Sage Accpac ERP Bank Reconciliation Revamped!
Posted by Plus Consultants on Mon, May 31, 2010 @ 11:34 AM
by Leon Colton, Consultant
Accpac users probably won't be overly excited if asked about their experience with Bank Reconciliation.
Remember those children games when you need to match one thing with another? And the sense of delight when you find that fragment of the puzzle and plug it in its proper place to complete the picture? That is the sense Accpac users deserve on first-Friday-of-month afternoons, when reconciling last month's Bank statement. But instead of "arts & crafts of bookkeeping" they probably toiled for hours to crunch their numbers on uncomfortable and cumbersome reconciliation forms, till the bottom line finally turns to ZERO! First withdrawals, then deposits, finally Bank entries. And what about more complicated transactions, or NSF cheques handling, or those interest charges included in a customer's cheque, or searching for that bank entry posted a few months ago. Does all of that sound familiar?
Well, here is the good news - Bank Reconciliation has changed for good, it was overhauled and greatly improved in the new Accpac 5.6 version! This time it seems Sage really listened to end-users and designed new functionalities and rebuffed existing ones. Simple to use and readable, designed with users' convenience in mind, a monthly reconciliation can be a breeze. Take a look at some of the changes made:
Streamlined & Simplified Reconciliation Form:
Four tabs (Withdrawals, Deposits, Returns & Bank Entries) united in one Reconciliation tab, and with sort option selected by date you can view transactions as they appear on the bank statement. For those who prefer "out of sight - out of mind" methods - new filters by reconciliation status and transaction type are just what you need! Filter those already reconciled transactions from the screen, view only outstanding cheques or deposits. And feel comfortable sorting by date or document number for easy matching.
Too many dates in the summary screen? No worries! Now it's only Statement date and Reconciliation date. You want to speed up the process - no problem, just double click on the line to change status from ‘Outstanding' to ‘Clear'. Now that's real fun!
New Bank Entry Button
Did you ever say - "hey, why can't we use Distribution Codes and Distribution Sets when entering bank transactions? Now you can, pretty much like in Receivables and Payables modules.
The Bank Entry button on the Reconciliation tab opens a new Bank Entry form, where you can enter any kind of reconciling transaction- from simple service charges to compound entries that use Distribution Codes and Distribution Sets or just G/L Accounts:
NOTE: When the bank entry gets posted it appears on the Reconciliation Tab, just make sure ‘All' transactions are selected in Display field.
Handling more Complex Transactions
Since the new Bank Entry form can handle any number of G/L Accounts, there's no need to scramble everything into one amount, or use A/P and A/R for interest charges or taxes.
More Efficient Transaction Reversal
Instead of Returned cheques and Reversed Payments, you can now do all transaction reversal on one screen.
It is also possible to select the Reversed reconciliation status right in the Reconciliation tab to reverse a payment or other withdrawal, including Bank Entry. However, you must use the Reverse Transactions form to reverse a receipt (deposit). Reversed deposits will appear as outstanding withdrawals on your current Bank Reconciliation when the reversal is posted.
It is now possible to quickly reverse a whole range of transactions in one shot, using the ‘Quick Clearing' button. And restore it back just as quickly, if it was done accidentally!
Zoom to Actual Book Balance
This one is my favourite! I remember the feeling of disbelief when first coming across the discrepancy between the G/L Bank Account balance and Book balance stated in the Bank Reconciliation- it was like my ground was shaking and I thought the entire company data got corrupted?! Little did I know about Bank Services and GL being out-of-sync, when some Bank related transactions are posted straight in G/L, bypassing subledgers. To be honest, I always considered that being a ‘bug' of the system. That is now fixed - these two amounts are separately stated in the zoom-in window, with the book balance breakdown.
You'll also notice the Go button beside "Bank Entries Not Posted" amount, which allows you to post entries on the fly.
Unification of Terminology
‘In Transit' status for deposits is now called ‘Outstanding', just as withdrawals.
All funds moving into Bank Account are now called ‘Deposit', such as Withdrawal Bank errors cleared with lesser amount.
All funds moving out of Bank Account are now called ‘Withdrawal':
- Withdrawals.
- Payments.
- Reversed receipts.
- Deposit bank errors where the Cleared Amount is greater than the deposit amount.
Other Improvements;
- Drilldown to original transaction, such as payment to Vendor.
- New Totals tab with breakdown of reconciled transaction by status (Cleared with write-off, Cleared with bank error etc.)
- Improved Bank G/L Integration, to include Bank Entry Detail and more fields to flow through to G/L batch, such as: Bank code, Bank Entry Type, Distribution Code, Entry Number and Entry Description
- New Reports: Bank entries Posting Journal, sorted by posting sequence
- Transaction History Inquiry with ability to make selection by Source Application (A/R, A/P, Payroll, Bank Services, Other) or by Reconciliation Status, or even to search for specific payment by amount.
In conclusion the new Bank Reconciliation is definitely worth trying!