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About this lesson
In this lesson, we cover how to identify errors on the bank register such as uncleared transactions.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
8.01 bank-register - Exercise.docx3.7 MB 8.01 bank-register - Exercise solution.docx
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Quick reference
Bank register errors
It's important to be able to identify errors in your bank register, this lesson is designed to show you how to spot a few common errors.
When to use
You may not realize there are errors by looking at your bank register but you will notice if your bank balance and QuickBooks balance in bank feeds stop matching. This could be due to an error or it could be transactions that are pending and haven't yet processed. If you know something is wrong but you're not sure where to find your mistake, this lesson will help you.
Instructions
You need to identify or locate transactions that were entered by mistake, there are a handful of ways to do this. There is not one right way, I'm showing you various ways so you can find one that makes sense to you.
Taking a look at the reconciliation screen (before you click finish now):
- When you have finished reconciling, you may see transactions that are unchecked. This is because of either a mistake or there are transactions that will show up on a future statement.
- Look at the list of transactions that have not cleared (ie don't have a check mark on the right hand side) and ask yourself if they're logical
- A paper check that was issued isn't always cashed right away and isn't cause for concern but if it goes on for too long, you may offer to reissue the check
- A debit card transaction dated a month ago is probably a duplicate of another transaction and can be deleted
- A deposit that you are certain already went to the bank is probably a duplicate. The steps to fix this are case-by-case so I'm not going to type them out here but at least if you find your mistake, you have a place to begin to fix it.
Taking a look at the reconciliation report for the account you are planning to review:
- Navigate to the reconciliation report
- The report is organized with various headers:
- Summary
- Details of payments and deposits that have cleared
- A list of payments and deposits that have not cleared, this is the list you want to review, you are looking to see if anything on this could possibly be a mistake
Taking a look at the bank register using the stumble upon method:
- Navigate to the register for the account you are planning to review
- Slowly scroll down, watch the 2nd column from the right. Transactions that have been reconciled have a "r" and those that have not been reconciled have either nothing or a "c".
- When you're in the r's, do you see any blanks or c's? If so, scroll a bit up and a bit down, you may see evidence the transaction is a duplicate
Taking a look in the bank register using the filter method:
- Navigate to the register for the account you are planning to review
- At the top of the register (just above the word date), click on the funnel
- Change the drop down for reconcile status to display "not reconciled"
- Change the date range to be from 01/01/2000 to the date that your account was last reconciled (hint: the date is about an inch above where you're currently working)
- Click apply
- Now you have a list of transactions that were dated from Y2K to the last statement, is it logical that these transactions are here? If not, work on them one by one to see if they're a duplicate that needs correction or just a mistake that can be deleted
When you spot something that is uncleared from a previous statement period, ask yourself these questions:
- Can I blame the dog/cat? This doesn't actually help but it sometimes makes me feel better.
- If it's a check, should I offer to reissue the check or will it probably be cashed soon?
- If it's a debit/credit card charge, is it a duplicate? You can check by entering that value in the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner and see if you spot another transaction for that amount within a day or two.
- If it's a debit/credit charge that isn't a duplicate but you're still wondering about it, did you mean to log it as money spent out of your personal account for the benefit of the business?
- If it's a client payment, did you record their payment twice? You can check by looking at the client profile.
- If it's a collection of client payments and you know you took them all to the bank and deposited them together, this means you skipped the step of using undeposited funds to combine them
- If it's a transfer or a credit card payment, check to see if it shows up twice. This is not common but it happens when you're working on bank feeds, sometimes you type just a tiny bit faster than the software processes information and you can accidentally add a payment twice (once when you are working on the checking account list and the second time when you are working on the list of transactions for the credit card).
Hints & tips
- Even if you don't know how to fix the mistake, just identifying where the mistake is will be super helpful. From here you can ask in forums, Google search, buy a 15 minute consultation from an expert, or get a big cup of coffee and see if you can stumble on the solution.
- Mistake can be fixed and nothing is set in stone in QuickBooks.
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