Reconciling Accounts

Accounts reconciliation is one of the most important, yet least used, features of any accounting system. Account reconciliation allows you to see what entries were missed, have unexpected differences, or not captured correctly (capture errors) inside Palladium. Without account reconciliation, you most likely will never find these missed transactions and this could cost you money in the long run. Each account you plan to reconcile must be setup for reconciliation inside the account itself. If this is not setup correctly, you will not be able to select the account in the reconciliation window. Please note: you can only reconcile asset and liability accounts. SETUP ACCOUNTS FOR RECONCILIATION Enter the account you wish to setup for reconciliation and then check the "save transactions for account reconciliation" check box. At this time you would set the accounts to use for interest income and interest expenses. Press OK when finished to compete the setup procedure. Once the account has been setup for reconciliation, Palladium Accounting will save all transactions that go into that account for reconciliation.

PERFORMING RECONCILIATION Enter the accounts reconciliation function by going to the general ledger tab and clicking on the reconciliation icon. The following window will appear:

Select the account you wish to reconcile at the top of the window by clicking on the find button and selecting it. Note: if you don't see your account there, it is not setup. Please follow the instructions above for setting up accounts. The first time you reconcile an account you must enter the statement start date and opening balance. If you have reconciled this account before, this information is populated automatically for you. The next step is to enter your statement ending date. Once you do that, verify that the ledger balance looks correct. You then enter the recon date (today's date) and enter the closing balance from your statement. If you are reconciling the account for the first few times you will have the option of entering prior outstanding items (manually by hand or automatically from the account records). This allows you to enter items that are on the bank statement but were captured in a previous system before Palladium. Next click on the account transactions tab to see the following:

Place a check next to each of the transactions that are on your bank statement. When you are finished, your unresolved amount should be zero. Your discrepancy amount should also be zero, but you can post if it's not. The discrepancy amount reports any differences between your statement closing balance and posted transactions in Palladium that are not cleared. If you have a discrepancy and found that a transaction is listed but on the wrong date, then you can record the reconciliation and it will correct itself next month. WHAT TO DO WHEN ACCOUNTS DON'T BALANCE If your reconciliation is not balancing, follow these tips to help you: 1. Is there an amount on your bank statement that is not inside Palladium? Enter the transaction as appropriate. You can save the reconciliation and go out to post entries or do investigations. 2. Is there a historical amount on your bank statement that was captured in your old system (new accounts)? You must enter these under the manual method above. 3. Is there an amount in Palladium that does not appear on your bank statement? Clear the check box next to that amount.

4. Is there an amount in Palladium that was entered incorrectly or possibly entered twice? Correct these transactions and try to reconcile again.