Reconciliation Types

There are the five different Reconciliation Types that are used in RecWizard. It is important that you become familiar with them. When you set up an account for the first time you will be asked for a Reconciliation Type.

Different Reconciliation Types are used to provide unique templates to guide you through the reconciliation process depending on the information needed for a specific type of account. The five Reconciliation Types are listed below. If you click on the link you will go to a more in depth description of the Reconciliation Type along with suggestions for the accounts that would most likely be analyzed with that type of reconciliation.

All Reconciliation Types provide areas to input the items that should be recorded, and an area to describe the “reconciling differences”. Remember, the most important part of reconciling an account is to identify problems and CORRECT THEM. If you’re not clearing these items up on a timely basis, you should. If your staff is not clearing these items up on a timely basis, well… you decide what happens next.

Click on the link to learn more about these Reconciliation Types:

• List - can be used with almost any account type.

• Sub-Ledger Match - used when you are making sure the General Ledger agrees with the total from another system.

• Calculated Balance - used when you have a detailed calculation that supports the account balance.

• Checking Account - as you might expect, this is used for bank accounts.

• Amortizable Prepaid - used with certain types of Asset accounts.

Changing Reconciliation Types

As a "general rule", once you have started to prepare reconciliations for an account you should not change the Reconciliation Type. There may be a time when you decide a different Reconciliation Type would be better to use for a specific account. If you decide to change a Reconciliation Type you may lose access to information that shows up only for the specific Reconciliation Type that you changed from.

If you need to change a Reconciliation Type, here are the options you should consider:

• If you have never used the account before:
  • Delete the original account.
  • Create a new account using the appropriate Reconciliation Type.
• If you have used the account for a limited amount of time:
  • Print copies of the account reconciliations you have already completed for the account.
  • Delete the original account you were using.
  • Create a new account using the appropriate Reconciliation Type.
  • Prepare the historical reconciliations for the account using the copies of the previous reconciliations that you just printed. You will then have all your historical information in one account.
• If you have significant information and/or reconciliations that you wish to keep without re-entering all your data, do the following:
  • Open the most recently completed reconciliation that you have prepared for the account.
  • Make sure all reconciling items have a close date (if you do not close every reconciling item they will remain forever "lost in space").
  • Open the account setup dialog window and change the account number  - we suggest using two leading 9's - for example: account "1400" would become account "99-1400". This will result in the old account showing up at the bottom of the account list when you open the account setup dialog window.
  • Change the account name so it is obvious that the account is no longer the account to be used for current reconciliations. For example, the account "Miscellaneous Prepaids" would become "Miscellaneous Prepaids-INACTIVE-09/30/03". The use of the date will give you a quick visual reminder of when you inactivated the account.
  • Click on NO for the Active Account status. The account will no longer appear in the list of accounts that you can reconcile. If you ever need to open these reconciliations again simply change the Active Account status to YES.
  • Set up a new account with the appropriate reconciliation type.

Changing Reconciliation Types can result in lost information if you don't make the change carefully. If you have any doubts about what to do, re-read the instructions and practice in the RecWizardTutorialReconciliations database first.