Bank reconciliations...I know eeeww! Balancing the books does not have to be a complicated art that only your accountant has the skills to pull off. However, reconciling all of the bank accounts, loans and credit cards is an important step in the accounting cycle. Try this helpful tip to make your reconciliations a breeze.
In a previous post I talked about how sorting your accounts by cleared status can help manage cash flow. Using this sort feature also allows for reconciliations to be performed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Here is how you perform daily reconciliations in QuickBooks:
Double click on any bank account or credit card account to open the register of that account. On the right hand side of the register in between the payment and deposit columns you will notice a box that has a check mark in it. This check mark indicates a transaction being in cleared status. What this allows you to do is enter transactions as they appear in real time off of you bank or credit card online activity. You can now reconcile your bank account daily, weekly or as often as you please. Pull up your online bank account activity and show ending balances. You can reconcile to the ending balance of each transaction or each day's activity.
There are two HUGE advantages to doing this:
1. You monthly reconciliation to your bank statement will be done. Once your statement is generated just click reconcile and you will have it all done.
2. By combining this procedure with sorting by cleared status you are gaining even more control over your cash flow.