A reconciliation is a statement that, on a given date, your books agreed with the bank. If somebody later edits, voids or deletes a transaction that was part of it, that is no longer true — and the next time you reconcile, the Beginning Balance will not match the opening balance on your bank statement. Reconciliation Discrepancy shows you exactly which cleared transactions have been changed since the account was last reconciled, so you can put them right.
Opening the report
- Choose Reports ▸ Banking ▸ Reconciliation Discrepancy.
- SeroBooks asks you to specify the account, listing your bank and credit card accounts with their type and last reconciled date. Click the account.
- The report opens on the account's last reconciliation, showing what has changed since it was signed off.
If the account has never been reconciled, SeroBooks says … has not been reconciled yet, so nothing can have changed since.
You can also reach it from Banking ▸ Reconcile: Locate Discrepancies opens the account's reconciliation history, where Report on any reconciliation and then Changed since shows the same list for that statement.
Reading the report
The report opens in the window titled Reconciliation Discrepancy with the account's name, on the reconciliation's page with Changed since selected at the top. Each line is a transaction that was cleared in that reconciliation and has been changed since it was completed.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Type | The kind of transaction (cheque, deposit, payment and so on). |
| Date | Its date. |
| Num | Its number. |
| Name | The payee or customer. |
| Amount | Its amount now. |
Double-click a line to open the transaction and see it as it is now. The Summary and Detail buttons at the top switch to the reconciliation's other reports, and PDF prints the Detail. See Previous Reconciliation.
When nothing has changed, the report says Nothing cleared in this reconciliation has been changed since.
Fixing a discrepancy, step by step
- Open the report for the account.
- For each line, open the transaction and decide what happened. Compare it with the bank statement the reconciliation was made against: was the amount changed, the date moved, or the account changed?
- If the change was a mistake, change the transaction back so it matches the statement again.
- If the change was right (the original entry was wrong and the bank statement agrees with the new one), the reconciliation itself was wrong. Undo it in Previous Reconciliation and reconcile that statement again.
- Begin the next reconciliation and check that the Beginning Balance now matches the statement.
A transaction that was deleted no longer exists, so it cannot be listed. If the Beginning Balance is still off after dealing with every line here, look in the Audit Trail and the Voided/Deleted Transactions reports for deleted transactions on this account, then re-enter the one that was deleted in error.
Tips
- Set a closing date after each month is reconciled and filed. Transactions dated on or before it cannot be changed, which keeps reconciliations from being disturbed. See Set Closing Date and Year-End.
- Give the Undo a Reconciliation and delete rights only to the people who need them. See Roles and permissions explained.