Reconciling transactions entered in the previous month
When creating a trust account reconciliation, the only available entries are transactions entered within the reconciliation period.
If you have entered a transaction outside the reconciliation period, you will need to enter an adjustment to reconcile - otherwise, the trust reconciliation will not balance.
For Example
A Bank Deposit of $500 is received in your bank on 30 June, however, you received it in Smokeball on 1 July.
When you are reconciling 1-30 June, you will not see this transaction as the entered date is 1 July (outside of the June dates).
To create an adjustment for a transaction entered in a previous month:
- Open the Adjustments tab in the most recent bank reconciliation.
- Select Add Adjustment.
- Enter the date as the actual date of the transaction (in the example above, this is 30 June).
- Enter the amount.
- Enter the reason as 'received 30 June but receipted 1 July' (or your own words to that effect).
- Select type as Deposit (or if a payment select Withdrawal).
- Save & Return to the Reconciliation tab.
- Note that the Adjustment amount has been added to the Reconciliation figures and, so long as the rest of your transactions are correct, you can now reconcile.
- When you next reconcile, you will need to return to the Adjustments tab and check the Reconcile box next to the adjustment to clear it and reconcile.
Reconciling unknown debits and credits
You can still reconcile your trust account even though you have unknown debits and credits appearing on your trust bank statement.
Unknown debit amounts may appear in your bank statement in the following scenarios:
- The amount is a bank fee. If this is the case, contact your bank to have this fee reversed. Trust accounts should not incur bank fees. In the meantime, create a Withdrawal adjustment using the steps below.
- There is a trust payment that has not been entered into Smokeball. Identify the related matter and recreate the trust payment there. By doing this, you do not need to create an adjustment in the reconciliation.
To create an adjustment for unknown debits and credits:
- Open the Adjustment tab in the most recent bank reconciliation.
- Select Add Adjustment.
- Enter the date of the transaction as it appears in the bank statement.
- Enter the amount.
- Enter the reason for this item not being entered into a ledger
- Select type as Deposit for an unknown credit amount, or Withdrawal for an unknown debit amount.
- Save & Return to the Reconciliation tab.
- Note that the Adjustment amount has been added to the Reconciliation figures and, so long as the rest of your transactions are correct, you can now reconcile.
- When you next reconcile, return to the Adjustments tab and check the Reconcile box next to the adjustment.
- Return to the Payments and Receipts tab and check off the same adjustment there. Then the transactions should have cleared and you can reconcile this account.
If at a future date you discover the source of the unknown debit or credit amount, you are not required to reverse the reconciliation. Instead, add the entries with today's date, but make a note of the correct date and reason in the Reason field. In the next bank reconciliation, you can reconcile the adjustment and transaction record.