User Support Forum

Hello.
I am a new user of PowerChurch Plus11.5 version and I'm confused on the part of bank reconciliation of this software. Please confirm what is the amount I should supposed to enter in the "BANK STATEMENT BALANCE". If I will do the January 2013 bank reconciliation - will I enter the ending bank balance as of January 31, 2013 or the ending bank balance as of Dec 31/12? I haven't used this software before...Please advise. Thanks

ADIANA wrote:Hello.
I am a new user of PowerChurch Plus11.5 version and I'm confused on the part of bank reconciliation of this software. Please confirm what is the amount I should supposed to enter in the "BANK STATEMENT BALANCE". If I will do the January 2013 bank reconciliation - will I enter the ending bank balance as of January 31, 2013 or the ending bank balance as of Dec 31/12? I haven't used this software before...Please advise. Thanks

If you're doing the reconciliation for January, you would use the January bank statement's ending balance.

Thanks... but I don't have any entries made from previous year. We only started our "formal" accounting this year but we issued cheques from previous year but some of those cheques were cashed on January. When I'm doing my bank reconciliation - I can't balance it to zero as I don't have any transaction entries from previous year.

What did you use for a beginning balance in your checking account?

Hopefully, you used the Dec 31, 2012 statement balance. If not you will first need to correct your beginning balance to that amount.

If you entered $1000 for your beginning balance, and your 12/31/2012 statement balance was $1,200, then make this correction:
DB 01-1110-000 checking $200
CR 01-3110-000 unrestricted net assets $200
[date this transaction for 1/1/2013]

If your initial balance was greater than the 12/31/2012 statement balance, reverse the DB and CR, like this:
CR 01-1110-000 checking $200
DB 01-3110-000 unrestricted net assets $200
[date this transaction for 1/1/2013]

If the checks you issued were not on the Dec 2012 statement, you should be good to go. (In other words, if the checks were outstanding).

If you issued some checks that also appeared on the Dec balance, you will have to add them back in, like this:
DB 01-1110-000 checking $20
CR 01-3110-000 unrestricted net assets $20

You should be able to go into the reconciliation window and clear all of these numbers and reconcile to the Dec 31, 2012 balance. Once you have a zero balance there, you should be good to go.

thanks again
I have one more question.... Since I am a new user and we have no formal accounting records from previous year, I have no entries made from previous year... I issued a cheque for salary advances on Dec/12 - the employee cashed it on the same month (Dec) - but I have to record it on the current year as salary exp. the cheque was on Dec bank statement - what is the correct entry for this transaction?
Please advise?

What you should be trying to do is create a starting balance in PowerChurch that lines up with your actual bank statement.

It sounds like the salary check was issued in Dec 2012 and cashed in Dec 2012. Therefore, it should be included in your starting balance in PowerChurch.

Remember this. That you take your Dec 31, 2012 bank statement balance as your PowerChurch starting balance.

Let's say you had $1,251.00 in checking on Dec 31, 2012. You would make this entry in PowerChurch:
[Dated 1/1/2013]
DB 01-1110-000 checking $1,251.00
CR 01-3110-000 unrestricted net assets $1,251.00

That gives you a good starting point.