credit card reconciliation

[bjsbrown65]

The former power church user only reconciled the credit card account thru December, 2015 which is now a closed month. In looking at the reconciliation,it shows the
statement balance as 1194.14
0 outstanding purchases
0 payments
adjusted balance 1194.14
the account 2426 (credit card balance liability account) as 1194.14
0 difference..
I guess it wasn't noticed because it balanced; however, I was attempting to reconcile 1/16 and came across. The problem is that the statement balance is incorrect. This amount is actually the sum of two outstanding purchases not paid in December but cleared as paid. It should have been listed under the uncleared transactions to be paid in January. The correct statement balance is 1669.95 a difference of 475.81. I don't have a clue how to correct; I just know something has to be done before proceeding. All help appreciated. Using 11.55.

[NeilZ]

The former power church user only reconciled the credit card account thru December, 2015 which is now a closed month. In looking at the reconciliation,it shows the
statement balance as 1194.14
0 outstanding purchases
0 payments
adjusted balance 1194.14
the account 2426 (credit card balance liability account) as 1194.14
0 difference..
I guess it wasn't noticed because it balanced; however, I was attempting to reconcile 1/16 and came across. The problem is that the statement balance is incorrect. This amount is actually the sum of two outstanding purchases not paid in December but cleared as paid. It should have been listed under the uncleared transactions to be paid in January. The correct statement balance is 1669.95 a difference of 475.81. I don't have a clue how to correct; I just know something has to be done before proceeding. All help appreciated. Using 11.55.

If I remember right ... the Credit Card reconciliation was created to allow churches to have a church credit card, and enter purchases against each ministry without having the bookkeeper try to figure what purchase went to what account when the statement finally showed up.

While it does make life much easier, it is not as critical as the bank statement balance, as that affects the balance sheet, since the actual billing statement balance is the amount that comes out of the bank account, whether the funds are already spoken for in the liability account, or if the debits are entered when the statement comes in using a standard invoice in AP.

What I would do is this. Just clear out the existing entries through the reconciliation process. Pay the current bill using any funds that are in the liability account, and if additional funds are needed, figure which bills were already added to the credit card liability and which weren't and debit that account for the rest.

Basically you want to start with a clean slate for next month. Write up a memo for record for the audit trail about why this was done.

Then from this time forward, properly enter the purchases as they come in, and reconcile the statement when it arrives.