Turn a monthly chore into a quick win! Our Dynamics Consultant Jess Howard takes you through the steps to a pain-free bank reconciliation in Microsoft 365 Dynamics Business Central (BC). Whether you’re new to BC or a seasoned pro, read on to make sure you’re taking advantage of Business Central’s automation features for bank reconciliations.
Want to see the process in action – watch the Recap of Jess Howard’s Learning Lab here or continue reading for a quick overview of the key steps.
Creating new bank reconciliations
To create a new bank reconciliation, select New to open up a new Bank Rec window and fill in the general details using the drop-down menus. Statement numbers are incremental based on previous statements, and statement date needs to align with the date provided on your bank statement.
Ways of bringing bank statement data into BC
There are three ways to import your bank statement lines one you’re in the bank reconciliation edit view:
- Manual Entry – this is the simplest option, where you manually type in the data for each individual line on your bank statement. However, this is time consuming if you have a lot of data and prone to human error.
- Bank Import – This is the method Bam Boom Cloud recommend, as it’s much faster and takes the data directly from the bank statement. It does require additional set up to map the statement fields to BC but this only needs to be done once. To import data, you click on Bank > Import Bank Statement > Choose file > Import.
- Suggest Lines – BC can auto-generate your bank statement lines based on the ledger entries, but we don’t recommend this option because it can be more trouble than it’s worth, causing duplications or missed data.
Matching bank statement lines to balance ledger lines
The bank account ledger lines contain the info already in BC from the General Journal. There are two ways to match these with the corresponding bank statement lines:
- Manual Matching – If you can see there’s a clear match on the Bank Statement and Bank Account Ledger entries you can simply select the two lines and click on ‘match manually’.
- Automatic Matching – BC can auto-match lines based on the data. You can set a transaction date tolerance and BC will highlight lines that match. The auto match process is recommended, especially when you have a lot of data. It is easy to go back and manually remove a match where needed by clicking on the lines and selecting ‘remove match.’
Most of our customers use a mix of manual and automatic matching when doing their bank reconciliations.
What if there’s no match?
In a perfect world, all your bank statement lines will match with your balance ledger lines and you’re done. But in the real world, it’s very likely you’ll have some unmatched lines. For example, if you have bank charges on your Bank Statement they may not have been entered into the General Journal. Click on Show > Show Unmatched to view all the unmatched lines.
BC lets you transfer a statement line to the general journal from the bank reconciliation page itself – Actions > Functions > Other > Transfer to General Journal > Select Template and Batch > OK.
This is a great feature of BC as it means you don’t have to jump in and out of the GL and Bank Rec pages to add missing lines. You will however need to refresh the bank reconciliation page to update the ledger entries and view the any new lines you’ve added to the ledger.
Posting bank reconciliations
Once you are happy that all lines match, you just need to complete two final checks before posting your bank reconciliation:
- Make sure your total difference value is zero.
- Make sure the total balance matches the statement ending balance on your bank statement.
Then you are good to post! Home > Post > Confirm.
How to view historical bank reconciliations
To view bank reconciliations that have previously been posted, there are two options in BC:
- Search > bank account > select the bank account you want > bank account > statements > view all previous statements.
- You can also navigate from the bank reconciliation view: Bank > Card > Bank Account > Statements.
Did you know we run a weekly Learning Labs webinar series? If you’re new to Business Central or want to brush up on your existing knowledge, access the recaps and sign up for future sessions.
