Bank Reconciliation
What It Does
Bank reconciliation checks your bank statement against the money recorded in autoGMS, one statement line at a time. For each line you say what it is. When every line is explained and the lines add up to the closing balance, you finish the month.
It catches two things:
- payments marked as paid in autoGMS that never reached the bank
- bank lines nobody recorded, such as fees, subscriptions, loan payments or a supplier paid by transfer
Most lines are explained for you. autoGMS calls its answer Spotted. You confirm it with one click, or pick something else.
Where to Find It
- Log in to your autoGMS dashboard.
- In the sidebar, click Financial Reporting, then Bank reconciliation.
You can also open it from Financial Reports, under Accounting tools. It needs Financial Reports and the Reports page permission. The first time you open it, a short tour explains the screen. You can replay it from the page menu (⋯) with Quick tour.
Before You Start
Have these ready:
- A bank account in autoGMS. The same bank accounts you add on Financial Entries. If you have none yet, click Add bank account on the page.
- Your bank statement. Download it from your online banking. CSV, Excel (.xlsx), OFX, QIF and MT940 files all work. A PDF does not. You can also type lines by hand.
- Its dates and both balances. The start date, end date, opening balance and closing balance are printed on the statement.
A statement can cover up to 100 days and cannot end after today. A file can hold up to 2,000 lines.
Step 1: Start the Reconciliation
- If you have more than one bank account, pick the account at the top of the page.
- Click Start reconciliation.
- Type the statement dates, the opening balance and the closing balance.
- Click Start reconciliation.
From your second reconciliation on, the start date and opening balance are filled in for you: the day after the last statement ended, and its closing balance.
Step 2: Add the Statement Lines
- Click Import statement and choose your file.
- autoGMS guesses which column is the date, the description and the amount. Check each one. If your file has one amount column, minus means money out. If it has separate money in and money out columns, say so.
- If the dates could be read two ways, say whether they are written day first or month first.
- Look at the list. Lines outside the statement dates, or that cannot be read, are skipped and listed so you know.
- Click Import.
Importing the same file twice adds nothing. Lines already on the statement are skipped. If the file carries a closing balance that differs from the one you typed, autoGMS tells you so you can check the statement details before finishing.
autoGMS keeps a copy of every file you import. To download one later, open the page menu (⋯) and click Statement files. Discarding a reconciliation deletes its files too. Finishing keeps them.
To add one line by hand, open the page menu (⋯) and click Add a line.
Step 3: Confirm What Is Ready
Above the lines, a bar says how many lines are ready. These are lines with one clear match, or lines a rule already explains. Click Confirm and they are all done at once.
The Spotted filter shows only those lines, so you can go through them first if you prefer to look before confirming.
Step 4: Go Through the Rest
Click To do to see what is left, then click a line. The panel on the right (on a phone, the next screen) shows what autoGMS thinks the line is, with the reason underneath, and the other choices:
| Choice | When to use it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Match a record | The money is already recorded in autoGMS: a customer payment, refund, expense payment, bill payment, transfer or cash box top-up. | The line is tied to that record. |
| Record payment | Money in from a customer whose invoice is still open. | A payment is added to the invoice and the line is matched to it. |
| Record expense | Money out that is not in autoGMS yet: a fee, a subscription, a supplier paid by transfer, fuel on the card. | A paid expense is added to Expenses and the line is matched to it. |
| Set aside | Money that is not business income or expense: a bank fee you don't want in your books, owner money, a loan, tax, a transfer between your own accounts, personal spending. | The line counts as explained. Nothing is added to your books. |
Pick one, then click the button at the bottom. The next line opens on its own.
Matching more than one record. A card payout from your card provider usually covers several customer payments. Click Match a record, tick every payment it covers, and tick the fee if the bank paid in a little less than the payments add up to. Spotted ticks these for you when it can.
Changing details. For an expense, click Edit details first to change the category, supplier, VAT or description before saving. For a set-aside, choose Different reason. For a match, untick and tick records until the amounts add up.
Undo. Open a matched or set-aside line and click Undo match or Undo set aside. You can undo anything until you finish. Undoing does not delete an expense or payment you recorded; it only unties the line.
Step 5: Finish
The figures at the top show how many lines are explained and whether the statement adds up: opening balance, plus money in, minus money out, equals the closing balance.
- If it says Off by an amount, a line is missing or the closing balance was mistyped. Add the line, or fix the balance with Edit statement details in the page menu.
- If it says No closing balance, add it with Edit statement details.
When every line is explained and the statement adds up, click Finish. The reconciliation locks, and the next one starts from this closing balance.
Before finishing, check Recorded in autoGMS, not on this statement at the bottom of the page. It lists card and transfer payments recorded in this period that no statement line matches. The money may be late, may have gone into another account, or may never have arrived. This list does not stop you finishing.
Bank Rules
autoGMS remembers what you do. Each time you record an expense, set a line aside or match a customer's payment, it saves a rule for that payee. The next time a line reads the same, Spotted answers from your rule, and the line shows up as ready.
Garages in the UAE and Ghana also start with built-in rules for common payees, such as utilities, telecoms, fuel stations, government fees and bank charges. Your own rule for the same words always wins, and confirming a built-in answer writes your own rule.
To see and change your rules, open the page menu (⋯) and click Bank rules. There you can:
- Edit what a rule does, such as the expense category or the set-aside reason
- turn a rule off with the switch, and back on later
- Remove a rule
- Add a rule by typing the words the bank prints for a payee and what to do with it
Clicking "Spotted from your rule" or "Spotted from a starter rule" on a line opens that rule.
Report and Export
From the page menu (⋯):
- PDF report gives your accountant one page per reconciliation: balances, how each line was explained, and what was set aside.
- Export downloads a workbook with every line, its match, and the recorded payments not on the statement.
Fixing Mistakes
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| Wrong file imported | Delete the wrong lines, or discard the reconciliation and start again. |
| One wrong line | Open it, click ⋯, then Delete line. |
| Wrong dates or balances | Page menu (⋯), Edit statement details. |
| Wrong match or set-aside | Open the line and click Undo. |
| Everything wrong | Page menu (⋯), Discard reconciliation. This deletes the statement lines only. Expenses and payments you recorded stay in autoGMS. |
| Finished too early | Open it under Past reconciliations and click Reopen. Only the latest finished reconciliation of an account can be reopened, and only while that account has no open one. |
If a matched record changes or is deleted after you finish, the reconciliation flags it. Click Show them, or use the Changed filter, to see which lines. Reopen if you need to fix a match.
On Your Phone
Everything works on a phone. The account name at the top switches accounts, the figures are stacked, and the Confirm bar stays at the bottom of the screen. Tap a line to open it; Lines takes you back.
Who Can Do What
- Anyone with Financial Reports and the Reports page permission can reconcile.
- Record expense also needs the Expenses page permission, because it adds an expense to your books. Without it, the choice is not shown and rules that record expenses are not applied for that person.
- Record payment follows the same rules as recording a payment on the invoice itself.
Good to Know
- Matching a line is what ties a payment to this bank account. autoGMS does not otherwise store which account a payment went into.
- Set aside adds nothing to your books. If you want a bank fee in your reports, use Record expense instead.
- Record expense and Record payment are real entries. They appear on Expenses and on the invoice like any other, and undoing the line does not remove them.
- Finishing changes no money. It locks the reconciliation only.
- Two decimals. Expenses keep two decimals. In currencies with three, such as KWD, BHD and OMR, a line with a third decimal cannot be recorded as an expense; match it to a record you entered instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I reconcile more than one bank account?
Yes. Each account has its own reconciliations. Pick the account at the top of the page.
Can I have two open reconciliations for the same account?
No. Finish or discard the open one first.
Why can't I find a payment to match?
It may not be recorded in autoGMS yet, it may be dated too far from the bank line, or it may already be matched to another line. Search by the exact amount or the customer's name to check.
Spotted is wrong. What do I do?
Pick the right choice in the panel instead. If a rule caused it, click the rule link under the line and edit or remove the rule.
I recorded an expense from a line, then discarded the reconciliation. Is the expense gone?
No. The expense stays on Expenses. When you import the statement again, the same line finds that expense and reuses it, so nothing is recorded twice.