Flint Calvary wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 9:21 am
Our previous Treasurer **never** balanced (reconciled) our General Fund account with a single bank statement. Not one! How do I begin this process? How far back do I go?
I have the nagging feeling it would be simpler to zero out all the accounts at the end of the year and just start over from scratch.
DON'T zero out any accounts, that would cause more issues that anything else. You can follow the following steps using the last statement received, or start with the earliest bank statement you have, and do one at a time. If the following steps do not result in a
To Balance amount of 0.00, then you may need to do each one separately. Read through the steps at first, then decide if you want to start at the last statement received, or the one from January.
1. DO this, do a Powerchurch backup of the Accounting files. Head to Utilities, Backup, and on the page that lists all the types of files that can be backed up, select ACCOUNTING. Once that is done.
2. Head into Accounting -> Funds Accounting and select
Reconcile Bank/Credit Card accounts. The Reconcile window will pop up. It should show the default checking account number of 1110 in the 'account to reconcile' box. If you use a different account number for the checking use the magnifying glass icon to bring up the Chart of Accounts and select that account.
3. Use the last bank statement you received. I'm going to assume that its July 31, 2023. Enter that date in the "Statement Date"
4. Enter the ENDING BALANCE as shown in the statement, leave everything else the same. Then click on NEXT
5. The next window will show you deposits and other additions at the top, with checks and other subtractions (any EFT transfers and so on) at the bottom.
6. Start checking off the deposits for all dates prior to the 1st of July. I'm going to assume here that they have all been processed before the start of the month. Then verify against the bank statement deposits with what Powerchurch shows for July's deposits. Remember the last July deposit may not have been processed in July.
7. Once you finish with the deposits, do the same with the checks. Hopefully you do not have any checks prior to July that have not cleared. Then when you reach checks listed on the July statement, verify them and only check off the ones that show on the statement. Again, you will probably have checks that have not cleared yet, so only check those that appear on the July statement.
8. Once all that is done, you should show a 'to balance' of 0.00.
If so, then you're done, and you can click Finish, as you're done. If you have a positive or negative amount in the 'to balance', then you can scroll through the deposits or the checks to see if there's one that matches that number. This means that something did not clear the bank yet as far as appearing on a statement. If you can't find that, then it may be a good idea to restore the backup you made in step one. Then start again using the January statement. Do everything up to step 8. If you don't have a 'to balance' of 0.00 there, then just select FINISH. Proceed to do the reconcile with the February statement. In this case, while you don't have a 0.00 'to balance' you have 6 more months of statements that will certainly get the system in balance.
Hope this helps.