Request for improvement to bank reconciliation format

@lubos I have noticed the improvement in the bank reconciliation feature and I love it especially how you can now easily see the discrepancies in reconciliation.

I however beg that you display the last successful reconciliation date of every bank account in a column in the bank accounts tab regardless of this new feature. Seeing the Status and Last Reconciliation date right in the Bank Accounts tab was very cool. I feel that the Bank Account tab has been robbed of something that made it very complete and a one-stop-shop.

Also, the application used to show details of reconciling items (Date, Description of transaction, Reference number and amount), we need that too as well as displayed in the picture inserted.

Thank you

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I prefer the previous format of the Bank Reconciliation Statement which listed the individual pending deposits and withdrawals

This made it much easier to explain the differences to auditors and non-accountants alike

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To continue with my moan …
I have just carried out my first Bank Reconciliation since the new format was put into operation. Whilst I have no issue with the processing of the operation, the new report format leaves me a bit confused

Previously the report started with the “Closing Balance as per bank statement”, listed the pending deposits and pending withdrawals and arrived at an “Adjusted closing balance as per bank statement” and then had “Closing balance as per Balance Sheet” so it was very clear which totals were which

The new report has “Actual Balance”, pending deposit total and pending withdrawal total to give a “Cleared balance” and a “Discrepancy”. I had to look twice to understand that the term “Actual balance” meant the Balance as per Balance Sheet" and “Cleared Balance” meant the calculated balance which was to be compared with the Balance per Bank statement which is shown in the report header with the amount of the discrepancy, if any, shown below it

The previous report used a clearer and less ambiguous terminology IMHO

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@lubos, I agree whole-heartedly with @Joe91 and @Abeiku. Something more like the old format would be better, even though the current process is improved.

I have moved these posts to a new topic and put them into the ideas category.

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Urrgh… I like the Itemized Pending Listing So Auditor can trace it easily on their side.

Thinking about it further, this could be solved by a different default sort order:

  • At the top of the list show the most recent reconciliation for each account, sorted by account name (or account number if shown)

  • Then list all other reconciliations (probably in same order or reverses chronological order)

  • Other sort orders could then be selected by clicking on date or account heading

This would result in similar behavior as is used elsewhere in Manager where it shows the most relevant items at the top of the list.

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It 20:13 hours and I’m still in the office preparing account for external auditors from the UNFPA. Sad thing is that the new bank reconciliation workflow does not allow you to know the transactions which makes up the pending deposits and pending withdrawals. This is actually giving me a night mare here as I’m supposed do create a fund reconciliation statement for 13 bank accounts for 13 different project and I’m not done with 2 yet. I could have easily pickup up these reconciling items from the reconciliation statement but I can’t do that now.

We have communicated to @lubos about how we appreciate the new BRS but wish we could keep some old very useful features such as this one and the last reconciliation date showing in the bank accounts tab.

What is your view about this @lubos, do you have plans to bring back those features? I believe a reconciliation statements main purpose is to show reconciling items.

Guys If there is a way to get that information on this app please show me.

The only way to get this information currently Is to drill down on the pending deposits or pending withdrawals columns in the bank accounts tab.

Yes, but unfortunately that doesn’t give you the make up of what corresponds to the pending deposits or receipts on a specific reconciliation only what is pending currently. There really is no way after the fact to provide auditable back up for a reconciliation.

I agree it would be nice to either include the list of transactions or be able to click on the total pending deposit or payments number on the reconciliation and see what transactions resulted in the numbers.

I don’t disagree, @alasdair. Read my earlier post. I support returning to something more like the old report.

Yes @Tut it becomes impossible when you are preparing statements for past periods. I’m preparing Fund Account and Bank account reconciliation statements for past periods and timing difference with the General ledger and Bank statement is to be explained for every quarter’s reconciliation statements.

@lubos you have not commented on this topic at all. Is the new feature here to stay? please let us know.

I agree with the comments on this topic. I hope that @lubos will bring back this lost functionality in a new update shortly. I have not used the Reconciliation process for long, but it does sound like the original functionality is very useful. Well it’s in the ideas category.

Just wondering whether anyone has found a way of viewing the list of pending transactions in past bank recs. I’ve only just noticed that this wonderful feature has been removed and thought I was doing something wrong, only to find out that this feature was taken away sometime in Q3 of 2019. Auditors are asking me to see a list of all cheques pending withdrawal as at 31.12.2019 and I have no way of giving it to them. Thanks

@FCP, here is a way to get that information:

  1. Go to the Bank Accounts tab and drill down on the actual balance for the account in question.
  2. Click on Export.
  3. Scroll down to find transactions with dates after 31.12.2019. The dates listed are the clearance dates for transactions, not the entry dates.
  4. Copy the transactions for a reasonable time period after 31.12.2019. Choose the time period based on typical clearance times at your bank. (You do not need to copy the entire list. You can drag over just the lines of interest.) These will be transactions that were pending as of 31.12.2019 and cleared later. In other words, their clearance dates will be after the change of the year.
  5. Paste the copied transactions into a spreadsheet and edit them. At this stage, you can separate deposits and withdrawals into different columns or delete either category. Total the results.
  6. If the totals match the pending amounts on your reconciliation report, you know you have captured all relevant transactions, the ones that were pending on the date of reconciliation. If they are less than the pending amounts on your reconciliation report, you have missed some. In that case, repeat the process, but copy a longer time period, as you missed something that was still pending. If the totals are more than your reconciliation report, you have captured too many. Repeat with fewer lines.
  7. Depending on your bank’s processes and the flow of events, you may have to look at individual transactions to determine that (a) they had been entered as of the end of the year but (b) not yet cleared. You may also have to delete some that cleared earlier than normal. Remember, you are looking to match the reconciliation report.

Please understand. I know this is a terrible way to get information that used to readily available. But it will allow you to identify the transactions in Manager that were pending and contributed to the reconciliation report. If your cheque volume is small, it will be relatively painless. If your volume is big, it could be a headache.

I now export the pending balances, receipts and payments, each month so that I have a record but it is a big bugbear

Thanks Tut, in fact after looking at this issue every which way, I came to the same conclusion and did exactly what you said above. Luckily for me I only needed to do pending withdrawals and there weren’t too many transactions, but with a bigger volume it would be a nightmare. It’s also a great shame to have lost this great feature that previously allowed you access to all of this info at the click of a button. I really hope they will reintroduce it, as I found the old version of bank recs much more useful. Thanks again

@FCP, you might want to vote for this idea.

I’d love to… how do I vote?

The blue vote button at the top of this page?