How to reconcile your books when you’ve not looked at them since January!

So you’ve been very busy working on your business. So busy, in fact, that you’ve not really looked at the books. You see that there is more money in the bank each month, and, being the visualizer that you are, you basically know your expenses and revenues, right?

That’s not entirely true, and it is definitely not the way to manage your finances. But getting your books in order does not have to be a herculean process when you’ve got months of backlog. It does take time and focus, but follow these suggestions and you’ll be done before you know it.

Open your bookkeeping software and find the last date that your account(s) were reconciled. If more than one account, the one with the earlier reconciled date is your starting point.

Run a quick balance sheet and profit and loss report as of the end of the month before the earlier date to see if any corrections or entries are needed. (Example: your last reconcile was a credit card statement for Dec 15, 2017 means that you will run a balance sheet and PnL report for November 2017.)

Get your monthly statement from your account with the earlier reconciled date and reconcile it. Concern yourself only with the reconciliation. Don’t worry about the current balance on the account. You are reconciling for one month in the past, so future transactions will be addressed when you get to them in your process.

When you are done with the one reconciliation, do any others for that month. After completion of one month, be sure to run a Balance Sheet Report and Profit and Loss for the month you’ve just reconciled. Check for any discrepancies before moving on to the next month.

Continue reconciling in the same fashion per month until you have caught up to the present day.

By running monthly reports after you reconcile you can assure yourself that you are confident that the transactions have all been recorded correctly.

It’s at this time that you can review your reports to date to see if your mental vision of expenses and revenues were correct.

Of course, instead of the tedious business of reconciling your accounts, you can use Common Cents! For more information about Common Cents Bookkeeping, visit us on the web at www.ccb-tx.com or send an email to contact@ccb-tx.com