Bank Reconciliation & Accounting Program

[AngelSpeaks]

Has your charity considered using QuickBooks? Two non profits that have worked with my special needs child used QuickBooks Accounting. Each bank account has it's own Bank Reconciliation.

 

[access2010]

I obviously misunderstood your comment about BS reconciliation being unnecessary: and by definition I don't expect to do a BSR in code. The whole point is that it is an exercise to be aware of your situation.



As to my dislike of keeping accounts on a spreadsheet it comes from regularly taking over accounts run on a spreadsheet and without exception the spreadsheets have been wrong, and taken unnecessary time to get the accounts they purport to represent straight.

Thank you for your comments, gemma-the-husky which which is another reason we want a Bank REc Program.

 

[access2010]

If you want a bank rec module, you would need a table with all the items from the bank statement, and another table with all the items in your cash book. You then cross reference all the items on the bank statement to the cash book, inserting any items on the bank statement into the cash book where they don't exist, such as bank charges. You should then be able to identify reconciling items in the CB - lodgements not credited and unpresented cheques. However matching bank statements to cash book records is most likely non trivial for a computer programme, as many of the references are unlikely to correspond exactly, and it will take longer to do it in a database than it would just putting a "cleared" indicator in a CB (paper or spreadsheet).

You are also creating both a bank statement table that you don't really need, and a cash book table that you may not need either, as you can probably work from an analysed cash book or spreadsheet (which is why I do like to use a spreadsheet). It's probably easier to tick off the items in the CB/spreadsheet against the BS, and then anything unticked is a reconciling item. (Or maybe a CB error) If references don't match exactly you can generally see which item jn the CB corresponds to the BS entry. If you can't download statements from the bank you would have to key them into the database manually. If you can download them, you still have to write an import process, and make sure that you don't duplicate/omit any.

You could do the CB in an access table, but it's extra work. If @DickyP isn't keen on seeing a CB spreadsheet I imagine he would be even less keen on doing it in a database. I've never seen the need personally. This is one area where I do find it useful to see a running total in a table.

@access2010 . It all goes back to the size of your charity, the records you need to keep, and the accounts you need to produce. In general terms I would strongly be advising you against trying to do automatic bank recs, unless you really had to. I genuinely just don't see the need or the value. I think it really starts from considering your cash book though, and how large/complex a document that is.

Thank you gemma-the-husky for your comments. We fo need a separate bank account for each of the Endowment funds, and with a Database we will be able to print a report for any request made to us.

 

[access2010]

As I've agreed all along this is not a task for an Access process - my initial input came from gemma's initial assertion- "A bank rec is the last thing I would bother about" - that any such reconciliation wasn't worthwhile.

Thank you DickyP for your comments and we will have losts to discuss this weekend.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Thank you gemma-the-husky for your comments. We fo need a separate bank account for each of the Endowment funds, and with a Database we will be able to print a report for any request made to us.

I am not disputing that. I am just surprised that you see a bank rec module as the first priority. How many transactions do you have per account in an average month?