reconciliation user guide...1. select the advanced reconciliation option in the reconciliation...

Reconciliation

User Guide

Last updated: 14/11/2012 Page 1 of 17 Copyright © 2012 Onthehouse Holdings. All rights reserved.

Contents Reconciliation .................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Reconciling the Trust Account ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Best Practice .................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Using the Reconciliation Wizard ..................................................................................................................................... 3

The Wizard ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Advanced Reconciliation ................................................................................................................................................. 8

Un-presenting a bank deposit ....................................................................................................................................... 11

Un-presenting an adjustment ....................................................................................................................................... 11

Entering an adjustment ................................................................................................................................................. 12

Balancing Tips ................................................................................................................................................................ 13

Where to Start ............................................................................................................................................................... 13


Reconciliation

Reconciling your trust account means matching the entries in Gateway to your trust bank statement. If all

transactions are processed as they occur and, with care, there is no reason why Gateway and your trust bank

account should ever not reconcile.

Whenever you receive a new bank statement you should use it to reconcile the computer account or if you have

access to internet banking, download a transaction list daily.

The more frequently you reconcile the easier it is to identify errors.

Never carry out an end of month disbursement without reconciling first.

Reconciling the Trust Account

Although the frequency of trust account reconciliations is a personal preference, the governing legislation in your

state or territory may call for specific requirements, and should be followed at all times.

The following suggestions are intended as a guide only and should be considered in addition to legislative

requirements.

A computerised trust account should be reconciled with the bank statement on a regular basis to ensure that

balancing errors are detected close to the time that they occur. This is imperative to ensure that the monthly

disbursement and close proceeds smoothly.

We recommend that Reconciliation is carried out on a daily basis using an internet banking printout of transactions.

In addition, a preparatory Reconciliation should also be carried out at least three working days prior to the monthly

close. If you are out of balance, three days should allow sufficient time to find and rectify the problem.

Finally, you should always reconcile your trust account before processing a disbursement of any kind, whether a

single owner disbursement; change of owner disbursement; bond disbursement; weekly, mid-month or end of

month disbursement.

Best Practice

Each day we recommend that you follow these 5 easy steps...

1. Download your internet banking printout.

2. Process any Deposited receipts received in to the trust since your last

reconciliation.

3. Enter any unidentified transactions on the printout as an Adjustment (to

be identified and processed later).


4. Run the Reconciliation Wizard

a) Enter the date & closing balance amount on your printout

b) Present any cheques that appear on your printout

c) Present any Banking, Eftpos or Receipts that appear on your printout

d) Present any EFT’s that appear on your printout

e) Present any Adjustments that have been identified and processed as a

transaction, and are therefore no longer required.

5. Print all 4 pages of the Reconciliation Report, collate with your internet

banking printout and file for the auditor.

Using the Reconciliation Wizard

The Reconciliation Wizard provides two options for reconciling. The Wizard or Advanced Reconciliation.

The Wizard

1. Select Reconciliation from the Transactions menu. A welcome screen will open.

2. Click Next.

3. Enter the date and balance from the bank statement and click Next.


4. Select the check box beside every presented cheque that appears on the bank statement and click Next.

5. Select the check box beside every deposit that appears on the bank statement and click Next.

NOTE Deposited receipts will only display if you have set Unpresent Deposited Receipts in Tools, Options.


6. Select the check box beside every Adjustment that has been identified and processed as a transaction, and

are therefore is no longer required.

7. The reconciliation details display for your confirmation - at the bottom of the screen, a message will state

if the Ledgers and Bank are in balance.


8. Click Finish.

9. Click Print to print the Reconciliation Report, Unpresented Cheques Report, Unpresented Deposits Report

and Adjustments Report.

10. Click Close to exit the Reconciliation Wizard.

The Reconciliation Report is divided into three parts:

The Trust Bank Account (the money that is actually in the bank account)

The Cashbook Balance (the money that Gateway thinks is in the bank)

The Ledger Balance (the total of monies held in all Gateway ledgers)

The Trust Bank Account is further divided into:

Bank Statement Balance - the final balance on the last page of the latest bank statement

Un-presented Deposits - any money receipted into the computer but not year appearing on the bank

statement

Un-presented Cheques - any cheques made from the computer system which have not yet been

presented at the bank for payment


Adjustments - usually involving bank errors

The Cashbook is divided into:

Opening Balances - that money in the computer which has been carried forward from last month

Receipts - all monies receipted this month (minus reversed receipts)

Payments - all money paid out this month (minus reversed payments)

If the Reconciled Bank Statement Balance is equal to the Closing Cashbook Balance, the account is reconciled or in

balance.

If the system is not in balance, Gateway will report that the bank is either over or under.

NOTE The Ledgers must always be in balance. If the Ledgers are under or over it is not user error, there has been a

data corruption and the only solution is either to restore back to the most recent point in time when the Ledgers were

in balance or to send the data to Console Support for repair.


Advanced Reconciliation The Advanced Reconciliation option provides the ability to not only present transactions but to also:

• Replace a Cheque (See the Payments manual)

• Un-present a presented cheque

• Un-present a presented deposit

• Un-present a presented adjustment

• Enter a new adjustment

1. Select the Advanced Reconciliation option in the Reconciliation Wizard. A Summary page will display.

2. Enter today’s date and the balance from your internet banking printout.

3. Select the Cheques tab and present any cheques that appear on the printout by highlighting and selecting

present or double clicking.

4. Repeat this process for the Deposits tab and the Adjustments tab.

5. Return to the Summary tab to confirm that ledgers and bank are in balance.


Un-presenting a cheque

If you present a cheque in error, you may undo the mistake by un-presenting the cheque.

1. Select the Cheques tab.

2. Select Show Presented from the View menu. This option will toggle between showing all cheques, presented

and unpresented, and only showing unpresented cheques.

NOTE Colour coding allows you to easily identify the status of the cheque:

Light grey indicates the cheque has been presented

Black indicates the cheque is un-presented

3. Highlight the presented cheque you require and select Un-present from the File menu.


4. A message appears asking if you are sure you want to un-present this cheque.

5. Click Yes.

6. Select Show Presented from the View menu again to display only un-presented cheques.

Un-presenting a bank deposit If you present a deposit in error, you may undo the mistake by un-presenting the deposit.

1. Select the Deposits tab.

2. Select Show Presented from the View menu. This option will toggle between showing all deposits,

presented and unpresented, and only showing unpresented deposits.

NOTE Colour coding allows you to easily identify the status of the bank deposit:

Light grey indicates the deposit has been presented

Black indicates the deposit is un-presented

3. Highlight the presented bank deposit you require and select Un-present from the File menu.

4. A message appears asking if you are sure you want to un-present this deposit.

5. Click Yes.

6. Select Show Presented from the View menu again to display only un-presented bank deposits.

Un-presenting an adjustment If you present an adjustment in error, you may undo the mistake by un-presenting the adjustment.

1. Select the Adjustments tab.

2. Select Show Presented from the View menu. This option will toggle between showing all adjustments,

presented and unpresented, and only showing unpresented adjustments.

NOTE Colour coding allows you to easily identify the status of the adjustment:


Light grey indicates the adjustment has been presented

Black indicates the adjustment is un-presented

3. Highlight the presented adjustment you require and select Un-present from the File menu.

4. A message appears asking if you are sure you want to un-present this adjustment.

5. Click Yes.

6. Select Show Presented from the View menu again to display only un-presented adjustments.

Entering an adjustment The most important thing to understand is: An Adjustment is not a transaction!

An Adjustment is used to “adjust” the Final Statement Balance to account for monies that cannot be transacted in Gateway such as unidentified rent deposits or bank charges. Adjustments should only remain in place until the transaction has been identified and rectified, at which point the adjustment is no longer needed and may be ‘presented off’.

1. Select the Adjustments tab.

2. Select New from the File menu - the New Adjustment dialog box displays.

3. Enter the Date, Amount, and a brief description of why the adjustment is necessary in Details.

If the transaction appears in the credit column on your bank statement enter a negative adjustment.

If the transaction appears in the debit column on your bank statement enter a positive adjustment.

4. Click OK.


Balancing Tips

Balancing is definitely something that gets easier the more times you do it. However, no two balancing issues

are the same, so here are some simple Tips to follow to help you identify the problem.

Two Aspects to Balancing:

• Check that the data entry is correct.

• Check that the data is being correctly displayed in the reconciliation wizard

The Documents You Will Need:

• The last set of ‘in balance’ reconciliation reports including the Reconciliation Summary, the

Unpresented Cheque List, the Un-presented Deposit List and the Adjustments List – even if they were

blank.

• The Trust account Bank Statement or Printout, from when the Reconciliation was last in balance up to

the present.

• The Cashbook from when the Reconciliation was last in balance up to the present.

Note: Keep the trust account cheque book, duplicate copies of receipts and bank deposit summaries for

the period handy in case you need to clarify details.

Where to Start

Eliminate the simple mistakes first:


• Ensure you have typed in the final, cleared, balance from the bank statement in the Reconciliation

screen and it has printed on your current Bank Reconciliation Report.

• Ensure that the closing balance of one bank statement is the same as the opening balance of the next

bank statement. If not, either the bank has made an error or you are missing a page.

Some banks will show details of transactions that have not yet cleared and so are not included in the

‘Balance’, or will include transactions dated yesterday that did not appear on yesterday’s printout

and so you haven’t processed them in Gateway because you thought everything from yesterday had

already been entered!

Check that the Closing or Cleared Balance on the Bank Statement/Printout you are reconciling to is

correct by starting from the Opening Balance, adding the deposits and taking away the payments.

No joy? Move on to the next step:

• Look at the balanced Reconciliation reports and establish what the Bank Statement balance was at

that time.

• Find the place on the Bank Statement/Printout that matches this value.

• Find the place on your Cashbook that matches the balanced Bank Statement/Printout and the

Reconciliation. We are going to work forward from this point.

The Method:

Now that we have a starting point we can work forward through the Bank Statement and the Cashbook, cross

checking the transactions. Every transaction should appear in both places for the same value. Identifying the

differences will identify why you do not balance.

You may prefer to ‘tick back’ the reports using a pencil and literally ticking off each item, or Gateway users

may prefer to export the Cashbook to MS Excel and ‘tick off’ the transactions by colour coding. Most internet

banking provides an option to export your transaction list to MS Excel too.

What to look out for:

1. Sometimes the imbalance may be made up of multiple errors. Don’t assume an imbalance of $300 is a

single transaction. It may easily be several transactions which plus or minus the balance resulting in

$300, for example a $400 error over and a $100 error under will appear as an imbalance of $300. It is

easy to focus on the error being a transaction for the whole amount, particularly if the amount

happens to reflect a common rent amount or is co-incidentally the same as a reversal you did

recently. If this is the case, check the reversal and transactions for this value first, but if they appear

to be correct move on and remember the imbalance may well be made up of multiple errors.

2. Cash and Cheque receipts will display on the Cashbook as Method C for Cash, Q for Cheques. A total

of these receipts will appear as the Amount that was Banked on the Cashbook when the Banking

Wizard is run. The value of the ‘Amount that was Banked’ should also appear as a Banking on your

Bank Statement. If the value of this Banking on the Bank Statement is different to the value of the

‘Amount that was Banked’ on the Cashbook, you will need to investigate the reason and correct

accordingly.


3. A receipt entered with the wrong payment method may affect the value of the Amount that was

Banked. The ‘Amount that was Banked’ should always reflect the value of Cash and Cheques actually

taken to the bank, at that time, on that day. If a Deposited receipt is accidentally entered as Cash and

therefore is not physically sitting in your cash drawer, edit the value in the ‘please confirm your bank

deposit amount’ field and don’t forget to include an explanation for the auditor as this will appear on

your cashbook reports. Gateway will automatically accredit the difference between the Calculated

Bank Deposit Amount and the Please Confirm Your Bank Deposit Amount as being ‘Deposited’.

4. A common error is the processing of Reversals. Reversals take place for all sorts of reasons, incorrect

tenant selected, incorrect method selected, incorrect date selected, bounced cheque, dishonoured

direct debit, etc. The reversing of the original transaction is not the problem – it is how you deal with

the re-entering of the transaction that can affect your Reconciliation.

a. In the case of dishonoured payments simply reverse the original transaction. When more

money is received deal with it as a completely new transaction.

b. Where an incorrect tenant file, method or date has been selected and the transaction needs

to be reversed and then re-processed you must consider the following before entering the

replacement receipt:

i. Was the original receipt processed as method Cash or Cheque?

ii. If so, has the Banking Wizard been updated since the original transaction took place?

iii. If the Banking Wizard HAS NOT been updated since the original transaction,

reprocess the receipt as Cash or Cheque

iv. If the Banking Wizard HAS been updated since the original transaction, re-process

the receipt as Deposited.

If in doubt ask yourself this question, “Do I have the money in my cash drawer?” If the

answer is Yes process the receipt to reflect how you have the money, cash or cheque. If the

answer is No, process the receipt as deposited.

Once every transaction on your Cashbook and Bank Statement/Printout has been compared, and the ones

that appear on both have been ‘ticked off’ you should be left with a transaction or transactions that require

investigation.

1. If a deposited receipt appears on your Bank Statement/Printout but is not in your Cashbook you have

not processed the receipt in Gateway.

2. If a receipt appears on your Cashbook but cannot be accounted for on the Bank Statement/Printout

either as a deposited amount or included in a Banking, investigate the following:

a. The receipt has been entered twice, one will need to be reversed.

b. The Cash/Cheque has gone missing.

3. If a cheque appears on your Bank Statement/Printout but is not in your Cashbook, check the cheque

book and the relevant ledger.

a. If the cheque has been written but is not in Gateway it will need to be entered in Gateway.

b. If the cheque has not been written contact the Bank as the cheque on your Bank

Statement/Printout is not a cheque from your Trust Account cheque book.

4. If a Cash/Cheque transaction was included in a Banking, then reversed, incorrectly entered again as


Cash/Cheque, included in a second Banking and the Banking Wizard updated without editing the

‘Confirm your Bank Deposit amount’, you must edit the value of the second Banking through

Advanced Reconciliation to show the amount that was actually taken to the bank.

If EVERY Transaction can be accounted for on both the Cashbook and the Bank Statement, check the

Reconciliation Wizard itself to make sure that everything has been presented correctly.

1. Has a cheque been accidentally presented off when it has not yet cleared through the bank? Or has a

cheque on the Bank Statement been missed and needs to be presented?

2. Has a Banking been accidentally presented off when it has not yet cleared through the bank? Or has a

Banking on the Bank Statement been missed and needs to be presented?

3. If you have Unpresent Deposited Receipts selected in Tools, Options your deposited receipts will

appear on the Reconciliation.

Note There should be NO Unpresented Deposited receipts appearing in the Deposits tab once your Reconciliation is

complete. The only exception would be if you are using Banklink to create a daily Direct Debit file and only reconciling

to yesterday’s statement.

Gateway also provides the option to create the value of the Direct Debit file as an adjustment instead.