A practical bank-reconciliation workflow for accounting firms.

Confirm the bank or card account, statement ending date, ending balance, and the prior completed reconciliation. Verify that the statement is complete and belongs to the account being reconciled.

If the prior balance is wrong, correct or explain that boundary before clearing the current period. Carrying a bad opening forward makes the worksheet look active while preserving the original problem.

A bank feed row is source evidence, not necessarily a posted ledger entry. Pending or uncoded rows should not appear as clean reconciliation items. Transfers need both sides or a documented timing explanation.

Review the register for imported history, manual journal entries, duplicates, and items dated near the statement cutoff.

Use dates, amounts, checks, descriptions, and statement order to match posted activity. The reconciliation cutoff remains the statement date even when a narrow timing window helps identify a related post-cutoff record.

Do not clear an item only to force the difference to zero. Each cleared row should have statement support or a well-understood timing relationship.

A difference can come from an incorrect beginning balance, missing posted activity, duplicate entries, uncleared statement items, sign inversion, fees, interest, transfers, or a genuine accepted adjustment.

An adjustment is a bookkeeping action with consequences. It should have a clear account, date, reason, authorization, and link to the reconciliation—not exist as an unexplained plug.

The finished reconciliation should preserve the account, statement period, balances, cleared activity, difference, preparer or agent evidence, and resulting adjustment where applicable.

The next period should begin from the completed ending balance. Reopening or changing a completed reconciliation should be deliberate because it changes that continuity.