Michael T. Edwardes

mte@users.sourceforge.net

2009-07-28 1.0 Reconciliation is the process of matching the transactions you have entered into &kappname; with the transactions listed for that account by the institution. This is most commonly done with the list of transactions in a statement, be it a bank statement, credit card statement, loan statement, or any other statement. It can also be done against an on-line listing of the account, although this is less common. If any discrepancies are found, then either you or the person who created the statement have made a mistake. To reconcile an account, choose your account from the drop down box and click on the Reconcile icon, select Account Reconcile... or use the key combination Ctl+Shift+R. This will open the reconciliation wizard. The first page of the wizard briefly describes the process you will follow. Click on Next to actually start the wizard. Reconciliation wizard Reconciliation wizard The statement date, starting balance, and ending balance can be found in your statement. Make sure that the figures match and click on the Next button. If the figures do not match then enter the figures as listed on your statement and click on the Next button. Reconciliation wizard Reconciliation wizard If the statement reconciliation is on a bank account or any account with interest and/or charges fees, then enter these values in the appropriate fields. A category can be assigned for each of these amounts. Reconciliation wizard Reconciliation wizard The interest field is for interest you gained. If you have to pay interest, e.g., for a credit card account, this has to be entered as a charge. Click on Finish to start matching your statement to what you have entered. Note that this completes the Reconciliation Wizard, but not the process of reconciliation. As described below, you still need to clear transactions and then tell &kappname; that the account is reconciled. To mark a transaction as cleared, click on the C column in the list view. A transaction is cleared when it matches the transaction on your statement. During the reconciliation, any transaction can be edited to make it match the statement, and new transactions can be created as usual. Reconciliation wizard Reconciliation wizard The command frame (just below the transaction list area) displays the statement amount and the cleared amount. When the difference is zero then the account is reconciled and you can click the Finish button. When you do this, &kappname; takes all the transactions which have been marked as cleared and marks them as reconciled, and the C column changes to 'R' to reflect the change. In addition, it saves the changes and records that the account has been reconciled. To postpone the reconciliation to a later time, click on the Postpone button. Any edits you have made to any transactions, such as marking them cleared, can still be saved before you exit &kappname;, but you will have to run the reconciliation wizard again in order to reconcile the account. If you exit &kappname; before clicking either Finish or Postpone, it has the same effect as clicking Postpone.