Bank Reconciliation

Banks send statements to their depositors each month. A bank reconciliation compares the information in the bank statement with the company's Cash account, and finds any discrepancies. These are recorded or dealt with as needed. The process is fairly simple.

The bank balance and book Cash balance are listed on a piece of paper (now we often use computers). Some items show up on the bank statement, but have not been reflected in the books yet. These items will be added to or subtracted from the book balance.

Some transactions have been recorded in the books, but have not yet cleared the bank. These include deposits in transit, which are not yet posted in the bank's records - those made after the date of the bank statement. And outstanding checks - those which have been written and mailed, but haven't cleared the bank yet. These items are added to or subtracted from the bank balance.

Once all items have been included, the adjusted bank and book balances should be equal. If they are not, the reconciliation needs to be reviewed and corrected until the two amounts are equal.

Bank Reconciliation

Adjustments to Bank Balance	Adjustments to Book Balance
Add Deposits in transit	Add anything on bank statement that increases cash balance, but has not been recorded in the books: bank collections, interest earned
Subtract Outstanding checks	Subtract anything on bank statement that decreases cash balance, but has not been recorded in the books: bank charges and fees, bad checks, interest charges
Bank errors (add or subtract as needed); notify bank of error; these don't happen very often, but we need to watch for them	Add or subtract for accounting errors relating to deposits or checks.
Do not record any of these adjustments in the books.	These adjustments must be entered as journal entries, so the books agree with the bank balance.