welcome to the fit small business
quickbooks online training courts in
this lesson we're going to cover how to
reconcile bake accounts in QuickBooks
Online to follow along with me
login to your QuickBooks Online account
now or click the link below for a free
30-day trial of QuickBooks Online you
can also click this link to access our
full QuickBooks Online course and other
helpful resources let's get started
similar to your personal bank accounts
it is important that you reconcile your
business make account on a monthly basis
reconciling is the process of matching
the transactions on your bank statement
to what you have recorded in QuickBooks
reconciling your bank accounts regularly
will help to insure a couple of things
first any discrepancies between your
records and the banks are resolved in a
timely manner for example a bank deposit
that was posted for the wrong amount by
the bank second timely notification of
any fraudulent transactions for example
if you know the transactions listed on
your bank statement that you did not
authorize you can notify the bank as
soon as possible so that they can
investigate some of the benefits of
reconciling your bank account in
QuickBooks are all transactions on the
bank statement get recorded in
QuickBooks your financial statements
such as your profit and loss statement
and balance sheet are up to date all the
reconcile transactions are marked in
QuickBooks as cleared you are able to
run reconciliation reports that will
provide the details of the items that
have cleared the bank and those that
remain outstanding before you follow the
steps to reconcile be sure that you have
your bank statement handy for the bank
account that you want to reconcile we
will refer to the bank statement often
during this process from the home page
you want to click on the gear icon
located to the left of your company name
below the tools column select reconcile
from this screen you want to go ahead
and select from the drop-down the bank
account that we want to reconcile and
then we'll go ahead and select the
reconcile Now button this next screen is
the start reconciliation window and so
this information will come directly from
your bank statement so the first field
the account that we've already selected
the second field is the statement ending
date your bank statement will have a
beginning date and an ending date so
enter the ending date for your bank
statement here the beginning balance
here is going to come from your bank
statement as well if the bank account
was previously reconciled in this field
will display the ending balance of the
last month which is the beginning
balance of the current month and should
match your beginning balance that
appears on your current statement the
ending balance here this is the balance
in your bank account as of the statement
ending date so we want to enter the
ending balance here from our bank
statement so for example here our ending
date is January 31st 2016 so we want to
enter the balance as of this statement
date in this field and then we'll go
ahead and click OK on the next screen
you're going to see the checks and
payments listed on the left side and the
deposit and credits are listed on the
right side so these are all the
transactions that are currently in
QuickBooks before we begin to match up
transactions we want to double check and
make sure that the information that we
entered from the bank statement is
correct
this information appears at the very
bottom of the screen to the left if we
need to edit any information that we
entered from the bank statement you
would just click the link that says edit
information from statement and then it
will take us back to that first screen
where we could edit the statement date
and the ending balance if necessary so
we'll go ahead and cancel out of that
since we're fine with both of those the
next thing you want to do is we want to
hide transactions that do not fall
within this statement date so if you
click this box here that says hai
transactions after the statements end
date it will remove any transactions
after our statement ending date so for
example our statement ending date is
January 31st 2016 so any transaction
dated February 1st and after will be
removed from this screen so let's begin
with
and payments referring to your bank
statement for each check or payment that
appears on your bank statement you want
to go ahead and check it off in the
reconciliation window by clicking the
box to the left of the transaction so
we're going to go ahead and do that for
each of the items that appear on the
bank statement and QuickBooks will put a
checkmark in it once we mark that Bob
one tip that I'll also give you is as
you are marking these transactions off
in QuickBooks with the check mark you
want to go ahead and put a check mark on
that paper statement as well and that
way you can keep track of everything
that you've marked off and then what
we'll do is we'll do the same exact
thing for our deposits and credits so
that section is a little bit shorter
we'll mark those two items off as well
and once we have done that we want to
check and see what our difference is we
are trying to match to a balance of zero
so looks like we are out of balance by
18.3 four cents so to figure out our out
of balance the first thing that we want
to do is make sure that the amounts that
we have in QuickBooks match our bank
statement totals so taking a look at our
deposit and other credits total we want
to make sure that the total that we show
in QuickBooks here matches what the bank
statement has so we'll do that and then
after you check that and make sure
that's good you want to double check
your checks and payments total and make
sure the total that we have in
QuickBooks here matches our bank
statement so it looks like we are out of
balance here by 18.3 four cents and well
you know if you look up above I forgot
to mark an item up here for 18 . 34
cents so we'll go ahead and put a
checkmark next to this item and then
that should put us at a difference of
zero so once we're at a zero difference
that's fantastic if you have a
difference and you're having some
trouble balancing
I've shared some troubleshooting tips
with you later on in this lesson so once
we've got a zero difference we are able
to go ahead and click the finish Now
button and once we click the finish Now
button that will actually do a couple of
things behind the scenes QuickBooks will
mark all the items that we put a check
mark next to as cleared it will also
generate our bank reconciliation report
I want to share a couple of tips with
you when it comes to bank reconciliation
reports the first tip is you want to
create a folder to keep all bank
reconciliation reports in I recommend
one folder per bank account the second
tip I have for you is bank
reconciliation reports are one of the
top five reports that auditors will
request in my experience as an auditor
if you are unable to produce these
reports I can promise you that the audit
will not go well so we'll go ahead and
click on our reconciliation report
that's been generated and here we are so
at the top here you will see a summary
of the information that we reconciled so
we've got our statement beginning
balance and we've got our checks and
payments total our deposits and credits
our ending statement balance and our
register balance most important this was
the goal of reconciling is to make sure
that we match up our bank statement
balance with our QuickBooks register
balance so as you can see both of these
match and then we've got the details of
all the items that were cleared here for
this particular reconciliation so if
you'd like you can all go ahead and
print this report out and share it with
those that need to review the report
let's talk about ten troubleshooting
tips for reconciling bank accounts in
QuickBooks try some of these tips if you
are having trouble getting to a
difference of zero first tip I'll share
with you is when you first go into the
reconciliation tool after you enter the
statement ending balance and the
statement ending date if there are no
transactions
that appear on the screen then there are
one of two things that could be causing
this issue the first is you may have
transactions sitting in review waiting
for you to categorize them and add them
to the QuickBooks register in our lesson
on managing downloaded banking
transactions we walk through step by
step to show you how to review your
downloaded banking transactions and add
them to the QuickBooks register click
here to watch that video tutorial now
the second issue that could be taking
place is you might have entered
incorrect information from the bank
statement so remember how we check that
earlier in the lower left-hand corner of
the screen there's a link that says edit
information from this statement so if we
select that we can double check to see
if our ending statement date is correct
and our amount is correct so we'll go
ahead and do that now and yet looks like
I have entered the incorrect year so
we'll go ahead and change that and click
OK voila we have transactions so the
next tip that I want to give you is you
want to narrow the search down to the
type of transaction so in this example
as you can see we have a difference of
two thousand five hundred forty seven
dollars and some change so you want to
figure out if that difference is on the
checks and payment side or on the
deposits and credit side so again to do
that you want to look at your total in
QuickBooks and compare that to your bank
statement for each of those and to see
which one is out of balance now if both
of those are out of balance then tackle
them separately balance the credits and
deposits first if that's shorter and
faster and then go over to the checks
and payment side and do that you can
also for the exact dollar amount that
you are off so if you recall when I
reconciled the bank statement a few
minutes ago we had an exact amount that
I had forgotten to check off
and so by simply looking for that dollar
amount on the screen here in QuickBooks
and then if you can't find it you can
also look on your bank statement so if
you looked at our bank statement to see
if we could find an item for two
thousand five hundred forty seven
dollars and 25 cents that might help you
figure out what the problem is as well
next tip is triple check the information
that you entered from the bank statement
so we've done this a couple of times but
it is important that you make sure you
didn't transpose a number or enter the
date incorrectly as I just did
so again clicking that edit information
from the statement link will help you to
verify that information the next tip is
to check and see if there is any
transaction in the reconcile window that
you did not check mark next to right so
that's what I did earlier that we
discussed and so if that transaction is
on the bank statement then it should
have a check mark next to it in the
reconcile window if you do have a
transaction on your bank statement that
is not in QuickBooks then you will need
to add it to QuickBooks okay so to do
this what you want to do is go ahead and
click the finish later button now
remember the finish later button will
save all the work that you've done so
far so you can easily come back and pick
up where you left off okay if the
missing transaction is in the checks or
payments section then you want to enter
it as you normally would in our how to
write and print checks lesson we walk
you through step by step on how to
create a check in QuickBooks click here
to watch this video tutorial now if the
missing transaction is in the deposits
or credit section then enter it as you
normally would in our how to make
deposits lesson we walk you through step
by step on how to record deposits in
QuickBooks click here to watch this
video tutorial now next step take a
break if you've been at it for a while
you probably need a break so go ahead
and click that finish later button to
save your work and then you can easily
pick up where you've left off sometimes
taking a breather and coming back and
help you spot what's causing the
difference
and the last tip is while it might be
tempting do not click that finish Now
button until you have a difference of
zero here the problem will not go away I
promise you the difference will just
carry over to the next month until you
figure it out if you do hit the
reconcile button and you have not
figured out the difference QuickBooks
will record the out of balance and a
miscellaneous expense account call on
reconcile discrepancies of course if
we're talking to small amount like five
dollars or less then it might be worth
your while to move on at the end of the
day you get to determine what amount you
are comfortable with reconciling your
bank accounts does not change your
financial statements however behind the
scenes in QuickBooks the items that have
been reconciled are flagged so let's go
ahead and navigate to the check register
and take a look at these now to navigate
to the track register we'll go back to
our home screen will click on
transactions and then banking and then
you want to click on view register to
the far right and notice in this column
the letter R so every reconcile check
and deposit will have the letter R in
this column typically once a bank
transaction is reconciled you do not
want to make any changes to it this is
primarily due to the fact that you have
balanced it with your bank statement you
can edit the account if you need to if
you categorize something as meals and
entertainment and it should have been
office supplies that's fine but you do
not want to make any changes to the date
or the amount if you do it can cause
your financial statements to be
inaccurate and you will no longer be in
balance with your bank that wraps up the
lesson on how to reconcile your bank
accounts in QuickBooks Online to access
our full QuickBooks Online course or any
of the other lessons in this series
click this link you can also find a link
below this video for a free 30-day trial
of QuickBooks Online if you have
feedback about this course or if you
have any questions please leave a
comment below also don't forget to
subscribe