Finance & Accounting

Bank Reconciliation: Tie the Books to the Bank

How bank reconciliation works in Fintra: connect feeds, open a reconciliation session, match and clear items, resolve differences, and complete the session.

Updated July 7, 20269 min read1 labAccountantOwner / Founder

Reconciliation is the ritual that keeps your books honest: proving, line by line, that what the ledger says happened in a bank account matches what the bank says. In Fintra you reconcile in sessions - one per account per statement period - clearing items until the difference between book and bank is zero.

If you reconcile monthly it takes twenty minutes; if you reconcile quarterly it takes a miserable afternoon. Everything downstream - the close, the reports, the budget comparisons - inherits its credibility from this step.

How reconciliation works in Fintra

The banking area holds your connected feeds (or CSV-imported statements). Reconciliation is organized around sessions: you create a session for an account and statement period with the statement’s ending balance, then work through items until cleared book balance equals the statement.

The session lifecycle

1
Create the session
Pick the account, the statement period (e.g., July 1–31), and enter the statement ending balance from the bank. This is the target you reconcile to.
2
Clear matched items
Work down the statement, marking each ledger transaction that appears on the statement as cleared. Payments you recorded against invoices and bills should match deposits and withdrawals one-to-one.
3
Add what the books are missing
Bank fees, interest, and anything that hit the bank but never got recorded: add it during the session (posting to the right account) and clear it.
4
Complete the session
When cleared balance equals the statement ending balance - difference zero - complete the session. It locks the period’s reconciliation and becomes the starting point for next month.

The reconciliation equation

Statement ending balance = Book balance + Deposits in transit − Outstanding checks/payments ± Unrecorded bank items (fees, interest)

If the difference is not zero, it is always one of these four: timing on deposits, timing on payments, something on the statement missing from the books, or something in the books that never happened at the bank.

Hunting down a difference

A non-zero difference has a small number of causes. Hunt in this order - it is sorted by frequency.

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Difference equals one statement line exactly	Unrecorded bank item (fee, interest, direct debit)	Add it in the session and clear it
Difference equals one book transaction	Timing - recorded but not yet at the bank	Leave uncleared; it belongs to next month
Difference is double a transaction	Same item entered twice, or cleared with wrong sign	Find the duplicate and void it
Small odd amount (e.g., $0.27, $18.00)	Typo in an amount - transposition errors divide by 9	Compare book vs. statement amounts for near-matches
Large round amount	A transfer between own accounts recorded on one side only	Record the matching side of the transfer

Difference triage, most common first

Cadence and division of labor

Reconcile every bank and credit card account monthly, within the first three business days after the statement closes - it is day-1 work in the month-end close.
High-volume accounts benefit from a mid-month pass: clear the first half of the month early so close week only covers the stub.
Best practice control: the person who reconciles should not be the only person who can move money. Even in a two-person team, have the owner glance at the completed session.
Credit cards reconcile exactly like bank accounts - the "statement balance" is what you owe, and the session proves every charge is booked.

Hands-on labs

Practice against a realistic scenario. Each lab lists the steps, what you should see, and the checkpoints that confirm you got the same result.

Lab 1

Reconcile Acme’s July checking account

Scenario

Acme Services’ July bank statement for Checking shows an ending balance of $44,712.50. The books show $44,470.00. The statement lists a $35 monthly service fee and a $12.50 wire fee Acme never recorded, plus all the deposits and payments Acme expected - except one: a $290 check to Metro Uniforms mailed July 30 has not hit the bank.

Steps

1
Create a reconciliation session for Checking, period July 1–31, statement ending balance $44,712.50.
Expected: The session opens showing uncleared book transactions for July.
2
Clear every book transaction that appears on the statement (deposits from Brightline and Corner Market, the Thursday payment runs, payroll).
Expected: The remaining difference is $242.50 - the statement is higher than the cleared book balance.
3
Add the two bank fees inside the session: $35 service fee and $12.50 wire fee, posting to Bank fees expense, and clear them.
Expected: The fees reduce the book side by $47.50, so the difference moves to exactly $290.00.
4
Identify the remaining $290.00 difference.
Expected: It is the outstanding Metro Uniforms check - recorded in the books July 30, not yet presented at the bank. Correct handling: leave it uncleared.
5
Confirm the session difference is $0.00 against the statement (cleared balance $44,712.50; the $290 stays outstanding).
Expected: Difference reads zero with one outstanding item listed.
6
Complete the session.
Expected: July is reconciled; the $290 check will clear in August’s session.

Checkpoints - you got it right if…

Two bank fees added during the session, posted to Bank fees expense ($47.50 total)
The $290 Metro Uniforms check left uncleared, not forced or deleted
Session completed with a difference of exactly $0.00
You can state next month’s expected first clearing item (the $290 check)

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the bank feed and reconciliation?

The feed imports what happened at the bank and helps you record it. Reconciliation is the formal proof, per statement period, that the ledger and the bank agree. Feeds make reconciliation faster; they do not replace it.

What do I do with a transaction in the feed I do not recognize?

Do not record it to a guess account. Check with whoever holds the card or makes payments; if nobody recognizes it, treat it as potential fraud and call the bank. Unrecognized-and-unexplained is a security event, not a bookkeeping event.

Can I reconcile without a bank feed?

Yes - import statement activity from CSV or reconcile directly against a paper/PDF statement. The session workflow (create, clear, add missing items, complete) is identical.

I completed a session and then found an error in that period. Now what?

Post the correction in the current open period rather than reopening history. If the error is material and the period’s close allows adjustments, your accountant may reopen deliberately - but the default is: fix forward, document why.

How do outstanding checks eventually get cleared?

They stay listed as uncleared and appear in each new session until they show up on a bank statement, at which point you clear them. A check outstanding more than 60–90 days deserves a call to the payee - it may be lost.

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