When reconciling your trust account, you may run into issues with the balance in Smokeball not matching your bank balance. This will prevent you from reconciling for the period, so follow the troubleshooting steps below to rectify this.
Ensure the date range is correct
Bank reconciliations include transactions that are settled only within the date ranges specified. Make sure your date range in the Reconciliation for field is the same as your bank statement, such as the first day to the last day of the calendar month (regardless of if there are dates that fall on weekends or holidays).
On the Bank reconciliation page, you can only change the end date. The start date is generated from the closing date of the last bank reconciliation done in Smokeball, so if it’s not what you expect, you may need to backfill past reconciliations.
Enter the bank statement closing balance in the Bank Statement Balance field
Make sure the figure in the Bank Statement Balance field is the same as the closing balance figure in your bank statement.
Ensure transaction dates align with bank statement dates
When you record deposits and payments into Smokeball, the date that is entered in the transaction is the date that is pulled into the bank reconciliation. If there’s a difference between the date recorded in Smokeball and the date the transaction settled in the bank account, this could cause differences in the reconciliation.
Check beginning and end of month transactions and make sure that they’ve been added to the matter and that their Processed by date is within the reconciliation period. If not, this transaction won’t show up and will need to be added as an adjustment.
For example: a client sent funds for a deposit which was processed into the bank account on 31st August. However, you recorded this in Smokeball with the date 1st September. This deposit will not show up in the August reconciliation, but rather the September one. Add this deposit to the Adjustments tab if you wish to add this to the August reconciliation.
Learn more about adding adjustments to reconcile prior month transactions.
Additional tips
- Having a physical copy of the bank statement in hand or displaying the statement in another window whilst reconciling will make it easier to cross-reference transactions one by one. It will also help you identify missing or duplicate transactions.
- If you cannot insert the last date of the month into the trust reconciliation, this may happen when there are still dates left to reconcile for the previous period. You may have missed a day or two in the previous reconciliation. Reconcile for the last few days of the previous month, and then you will be able to input the last date of the month you are reconciling.