Fresh pair of eyes needed- sage bank rec

imeldabye

Hi all- spent 4 hours yesterday trying to tie up a Year end Bank rec in Sage and have ended up admitting defeat unless anyone has any bright ideas...
I run TB for Bank Balance. I take the balance per statement. The difference being those transactions posted in Sage but not yet reconciled/gone through the bank. Right?
Only the report from Sage for Unreconciled transactions does not equal the difference. Huh? Anyone see that I am missing something?
A big smiley and indebtedness to the spotter! Oh and the difference is £305.60 - immaterial?

Monsoon

Erm, I'm confused.

If you use the Sage Reconcile function, then it's reconciled. Unless you are checking the reconciliation from a different bookkeeper? In which case, if they reconciled it, they hould have provided a reconciliation report.

imeldabye

Hi Monsoon
No- no other bookkeeper.
Have just noticed that the reconciled bank balance in Sage b/f is not the same as the opening TB b/f balance in Sage which i think is to do with the auditor's journals at last year's year end. Is this something I can adjust? Iif I did put a journal through to adjust the opening bank balance to ensure it matches the reconciled bank balance would this be ok, where would the other side of the dble entry go? Hope now I am making sense?

Monsoon

Hi,

I dislike opening balances and they aren't my strong point, if I'm being honest! I'm going to hope someone with a better accounting brain than me can help you...

Just remember that the bank statement might show £1000, and the TB might show £1200, and this is because a £200 cheque hasn't cleared yet, so the TB and the reconciliation balance might not always be the same.

coojee

imeldabye wrote: »

Hi Monsoon
No- no other bookkeeper.
Have just noticed that the reconciled bank balance in Sage b/f is not the same as the opening TB b/f balance in Sage which i think is to do with the auditor's journals at last year's year end. Is this something I can adjust? Iif I did put a journal through to adjust the opening bank balance to ensure it matches the reconciled bank balance would this be ok, where would the other side of the dble entry go? Hope now I am making sense?

My immediate thought is that the auditor shouldn't be making any changes to the bank account. The bank figure is an absolute figure and can't be changed unless there's an error in the bank account which doesn't tie up to the bank statement in which case the bank wouldn't have reconciled and the correction would have gone through Sage and then Sage and the TB would agree. I can't think of a single year end adjustment which would necessitate an entry to the bank account that didn't go through Sage bank account. He could have been trying to enter an accrual for bank interest but if so he's done it wrong, he should have done DR Bank Interest and CR Accruals (not CR Bank)

PAMDILL

I have received back adjustments in the past from CAs who have amended the bank nominal ledger, when I queried it I just got told it was for interest.

Bizzare, of course the following year they would just adjust it back by the same figure.

coojee

PAMDILL wrote: »

I have received back adjustments in the past from CAs who have amended the bank nominal ledger, when I queried it I just got told it was for interest.

Bizzare, of course the following year they would just adjust it back by the same figure.

Yes, bizarre because it shouldn't be adjusted through the bank account it should go through accruals or accrued income. Divvies.

reader

Hi Imeldabye

Let's say that the previous year end was 31/12/2010.

Could you request a bank reconciliation statement from the auditor as at 31/12/2010?

Your auditor should have prepared a bank reconciliation statement as at 31/12/2010 which states the bank balance as at 31/12/2010, less unpresented cheques add outstanding lodgements. And he should be happy to send you a copy of this via e-mail.

The net adjustment to the bank (i.e. outstanding lodgements less unpresented cheques) may equal £305.60 and these items should be reversed/not duplicated during the accounting period 01/01/2011 - 31/12/2011.

Anyway, there's no need to worry about this £305.60 b/f difference as long as at the latest year end, i.e. 31/12/2011, you still have a £305.60 as a c/f difference. This difference will be corrected by your auditor via a year end journal.

If you don't have a £305.60 c/f difference as at the year end, i.e. 31/12/2011, it might be because errors have occured during the acccouting period, i.e. 01/01/2011 - 31/12/2011. For example, if your difference is £305.60 at the beginning of the year and is then £1,305.60 at the end of the year then a £1,000 error has been created during the year (i.e. 01/01/2011 - 31/12/2011) which you should investigate. However if the b/f difference is £305.60 and the c/f difference is £305.60 then there's nothing to worry about and nothing to investigate as you have not added to the difference.

I hope the above makes sense.

Re: adjustments to the bank, if your auditor has made adjustments to the bank, i.e. accrued for interest, this can just be reverse in the following accounting period.