The month-end bank reconciliation checklist

Bank reconciliation is simple in principle: prove that the cash in your ledger agrees with the cash at the bank, and explain every difference. In practice it's where most closes lose time. This checklist keeps the process consistent, whoever is doing it.

Before you start

• Download the bank statement for the full period, ending balance included.
• Confirm last period's reconciliation was completed and signed off.
• Make sure all transactions for the period have been posted to the ledger.

The reconciliation

• Start from last period's outstanding items and clear anything that has since hit the bank.
• Match deposits to recorded receipts, watching for batched deposits and processor payouts.
• Match withdrawals, checks and card payments to recorded payments and bills.
• List anything on the statement that isn't in the ledger (bank fees, interest, unknown debits).
• List anything in the ledger that isn't on the statement (outstanding checks, deposits in transit).
• Calculate the adjusted bank balance and compare it to the ledger balance.

The five mistakes behind most differences

• Transposed digits — a difference divisible by 9 is a classic sign.
• Duplicates from both a bank feed and a manual entry.
• Transactions posted to the wrong period.
• Batched deposits recorded as one line in the ledger but several at the bank (or vice versa).
• Stale outstanding checks that were voided but never reversed.

Sign-off

Once the difference is zero, attach the statement and the reconciliation report, have a reviewer sign off, and lock the period so later edits can't change a closed month. Tools like Recon AIQ automate the matching and the report, but the checklist above is the logic underneath.