I have just had to try and unwind two attempts at a bank reconciliation because the reconciliation process does not appear to recognize some fundamental issues in accounting. These relate to recognition and timing.
For example the reconciliation process does not allow me to match expenditures on the bank statement against the actual accounting entry irrespective of the differences that may occur in the date of recognition of the expenditure and its appearance in the bank statement. these are seldom the same dates particularly if using cheque payments.
Another example is where I have deferred receipts. These are recognized on the day of sale but the funds may not appear in my statement until some days later. Since I do not have staff to be able to monitor bank statements daily then matching of these differences is impossible.
If I were to rely solely on Bank statements to run my accounts then the use of a package is relatively pointless. I should be able to reconcile my entries back to the bank account and make allowances for unpresented cheques/payments and unbanked sales. I can not see any easy way that this can be done in this system and have the details of what I have done correctly recorded for audit purposes.
It appears to me that there is very little flexibility in the reconciliation process and the ability to allow timing differences between the bank and my accounts is completely absent - or am I missing something?
You aren’t missing anything. The integration of features in Bank Accounts needs improvements, and @lubos says they are in the queue. What is present works correctly, but doesn’t allow you to do things intuitively as you describe.
Personally, I find the laborious reconciliation process and the clearing of deposits and checks to be so much trouble that I don’t use them. Until all this gets worked out, I am just using the spend and receive functions directly and living with the float that results. I still remember how to balance a checkbook, and that’s essentially how I am managing my bank accounts in Manager–manually. Not ideal, but better in my mind than the alternative. But I have a low volume of transactions. I can’t imagine what someone in a higher volume business would do.
Statement balance is for recording bank transactions as they appear on bank statement.
Uncleared deposits
Uncleared deposits is for recording undeposited cheques from customers or other bank deposits which are yet to appear on bank statement.
Uncleared payments
Uncleared payments is for recording unpresented cheques issued to suppliers or other bank withdrawals which are yet to appear on bank statement.
Actual balance
Actual balance is the sum of all these three columns.
So Manager has the tools to record all bank transactions (even those transactions which will appear on bank statement later). What @Tut is saying is that there needs to be more work done to make it easier to work with. I agree it is a priority.
As I read my post again, I realize it may come across more negatively than I meant. Make no mistake, I love Manager and think @lubos is a superman who never seems to take a day off. He has shared his priorities for upgrades with me, and I think they make sense.
My real purpose was to emphasize that, while the current reconciliation process may not be as smooth as everyone wants, (a) everything gives correct numbers and (b) there are ways to avoid the frustrating parts if you have a little patience.
Based on what we know of where this is all going, I think the wait will be well worth it.
Sorry for the slow response here however I have been away “fighting fires” elsewhere.
Showing my unfamiliarity, I cannot find the attributes that you refer to under Bank Accounts. The only numeric columns that I see are the Dr/Cr and Balance columns; and if I run to reconcile I get the window prompting for the Statement balance so there are no column options there either.
Could you give me a hint at how to get to the options that you are referring to?
It sounds like you are using an older version of Manager. Update to the current version. Then, click on the Bank Accounts tab and you will see the columns @lubos mentioned.