How to resolve bank reconciliation differences in Sage Accounting. This helps you maintain accurate financial records.
Resolution
What to look for
When you reconcile, you’re confirming that transactions in Sage Accounting match those on your bank statement. If everything matches, the starting balance will match the closing balance. To confirm this the difference will be zero.
When the difference isn't zero, this could be that:
- The statement end date isn’t correct
- The statement end balance isn’t correct
- The starting balance doesn’t match the opening balance on your bank statement
- You saved a previous reconciliation with a difference
- You saved a previous reconciliation with the wrong date
- Some transactions have the wrong date
The statement end date in Sage Accounting must match your bank statement's closing date.
On the reconciliation page, we only show transactions up to the statement end date.
To fix this:
- Change the statement end date and select Apply.
- Check for missing transactions. If dates differ from your bank statement, use the Activity tab to find and correct them.
- Adjust the date to include all relevant transactions.
The statement end date is usually at the top of the first page, shown as part of a date range like:
- Statement Period: 01 March 2025 – 31 March 2025
In this case, the end date is 31 March 2025.
It's also sometimes labelled as:
Closing Date, Statement Date, Period Ending, To Date. Look for the final date in the range, it marks the end of the statement cycle. The statement balance should match your bank statement’s closing balance.
The purpose of the reconciliation is for the statement end balance to match the reconciled balance. As you reconcile, we update the reconciled balance to include reconciled transactions.
If the statement end balance isn’t correct, the reconciled balance will also be incorrect.
What to do
- If the balances are different, enter the correct balance and choose Apply.
- Reconcile all transactions and check that the difference is now zero. If so, you’re ready to Finish the reconciliation.
If they still don’t match, you either have missing transactions or duplicates. The best way to find the differences is with the Detailed Nominal Activity report. You can find this in Reporting and can run it specifically for your bank accounts nominal code.
You can then add any missing transactions or reverse any duplicates as appropriate.
Once you’ve corrected the differences, include the changes in your bank reconciliation. You should now have a successful reconciliation.
▼ Check the starting balance Check that the starting balance matches the opening balance on your bank statement.
Why do this
Your starting balance is the total of all your reconciled transactions before the date you’re reconciling. Every time you reconcile new transactions or delete a reconciled transaction, the starting balance updates. If you reconcile earlier or later transactions, the starting balance won’t match.
What to do
- Check for transactions that you’ve reconciled incorrectly or deleted.
- Check previous reconciliations from the Reconciliations tab. Make sure the end date from your last reconciliation and the starting date for your new reconciliation are consecutive days. If there’s a gap, you may have transactions that haven’t yet reconciled.
- Check for missing transactions or duplicates. The best way to find the differences is with the Detailed Nominal Activity report. You can find this in Reporting and can run it specifically for your bank accounts nominal code.
- If you’ve reconciled a transaction incorrectly, delete the transaction and re-enter it. The value of the deleted transaction will have removed from the starting balance. The new transaction is ready to reconcile again
- If you’ve reconciled a duplicate transaction, delete the duplicate. The value of the deleted transaction will have removed from the starting balance
If you’ve reconciled the correct transactions for that period, this isn’t a problem.
Any differences aren't carried over to the next period.
Before completing the next reconciliation, ensure:
- the Statement End Balance is correct
- the Reconciled Bank Balance matches the Statement End Balance
If you missed a transaction, include it on the next reconciliation. Or, create another reconciliation for the same period.
Check that all the reconciled transactions match your bank statement and have the correct date. Any unreconciled transactions will show in the next bank reconciliation.
Delete any incorrectly reconciled transactions and enter them again.
We remove the value of the deleted transaction from the starting balance. The new transaction is ready to reconcile again.
You can only edit certain fields on reconciled transactions. This includes the reference, ledger account and description.
You can change the date as long as it falls within the period of the reconciliation.
To change the amount, bank account or the date to outside the reconciliation period, delete the transaction and re-enter it.
The value of the deleted transaction shows as removed from the starting balance. The new transaction is ready to reconcile again.
TIP: We recommend reconciling the new transaction straight away. This is to make sure your balances are correct.
We show you a pop-up message before editing or deleting a bank reconciled transaction.
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