Bank reconciliations in practice

Skills you'll practise

• Classify reconciling items as bank-side timing differences or book-side entries to record
• Calculate the adjusted bank balance and the corrected cash book balance and show they agree
• Record book-side items such as fees, interest, returned customer payments and keying errors
• Investigate and escalate unrecognized debits and long-outstanding items instead of writing them off
• Prepare a reconciliation file that an independent reviewer can check

Course outline

1. 1.Bank reconciliations in practiceVideo · 2 min
2. 2.Two sides of a reconciliationLesson · 16 min
3. 3.Working the reconciliationLesson · 18 min
4. 4.Investigating, reviewing and signing offLesson · 16 min
5. 5.Bank reconciliations in practice: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 16 questions
6. 6.The reconciliation that won't closeScenario
7. 7.Final exam8 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out

Sources it draws on

The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.

• IRS Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records (US example: single- and double-entry systems, journals and ledgers, supporting documents, how long to keep records)
• General bookkeeping practice (journals, ledgers, control accounts, reconciliations, corrections by journal rather than deletion)
• U.S. GAO: Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (the "Green Book", GAO-14-704G, since superseded by GAO-25-107721). Principle 10, Design Control Activities, covers segregation of duties