Bank Reconciliation
What Is Bank Reconciliation?
Bank reconciliation is the process of matching the transactions in your TimelyChurch records to the transactions on your bank statement. This ensures that your books accurately reflect what the bank shows and helps you catch errors, missing transactions, or unauthorized charges.
TimelyChurch provides a guided reconciliation wizard that walks you through the entire process step by step.
Before You Begin
Before starting a reconciliation, gather the following from your bank:
- Statement date -- The ending date of the bank statement you are reconciling.
- Statement ending balance -- The final balance shown on the bank statement.
Also make sure all transactions for the statement period have been entered in TimelyChurch. This includes any deposits, checks, electronic payments, and bank fees.
Finding Reconciliation
Open Accounting from the Finances area, then look at the tab bar across the top of any Accounting page. Reconciliation lives in the dropdown menu at the end of that tab bar:
- In Advanced mode the menu is labelled Setup ▾.
- In Simple mode it is labelled More ▾.
Open the dropdown and click Reconciliation. (Reconciliation is available in both Simple and Advanced modes.) This opens the Bank Reconciliation page, which lists your reconciliation history.
Who Can Reconcile
Reconciling uses two actions on the Accounting row of your role (both included in Full Access):
- Reconcile -- start a reconciliation, check items off, and discard a reconciliation. Without it, the start screen says "Starting a bank reconciliation needs Contribute access in Accounting."
- Close -- click Finish Reconciliation. A person who can reconcile but not close can prepare everything and leave it for someone with Close to finish.
Starting a New Reconciliation
- Open the Reconciliation page (see Finding Reconciliation above).
- Click Start Reconciliation in the top-right corner.
- On the Start Bank Reconciliation screen, select the bank account you want to reconcile (only asset-type accounts are listed).
- Enter the statement ending date from your bank statement. It defaults to the last day of the prior month -- change it to match your statement.
- Enter the statement ending balance from your bank statement.
- Click Continue to Mark Items. (The progress bar at the top reads Enter Statement Info → Mark Cleared Items → Completed.)
TimelyChurch will automatically calculate the beginning balance. If this is your first reconciliation for the account, the beginning balance is the account's opening balance. For subsequent reconciliations, it uses the ending balance from the most recent completed reconciliation.
Note: You can only have one reconciliation in progress at a time. If you already have one in progress, the page shows a Reconciliation in Progress banner and the Start Reconciliation button is replaced by Continue Reconciliation, so you can finish or discard it first.
The Reconciliation Wizard
After starting a reconciliation, you will see the reconciliation wizard with two main sections:
Transaction List
All unreconciled transactions for the selected account up to the statement date are displayed. For each transaction you can see:
- A checkbox to mark it cleared
- Date
- Num (reference/check number, if any)
- Description
- Payment and Deposit amounts (shown in separate columns)
Reconciliation Summary
A row of summary cards at the top of the wizard shows real-time calculations:
- Beginning -- The starting point (from the previous reconciliation or the account's opening balance).
- + Deposits -- The total of all income transactions you have marked as cleared.
- - Payments -- The total of all expense transactions you have marked as cleared.
- = Calculated -- Beginning + Deposits - Payments.
- Statement -- The ending balance you entered from your bank statement.
Below the cards, a large Difference card shows the Statement balance minus the Calculated balance. This must reach $0.00 before you can finish the reconciliation. In Simple mode this card is worded more gently -- it reads "Not matched yet" until the amounts agree, then switches to "Matched!"; in Advanced mode it reads "Difference" and "Balanced!" respectively.
Step-by-Step Process
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Compare each transaction on your bank statement to the transactions listed in the wizard.
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Click on a transaction to mark it as cleared. The transaction will be highlighted and the reconciliation summary will update immediately.
- If you accidentally clear a transaction, click it again to unmark it.
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Watch the Difference amount in the summary panel. As you clear transactions, the difference should approach $0.00.
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If the difference is not zero, check for:
- Transactions on the bank statement that have not been entered in TimelyChurch (e.g., bank fees, automatic payments, interest earned). Enter these as new transactions, then return to the wizard and clear them.
- Transactions in TimelyChurch that are not on the bank statement (these are outstanding -- leave them uncleared).
- Amount discrepancies -- compare individual transaction amounts between your records and the bank statement.
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When the difference reaches $0.00, the Finish Reconciliation button becomes active. Click it to finish. (Until the difference is zero, this button stays greyed out.)
Need to stop partway? Click Save & Exit at the top of the wizard. Your checkmarks are saved; reopen the reconciliation later with Continue Reconciliation.
Find What's Missing
When the difference is not zero, a Find What's Missing panel appears below the list ("Click to see transactions that might explain the difference"). It explains what the difference usually means and suggests:
- Exact Match Found! -- unchecked transactions that match the difference exactly (Click to check).
- Possible Combinations -- pairs of unchecked transactions that would close the difference together.
- Likely Candidates -- unchecked payments or deposits worth looking at first.
- Missing a Transaction? -- a button to add the difference as a new payment or deposit, for a bank fee or interest you had not recorded yet.
Completing the Reconciliation
Before you finish, make sure every transaction in the list that is dated on or before the statement date has been checked off. TimelyChurch completes a reconciliation only when nothing in the period is left unchecked.
If an item is still unchecked when you click Finish Reconciliation, the reconciliation stays In Progress and the wizard tells you which items are in the way: "Cannot complete reconciliation. These uncleared transactions dated on or before the statement date still block it: … Mark them as cleared, then complete again." The message lists the first five by date, description and amount, and adds "and N more" when there are more. Check those items off (or correct them) and finish again.
Completing a reconciliation cannot be undone -- there is no reopening a completed one -- so look the list over once more before you finish.
When the reconciliation completes:
- All cleared transactions are marked as reconciled and receive a reconciled date.
- The reconciliation record is saved with the final balances, the person who completed it, and the completion date.
- Reconciled transactions can no longer be deleted, and a journal entry dated inside the reconciled period for that account cannot be posted or deleted. Posting one is refused with "Cannot post a journal entry dated within a completed reconciliation period for one of its accounts. Use a later date."
- A bill payment or a recurring transaction dated inside the reconciled period for that account is refused too (for a bill payment: "Cannot record a payment dated within a completed reconciliation period for this account. Use a later date."). Date it after the statement date instead. Voiding a bill payment is refused as well when its reversal would fall inside the reconciled period.
- A deposit batch cannot be marked deposited while one of its gifts is dated inside the reconciled period of the bank account it goes to (or of the account it comes from). See Deposit Batches.
- Editing a reconciled transaction shows a warning first, because changing it can put your reconciliation out of balance.
Important: Once a transaction is reconciled through a completed reconciliation, it cannot be deleted. This protects the integrity of your historical records. If you need to reverse a reconciled transaction, create a new offsetting entry instead.
Discarding a Reconciliation
If you need to abandon a reconciliation in progress:
- Click Discard Reconciliation at the top of the wizard page.
- Confirm in the Cancel Reconciliation? dialog ("This will clear all marked items and delete this reconciliation.") by clicking Cancel Reconciliation. Close the dialog instead if you change your mind.
- All cleared transaction marks from this reconciliation are removed, and no transactions are marked as reconciled.
- The reconciliation stays in your history with a Cancelled status.
You can start a new reconciliation at any time after cancelling.
Viewing Reconciliation History
The Reconciliation page (reached via the Setup ▾ / More ▾ dropdown in the Accounting tab bar) opens directly to a list of all past reconciliations. Use the All Accounts filter at the top, then click Filter, to narrow the list to one bank account. Each row shows:
- Account name
- Statement date
- Statement ending balance
- Status (Completed, In Progress, or Cancelled)
- Who completed it and when
Downloading a Reconciliation Report
For completed reconciliations, you can download a PDF report:
- Open the Reconciliation page.
- Find the completed reconciliation in the history list.
- Click the Report button (download icon) at the end of that row. (Rows that are still In Progress show a Continue button instead.)
The PDF includes the account name, statement date, beginning and ending balances, the cleared deposits and payments, and a list of all cleared transactions. This is useful for your records or to share with a finance committee or auditor.
Tips for Successful Reconciliation
Reconcile monthly. The best practice is to reconcile each bank account as soon as you receive the monthly statement. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to find discrepancies.
Enter all transactions first. Before starting a reconciliation, make sure you have recorded all bank fees, automatic withdrawals, interest earned, and any other transactions that appear on the statement.
Do not skip months. Each reconciliation builds on the previous one. Skipping a month means the beginning balance for the next reconciliation may not match, making it harder to balance.
Watch for items that have not cleared yet. A check that has not been cashed or a deposit in transit that is dated inside the statement period keeps the reconciliation from completing until it is checked off.
Reconciling With an AI Assistant
If your church has connected an AI assistant, it can start a reconciliation, check items off and cancel one for you, each after your approval in the chat. Completing a reconciliation through an assistant also needs a church administrator's approval on the TimelyChurch website, because it cannot be undone. See Approving Changes an AI Assistant Proposes.