Reconcile Bank Statements

Bank reconciliation is the month-end check that confirms every transaction in your accounting records matches the bank’s record. IntBooks does most of the work automatically — this article covers the full month-end reconciliation flow including the manual matches and the outstanding-item review you do at the end.

Why reconcile?

Reconciliation catches three categories of error:

1. Missed entries — payments that hit your bank but were never recorded in IntBooks (or vice versa)
2. Duplicate entries — the same transaction recorded twice
3. Amount mismatches — typos or currency conversion differences

A clean reconciliation means your closing book balance equals your closing bank statement balance. Anything else means there’s an error somewhere.

Step 1: Get the bank statement

If you have a direct bank feed set up (see Connect Your Bank Account), all transactions for the period have already been imported. Skip to step 2.

If not, log in to your bank’s online portal, download the MT940 file or CSV statement for the reconciliation period, and import it via Banking → Bank Accounts → [your account] → Import Statements.

Step 2: Open the reconciliation screen

Go to Banking → Reconciliation → New Reconciliation. Pick:

• Bank account
• Statement period (e.g., 1 Apr 2026 — 30 Apr 2026)
• Statement opening balance (from your bank statement)
• Statement closing balance (from your bank statement)

Click Start. IntBooks loads every imported transaction for the period and the auto-matching engine runs.

Step 3: Review auto-matched transactions

The reconciliation screen shows three columns:

1. Bank statement — transactions from the bank
2. Books — transactions from IntBooks
3. Match status — green check (matched), yellow (suggested), red (unmatched)

Auto-matched transactions are linked by amount + date + reference. Look at each green check to confirm the match looks right. Click a row to unlink if you see a wrong match.

Step 4: Resolve suggested matches

For each yellow row, the system has a high-confidence guess but wants you to confirm. Click the row, review the suggestion, and click Confirm Match if it’s correct. If not, click Reject and either pick a different match from the dropdown or leave the transaction unmatched for now.

Step 5: Match the unmatched transactions

For each red row, you need to either:

• Match to an existing book entry — pick from the suggested matches in the right panel (the system shows transactions within the same date range with similar amounts)
• Create a new book entry — for transactions that exist on the bank but not in your books yet (e.g., bank fees, interest income, owner contributions)

For repeated transactions (monthly Astro subscription, AWS bill, salary disbursement to a director), set up a bank rule so future matches happen automatically:

1. Click the transaction
2. Click Create Rule from this Transaction
3. Pick the matching criteria (description regex, amount range, frequency)
4. Pick the GL account to post to (or the customer/supplier to match against)
5. Save the rule

The rule applies to all future imports.

Step 6: Handle bank charges and interest

Bank charges and interest are common reconciliation findings. Add them as new book entries:

Transaction type	Debit	Credit
Bank service fee	Bank Charges (5XXX)	Bank Account (1XXX)
Wire transfer fee	Bank Charges (5XXX)	Bank Account (1XXX)
Interest income	Bank Account (1XXX)	Interest Income (4XXX)
Stamp duty on cheques	Bank Charges (5XXX)	Bank Account (1XXX)

You can post these inline from the reconciliation screen by clicking the transaction and picking Create Bank Charge or Create Interest Income from the dropdown.

Step 7: Identify timing differences

Some transactions are valid but exist in only one record because of timing:

• Outstanding cheques — cheques you’ve issued but haven’t been cashed yet (in your books but not on the bank statement)
• Deposits in transit — deposits you made on the last day of the month but the bank cleared on the first day of the next month (in your books but not on the bank statement)
• Auto-debits — recurring payments you forgot to enter (on the bank statement but not in your books)

For outstanding cheques and deposits in transit, leave them unmatched and IntBooks carries them forward as outstanding items on the next reconciliation. They’ll match in the following period.

For auto-debits, create the missing book entry now so the books are up to date.

Step 8: Verify the closing balance

Once every transaction is matched (or marked as outstanding), the reconciliation summary shows:

Statement closing balance       RM 50,000.00
+ Outstanding cheques            RM  3,200.00
- Deposits in transit            RM  1,500.00
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Adjusted statement balance       RM 51,700.00
Book closing balance             RM 51,700.00
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Difference                       RM      0.00

A zero difference means the reconciliation is clean. IntBooks highlights the difference in green if it’s zero, yellow if it’s small (under RM 1, usually a rounding issue), or red if it’s larger.

Step 9: Investigate any difference

If the difference is non-zero, click Show Discrepancies. The system points to:

• Transactions matched against wrong books entries
• Books entries with no matching bank transaction
• Bank transactions with no matching books entry that you skipped
• Foreign currency conversion differences

Fix the issue — usually by un-matching and re-matching, or by adding a missing book entry — and the difference recalculates instantly.

Step 10: Lock the reconciliation

Once the difference is zero, click Approve Reconciliation. The system:

1. Marks the reconciliation as Locked (no further edits)
2. Stores the audit trail of who approved and when
3. Carries outstanding items forward to the next period
4. Locks the reconciled bank account transactions so they can’t be accidentally edited

You can always view the locked reconciliation later from Banking → Reconciliation → History.

Common issues

Auto-matching is matching the wrong invoices

Open the affected match, click Unmatch, and re-pick. If the same wrong match keeps happening, edit the bank rule that’s causing it under Banking → Bank Rules, or delete the rule entirely.

My bank statement amount differs from the books amount by a few cents

Usually a foreign-currency rounding difference. Settle it by posting a small Forex Loss or Forex Gain journal entry from the reconciliation screen — the system has a one-click button for this.

I imported the same statement twice and now I have duplicates

Go to Banking → Bank Accounts → [your account] → Transactions, filter to the affected date range, and delete the duplicate import batch from Import History. The original transactions remain.

The reconciliation says my opening balance is wrong

The opening balance for a reconciliation must equal the closing balance of the previous reconciliation. If they don’t match, either you skipped a period or the previous reconciliation was edited after being locked. Click Open Previous Reconciliation to investigate.

What’s next?

• Connect your bank account — set up direct feeds so reconciliation is faster
• Run monthly payroll — payroll disbursements show up on the bank statement and reconcile automatically
• Submit an e-invoice to MyInvois — invoiced amounts that get paid show up on the bank statement