This article describes the Bank Reconciliation feature of Utilities within the Accounts section of Unity® Practice Management. 

Summary

Utility allows you to perform a bank reconciliation on a selected bank and generates the required bank reconciliation reports. It is good practice to reconcile every bank statement you receive. Try to avoid inserting adjustments. If you have posted a wrong amount, then you should contra the incorrect posting, repost, and re-reconcile. However, if the difference occurs due to a bank error then you may have no alternative.

How To Access This Utility

1. Open the Accounts program.
2. Click the Utilities icon.

3. Double-click the Bank Reconciliation option.

   

Accessing Bank Reconciliation

(You can follow along using the training video here) 

1. Select a Bank type.
2. Select a Bank Account. If you have multiple accounts, select the correct one from the list.
3. Click Refresh button to update the transaction list.

• The system will pull through any transactions posted since the last time the selected bank account was refreshed.
• The system will also pull through the current cashbook balance for the selected bank account. 

1. Check that the statement end date reflects your last reconciliation and confirm that the statement end balance matches your bank’s closing balance with no difference showing
2. Navigate through the bank reconciliation screen using the available search options:  Reference, Batch total, and Advanced
   • To search by Reference, enter the bank reference used when posting the transaction and press Enter to locate it. This will open the entry so you can verify the amount and tick the reconcile box.
   • To search by Batch Total, enter the batch amount—for example, 600 pounds—then click Search. The related batch will appear, allowing you to reconcile individual items or the entire batch.
   • Use the Advanced Search option to filter by: Payment or receipt, Matter, Account, Narrative
3. After clicking Search, all matching transactions will appear. Select the transactions, click OK, and manually tick the reconciliation box to mark them as reconciled.

4. Once you have reached the end of the bank statement, you may notice a difference appearing. This is usually because the statement end balance has not been updated. Enter the correct balance from your bank statement, then click the Tab button. The difference should return to zero. 

   Note: If a difference still remains, it may indicate a transaction that has not yet been posted or has not appeared on the bank statement.

5. Once the difference returns to zero, go to the Reports section to generate:
   • Bank Reconciliation Report
   • Reconciled Items Report
   • Or save a copy to your Unity folder
6. To temporarily hide reconciled items while reviewing others, select Show Unreconciled Only. To display everything again, select Show All.
7. If required, use the Options section to adjust display settings such as colors.
8. If you encounter issues during reconciliation, use the Adjustments option to add a temporary entry. This is useful when a transaction appears on the bank statement but has not yet been posted in the system.
9. If the transaction shows as a receipt, enter an adjustment payment in the opposite direction to temporarily offset it. 
10. Add the date, reference, narrative, and amount, then click Post. This will help reduce the difference on your bank reconciliation.
11. Once the funds have been received and correctly posted to the ledger, return to the Adjustments section and remove or tick off the adjustment.
12. Tick the actual posted transaction to reconcile it. The difference will continue to reduce as transactions are reconciled.
13. Once everything is balanced, click Close to complete the process and exit.

How To Add An Adjustment  

1. Select a bank type
2. Select a bank account
3. Click the adjustments tab
4. Click Add Adjustment
5. Select whether the adjustment is either a payment or a receipt.
6. Select a date
7. Enter a reference
8. Enter a narrative. (An entry in this field is not mandatory).
9. Enter an amount
10. Click Post

How To Delete An Adjustment  

1. Select a bank type
2. Select a bank account
3. Click the adjustments tab
4. Select the required adjustment by clicking any of its fields
5. Click Del Adjustment

How To View The Associated Reports

1. Click Reports and a new window will pop up
2. Select the bank account
3. Select the required report type

• Click Screen for an onscreen preview of the report.
• Click Print to print the report.
• Click Close to return to the main window.

Troubleshooting

If you cannot get the bank to reconcile do the following:

• Make a note of the total displayed on the reconciled report
• Make a note of the total displayed on the reconciled adjustments report
• Add these two totals together
• This new total should equal the difference between the statement end balance this time and the statement end balance last time the bank was reconciled
  • If these 2 figures are different then please recheck your bank statement something was missed along the way
  • If these 2 figures are the same, please contact Quill technical support.

Miscellaneous Options

1. Click a transaction heading (e.g. Reference, Date) to reorder the transactions according to the results in that particular column. An arrow will appear to show which heading is currently selected saying Reference:

• By default the system will order transactions by either reference or date
• Double click a heading to display transactions in reverse order

1. A search facility is available, Select to search by either reference or amount then enter the information to search for