Updated: 15 October 2024
Tips on using Bank Reconciliation alerts
Making sure your client’s Xero “Bank Accounts” records match their bank and credit card statements is the first step to ensuring the data for a period is complete and accurate. Aider’s Period Close Checklist and Dashboard help you monitor the reconciliation status for all of your Xero clients’ active bank and credit card accounts at a glance.
- Aider’s Bank Reconciliation alerts show the reconciliation status for the bank / credit card transactions up to the end of the period you selected.
- When working on a period close, get these alerts to green before working on the rest of the Period Close checklist. This ensures that the rest of the checklist takes all relevant transactions into account.
- If some transactions can legitimately be left unreconciled, add a comment for reviewers or as a reminder in case you need to follow up in the future. Then manually check off the alert as reviewed.
1. Unreconciled Bank Statement lines alert
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This alert gives you a summary of the unreconciled transactions from Xero > Bank Accounts > Bank statements tab, up to the end of the selected period. These are the same transactions as Xero Bank Reconciliation Report’s “Plus unreconciled statement lines” section.
Xero’s “Bank statements” lines (transactions) are created by automated bank feeds that your client had set up, or digital bank statements that your client manually imported. They are in lieu of paper bank statements that you might otherwise cross-reference and reconcile the Xero bank / credit card accounts with.
To fix a bank / credit card account with unreconciled bank statement lines:
- Click on the account name to go to Xero’s reconciliation screen for that account.
Note: If you’re working on an older period, you may see more unreconciled transactions on the Xero screen: Xero always shows ALL unreconciled transactions TO DATE. Reconcile all of them if possible. Or if you want to focus on a particular period, use the date filter on Xero’s reconciliation screen. - Match these unreconciled bank statement lines to an existing Account transaction, invoice, or bill in Xero, or add as new spend or receive money Account transaction.
Useful Xero help articles:
- View bank statements and bank statement lines – Xero Central
- Reconcile your bank account – Xero Central
2. Unreconciled Account transaction alert
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This alert gives you a summary of the unreconciled transactions from Xero > Bank Accounts > Account transactions tab, up to the end of the selected period. These are the same transactions as Xero Bank Reconciliation Report’s “Plus outstanding payments” and “Less outstanding receipts” sections.
Xero’s “Account transactions” are created during the Xero reconciliation process, or added manually - e.g. in advance when the transaction happened, rather than waiting for bank feed reconciliation. Unreconciled account transactions are those that have not been matched to a bank statement line. This could happen if the account transaction was…
- Added manually and waiting to be matched to a bank statement line.
- Added manually due to bank feed and digital bank statements being unavailable.
- Previously reconciled, but the corresponding bank statement line has been deleted or voided.
- Previously reconciled, but manually changed to unreconciled when fixing a reconciliation matching error.
To fix a bank / credit card account with unreconciled Account transactions:
- Reconcile any unreconciled bank statement lines first (see above). Then use the “Quick Resync” button to update the bank reconciliation alerts.
- If there are still unreconciled account transactions up to the end of the period, click on the account name to go to Xero’s “Account transactions tab” for that account and check which transactions they are and why they have not been matched to a bank statement line.
- Check for missing bank statements. This might be caused by problems with bank feed, missing manual imports, or clients only having paper statements. If you are sure the transaction is not a duplicate and has cleared the bank, you can manually mark the account transaction as reconciled. Xero will automatically create a matching bank statement line with the source marked as “User”.
- Check for bank statement lines deleted/voided by mistake. This affects previously reconciled account transactions. If necessary, restore and rematch the bank statement line to the corresponding account transaction.
- Check for duplicate account transactions. This might be caused by bank statement lines being created as new account transactions during reconciliation, rather than matched to existing spend/receive transactions, invoices, bills, expense claims, payments, or transfers. If necessary, rematch the bank statement line to the correct transactions and delete the duplicate account transactions.
Useful Xero help articles:
- About the account transactions tab – Xero Central
- Manually mark a transaction as reconciled – Xero Central
3. Reconcile balances with actual Bank Statements alert
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The final step of reconciliation is to confirm that the calculated bank statement balances in Xero match actual bank / credit card statement balances. If they don’t match, then there may be bank statement lines missing or duplicated in Xero.
This alert gives you at a glance for all selected active bank / credit card accounts:
- Calculated bank statement balances. This is calculated by removing any unreconciled account transactions (alert 2 above) from the Xero Account balance (sum of all account transactions), then adding any bank statement lines that are waiting to be reconciled (alert 1 above).
- Actual bank statement balances where available via bank feed or manual bank statement imports.
Where actual bank statement balances are not available, use the input fields to enter the actual balance amounts. Please get this information from your client - e.g. via screenshots or a copy of their actual bank / credit card statements. - The differences between actual balances vs calculated balances. Where you need to enter the actual statement balance manually, this will be recalculated automatically.
If the differences are not $0, then check for missing or duplicated bank statement lines.
Useful Xero help articles:
4. Deleted & voided transactions alert
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This alert shows you any bank / credit card account transactions, invoices, and bills dated this period that have been deleted or voided. Note that invoices and bills are listed by their line items, not totals.
This alert may be useful to review if you are having trouble reconciling the calculated Bank Statement balances with the actual Bank Statements. Were any deleted/voided transactions reconciled previously? If yes and they were subsequently deleted or voided, this may cause the balances to not match. Click on the transaction in the list to go to the corresponding record in Xero if you need to investigate further
If the other bank reconciliation alerts are all green, then simply keep an eye on this alert. Lots of transaction, invoice, or bill deletion may indicate problems with recordkeeping or the business. It may be worth checking in with your client to ensure everything is alright.
Useful Xero help articles:
Troubleshooting:
Q: Why does the data not match Xero screens, such as the Bank Reconciliation Report?
A: Here are some common reasons why the Bank Reconciliation alerts in Aider may not match what you see in Xero:
- New data since last resync: Have there been additional activities in Xero recently? You can check when the data in Aider was updated by the date and time shown under the "Bank Reconciliation" heading. Use the "Quick Resync" link to update the "Bank Reconciliation" data.
- Very old unreconciled Account transactions: When a client is first added and activated, Aider only imports transactions for the current year + 3 previous years. Any transactions older than this will not be synced. If any such transactions are still unreconciled, we recommend you clean up these transactions - e.g. delete duplicates, manually mark them as reconciled. This ensures the client’s Xero data is complete and accurate going forward.
- Limits of the data that Xero makes available to partners: Xero does not permit third-party access to the Bank Reconciliation Reports and bank statement details. Aider uses the closest equivalent report (Cash Validation Report) to recreate the summaries shown in the Bank Reconciliation Reports.
- For older periods, unreconciled transaction counts and amounts may be off by 1 or more transactions. Try to work on the latest month available - it is less affected by this issue, and will include all unreconciled transactions up to the end of the month.
- Some transactions - especially credit card transactions - may be affected by transaction vs bank clearance dates. This may affect the latest month as well as older periods. If there are discrepancies, check for transactions at the end or beginning of periods.
If you still find the data are not matching, please report the problem to our friendly Customer Success Team.