reconciling several months of bank statements

gbs30115 · Post by **gbs30115** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:07 pm

I having trouble with my bank reconciliation.
I am getting ready for our quarterly meeting and my bank account totals are not showing on my budget reports. I did not reconciled my bank statement at the end of each month, and now I am not sure how to reconcile three months at one time. There are amounts for April that show up on the bank reconcilation screen because I have run payroll for 3 weeks in April.
Can anyone help me with this? I have learned this program by trail and error, there has not been anyone to help train me on this program, so I am really lost here.

Thank You!
Wendy

Post by **Zorak** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:14 am

The best way to take care of this is to do each month's reconciliation one at a time. If you come up with a difference, it is much easier to figure out with only one month's transactions because you know specifically where to look for the problem. If you reconcile multiple months at a time, you don't have that certainty.

gbs30115 · Post by **gbs30115** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:29 pm

I know that I should have reconciled each month and plan to from now on but what I need to know is how can I fix this now.
Is there any way to reconcile sereval month at one time? If the balance doesn't match, what does that do the following month, does it show up any where on the reports?
I hate to restart the accounting over again because it takes everything out and have to start over reposting everything from Jan. 2008 until now but I think that is the only way make my reports correct.
Any suggestions

Eden Whitehead · Post by **Eden Whitehead** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:37 pm

gbs30115 wrote:I know that I should have reconciled each month and plan to from now on but what I need to know is how can I fix this now.

I believe that Zorak was saying that the way to fix your problem *now* is to reconcile one month at a time -- now. For example (assuming you have all of your bank statements at hand), after you click on Accounting -> Fund Accounting -> Reconcile Bank Accounts you would enter the closing date on the January statement and the ending balance as shown on the statement. On the options, Sort as you prefer; in general I think it is better to include only Unreconciled data (not All data; but that's my personal preference). Then go through the process of reconciling just that statement. If the statement balances, then go through the same procedure for February. When you reach a month when the statement doesn't balance, you only have to look through that month's transactions to try to sort out the problem before going on to the next month.

I am fairly new to PC+ and self-taught and this is how I would do it. In fact, on my first time through I had to make journal entries for each of the 4 accounts I was working with to adjust for items that had not cleared on a previous statement and that I had not entered into the system. But once the first month reconciled (in PC+, my manual check register, and with the bank) I haven't had any problems. I'm sure you will have similar success.

As for the reports, I'm not clear which ones you are referring to. For many of them you can specify which month(s) you want included in the report. So, for example, when you finish reconciling the January statement you can run the report(s) for only the month of January; the same for February, etc.

gbs30115 · Post by **gbs30115** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:11 pm

Thank you for the help. It has help. I am working as the secretary and treasurer for our church, and this is not my full time job, so I forgot about the bank statements. So many hats to wear and not enough time to change hats sometimes.

I have had to learning by trial and error. The lady that had the job before me didn't use Power church for any thing but contributions, so I have had to learn the Accouting part on my own. I really like it now that I have learned some more about it.
Thank you again for all you help! God Bless
Wendy

Post by **Zorak** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:50 am

Eden Whitehead wrote:I believe that Zorak was saying that the way to fix your problem *now* is to reconcile one month at a time -- now.

That's right. This process of reconciling all of those months will most likely turn into much more time and frustration, where you are actually trying to save yourself time and cause less frustration by doing it this way.

As Eden said, you may have a problem with the first month or two, then everything should be smooth sailing from there on in.