Reconciling your trust account

Learn how to complete a bank reconciliation for your trust account to regularly keep your account balances accurate.

A bank reconciliation is a task you do at regular intervals during the year to ensure the transactions in your trust bank account match those processed through Smokeball.

It is best practice to do reconciliations monthly, especially if there is a steady stream of incoming and outgoing transactions over the month.

Prepare the trust account for reconciliation

Before you begin, make sure that all transactions for the period you are reconciling have been entered into Smokeball.

If you entered the wrong date for a trust payment, reverse the transaction and recreate it with the correct date. There will be a record of the reversal; however, the correction will still be processed, and the reconciliation will be accurate.

Also, have a copy of the bank statement for your trust bank account on hand for easy reference.

Reconcile the bank account

1. Open Smokeball, then select Accounts from the left menu.
2. Select Bank Reconciliation from the top bar.
3. Select Create Reconciliation.
   
4. In the bank reconciliation screen, navigate to the right panel, then enter the date range of your bank statement. This will be the reconciliation period.
   • If this is not the first bank reconciliation in Smokeball, the starting date will be greyed out. Enter the ending date.
     
5. Go to your bank statement and find the closing balance - this is the balance in the bank account as of the end of the statement date. Enter the balance in the Bank Statement Balance field.
   
6. Navigate to the list of transactions in the Payments and Receipts tab - now, with your bank statement on hand, tick the box next to each transaction that shows up in the bank statement.
   
7. As you tick the transactions, the Reconciliation Balance in red text on the right side of the screen will update with a revised balance. Once all relevant transactions are ticked, the figure will change to blue text and show the same figure as your bank statement balance:
   
   
8. Select Reconcile, then select Complete. It’s important to note that once you select Complete, the transactions in the period will be locked from editing, to prevent changes after reconciling.
9. Print and sign the Bank Reconciliation Report that is generated.

Reconciliation tips

• If your bank account doesn’t balance with transactions entered into Smokeball even after ticking them all, there may be a transaction missing in Smokeball. Find the transaction in your bank statement and ensure it’s been recorded correctly in Smokeball, especially in regard to the date.
• Check that all figures are correct in Smokeball and that no figures have been transposed.
• You can view the Bank Reconciliation Report at any time from the Bank Reconciliation tab.