We currently reconcile bank activity on weekly basis to speed up the close process. But still, we can’t reconcile cash account until day 3-4 of the month. Some of the departments don’t have all the information needed to enter the transactions in the system on day 1 so our accountant can’t match/clear those transactions and prepare bank reconciliation even if everything else is ready. The reconciliation process is help up because of handful of transactions. Is there any way to get around it and reconcile the bank accounts quickly?
Bank reconciliation
Answers
I'm a little confused.
Are you entering transactions after a a/p payment hits the account or cash is received (a/r)?
In either case sounds like you have some internal control issues.
The transcations are entered by different departments such AP, A/R. The cash accountant matches/clears the bank transcations against these tranactions so there is good separation of duties here. The problem is that we can't reconcile cash until all the transcations are entered in the system.
There seems to be a disconnect here since I can't understand why you can't reconcile.
If you rec'd the bank account, then the items that appear on the bank statement are in your G/L.
What transactions have not been entered? Is it, i.e.; the actual a/p that you wrote a check for (i.e., a prepayment)?
You should look at a solution like Blackline offers to automate bank reconciliations. Wayne, it is not as easy as it would seem with bank accounts in several countries at different banks. I fought that battle many years before a cloud solution to automate it was available.
I'm not sure if foreign accounts is even part of the issue (and I agree they add a new wrinkle(s) to the process.