciliation later on). It will become available in the list of 'Partially Completed Bank Reconciliations’ on the initial 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen next time you run the program. Only one partially completed bank reconciliation can be performed per bank account. |
Save/Close | The 'Save/Close' button is only active if all necessary transactions to produce a balanced bank reconciliation have been entered (the 'Out of Balance by' field = 0.00). Click the 'Save/Close' button to proceed to produce a reconciliation report. You will see a message stating, “Bank Reconciliation closed successfully. Click OK to run the Bank Reconciliation Report (Note - it cannot be re-run after completing subsequent reconciliations).” Example  Important! It is essential to produce the report and save it as either a hard copy or to a suitable network location, as it cannot be produced when subsequent reconciliations have been completed. The Bank Reconciliation Report can be run from TASS.web Finance > General Ledger > Cash Book > Reconciliation Report. |
Completing a Partially Completed Bank Reconciliation
Partially completed bank reconciliations appear in the top section labelled 'Partially Completed Bank Reconciliations' on the 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen, which displays when loading the Bank Reconciliation program.
A partially completed bank reconciliation is one in which the ‘Save Hold’ option was selected on the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen.
Use the actions in the 'Partially Completed Bank Reconciliations' section to:
'Complete' a partially completed bank reconciliation, or
'Split' a deposit appearing on an incomplete bank reconciliation.
Actions | Description |
|---|---|
Complete | Click on the 'Complete' link in the Action column of the 'Partially Completed Bank Reconciliations' section to display the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen. Line items that you have previously reconciled will be displayed in ascending order based on the sequence in which they were reconciled (ticked). Unreconciled items are displayed as '999'. Continue with the reconciliation of this sheet. For further details of the process, see the section 'Bank Reconciliation Screen' above. If you have entered an incorrect 'Closing Balance' or 'Closing Balance Date' when you started the reconciliation of this sheet, and the sheet is still only partially completed, you don't necessarily have to rollback all your reconciliations (ticking). You can select the bank account using the 'Start a Bank Reconciliation' section of the screen and enter a new 'Closing Balance' and/or 'Closing Balance Date'. It will prevent you from entering a 'Closing Balance Date' that is earlier than any reconciled line item dates on the partially completed sheet. |
Split | You would use the 'Split' button when a single deposit total that appears in your TASS Cash Book on a given date is split into two amounts on your bank statement. When you split a deposit total, it will create a second line in the bank reconciliation for the same date with a description of 'Manually Split'. Important! You may only split transactions of type 'BP', 'CD' and 'ED'. |
Displaying a Completed Statement Sheet
The 'Display a Completed Bank Reconciliation’ section of the ‘Bank Reconciliation Search' screen allows you to search for and display previously completed bank statement sheets.
Fields that require further explanation | |
|---|---|
Bank Code | Use the ‘Bank Code’ drop-down list to select the bank account that you want to reconcile. |
Statement Sheet Number | In the ‘Statement Sheet Number’ field, enter the number you want to view. When you select the 'Bank Code' above, the last completed 'Statement Sheet Number' will default to be displayed in this field. You can manually override this to retrieve any completed statement sheet number. |
Click on the ‘GO' button at the bottom of the screen to display the 'Bank Reconciliation Statement Sheet’ screen.
You can use the 'Prev' and 'Next' buttons to move between Statement Sheet Number.
Rollback of a Partially Completed or Completed Sheet
You can use the 'Rollback' function to undo your reconciled (ticked) items for the latest sheet for any bank account. 'Rollback' can be used for a partially completed sheet or a fully reconciled sheet.
Click on the 'Rollback' icon, and the 'Bank Reconciliation Rollback' screen will be displayed.
Select the bank account you want to roll back the last reconciliation sheet for. The program will display the last sheet number, its status (completed or partial) and statement bank details.
Click 'GO' to proceed or 'Cancel' to abort.
Important!
Take care when running this. The option is there to assist with fixing errors in bank reconciliations. It does, however, untick every item on the sheet displayed. If you run this by mistake, you will have to redo your bank reconciliation for the entire sheet.
If the error you are trying to fix is several sheets back, you can run 'Rollback' multiple times until you reach the appropriate sheet.
Adding Charge/Credits
You can add a charge or credit by selecting the ‘Add Charge/Credit’ icon at the top of the 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen.
Clicking this icon will display the ‘Bank Charge/Debit > Add Journal' screen. This is the same screen that can be accessed by navigating to TASS.web Finance > General Ledger > Cash Book > Bank Charges and Credits. Refer to the ‘Bank Charges and Credits’ article for more information.
Example
An example of how this can be effectively used is when you are reconciling a sheet and find items, such as bank charges, on your bank statement that have not been entered in TASS.web Cash Book.
In this scenario, you would:
Use the 'Save/Hold' option on the 'Bank Reconciliation' screen.
Use the 'Add Charge/Credit' option on the 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen to enter the bank charge (when you save the transaction, you will be returned to the 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen).
Use the 'Complete' link in the 'Action' column to return to your bank reconciliation to continue reconciling the sheet.
Adding a Bank Transfer
You can add a bank transfer by selecting the ‘Add Bank Transfer’ icon at the top of the 'Bank Reconciliation Search' screen.
Clicking this icon will display the ‘Bank Transfers' screen. This is the same screen that can be accessed by navigating to TASS.web Finance > General Ledger > Cash Book > Bank Transfers. Refer to the ‘Bank Transfers’ article for more information.