I usually just have my bank statement . And check each item on my check register and bank statement. To see what is missing.

Is that wrong? Someone said I was wrong. So want to get ride bad habit if I am wrong. Please let me know what are some proper way to reconcile an account.

What should I do if I have outstanding checks that haven't been cleared in bank. Do I need enter adjustment for that ? Or just leave it ?

Thank you for you help.

1. Start with the ending balance from the bank statement and from your book. Make them into two separate columns.
2. put in what is not included but should have been included. Say outstanding checks, the bank should have recorded but they haven't, subtract those in the bank's column. Another example, bank fees, you didn't know about them until you got the bank statement. Subtract those in the book's column.
3. Get the adjusted balance from each column. They should be equal to each other if your reconciliation is done correctly.
4.Adjust your books for the items on the books column, they should have been recorded, had you known about them. You cannot do anything about the bank balance unless you notice an error they made and contact them to adjust it.
5. Outstanding checks will be cleared in some later day so they will be included in the bank's records the following month, which means they will be "adjusted" by the bank.

I'll give you parts of the system I developed.

1. Check amounts and who to written in pen.
2. Balance amounts written in pencil (one exception)
3. Instead of the [x] that an item is returned, write the month of the statement it was returned.
4. When you reconcile the checkbook, find the last contiguous entry for the month. This is your "reconcile point". It doesn't matter that there are non-returned checks and a few checks that were returned that month.

At this entry, if it's correct;
1) Write entry in pen
2) Put a circle with the month in it of the statement reconciled. e.g. (2) for February. And add the number of outstanding entries, so it might read (2)+3 which means there are 3 entries that are still outstanding. Put a box around the entire entry.

If, you understand that, I can go a bit further with the technique. It's about 32 years old and has served me very well.

Thank you guys.

How do you guys do the reconciliation on a piece of paper? In a accounting software? Or excel?

I'm using simply accouting. Every month our bank account as over 100 transation. Which is easier way for me?

With a large number of transactions, it's probably more beneficial to use accouting software, because you can do reporting and/or place things in categories etc.

I either use Excel or a plain calculator. Since I don't write checks near zero balance anyway, I can afford to write the correct amounts when the check book is reconciled.

It is important for me to keep track of checks that are not returned in a timely manner.

What is the proper way to record the depreciation of assets

miva, I always just do these manually. It's not worth it to me to set it up in Excel. And I have yet to find accounting software that does a true bank reconciliation. Well, I take that back -- I've used one and it's some old DOS thing that I've only ever seen once. And it took me longer to go through and use the mouse to check off the items that were returned, looking up and down from the monitor to the statement, than it did just to sit my register print-out and statement side-by-side, and check things off manually. I can do that really fast, much better than the mouse issue. Unfortunately the boss kept insisting I "should" do it on the computer, because he was one of those people who insisted everything was better on the computer. (Which is simply not true. It's a tool like a calculator or a pencil.)

But... that's going to be a very personal thing, whatever is easiest for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mariasalas

what is the proper way to record the depreciation of assets

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Please start a new thread for your post. People looking in this thread are expecting to find reconciliations, not depreciation.

If you want to check off each item on the computer, you can use excel, depends on how well you excel skill is. If both statement can be imported to excel, then just use the vlookup function then you can do it in an instant. But if you still need to look up each item throw the computer then you are still doing it manually. The computer didn't help in that case.