“Dear Sydney Bookkeeper, I’ve decided I no longer care for bank reconciliation. It’s labour intensive, tedious, and chews into time that could be better spent elsewhere in the business. Kind regards, Small Business Owner.”
“Morning Small Business Owner, we know it’s not a riveting way to spend a Friday night, and we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but bank reconciliation is a necessary process and something you must keep on top of. Have you considered automating the bank reconciliation process, though?”
“Dear Sydney Bookkeeper, what is bank reconciliation?”
Like every small business owner, you undoubtedly have an endless stream of withdrawals (cash going out) and deposits (cash coming in) cascading through your bank accounts. Whether payments are deposited or operational expenses are withdrawn, it’s easy to get flooded with bookkeeping if you don’t record and match your transactions.
We’re supposing you want to avoid being in deep water, so every line on your bank statement will need to be paired with the corresponding transaction on your accounting software. This process of playing transactional snap with all your receipts, invoices and supplier bills is known as bank reconciliation.
While it might not be your idea of fun, it is vital to provide up-to-date and accurate information on your accounting balance and business bank account.
Remind me, what does bank reconciliation involve?
Step 1) Get your hands on the bank statement for a particular period.
Step 2) Have a perusal of every deposit and withdrawal on the statement.
Step 3) Riffle through all your credits and debits from the same period on your accounting software.
Step 4) Play an endless game of snap by matching all of your transactions with the corresponding receipt, invoice or supplier bill.
Step 5) Reconcile your bank balance with your accounting software balance until they’re carbon copies of each other.
Why should I be automating the bank reconciliation process?
At Orbit, we believe that no one should be spending their free time sifting through receipts, and it’s no secret that we’re obsessed with all things XERO, cloud technology and balancing books.
By enabling your accounting software to do the heavy lifting, we can free up your time to focus on your areas of expertise. Beyond lightening your workload, automating bank reconciliation also leaves less room for error, improves efficiency, and creates plenty of room for ‘more’ in your life.
What does bank reconciliation automation look like?
A lean, mean, automating machine:
By pairing artificial intelligence (AI) with machine learning, your accounting software can automatically match bank transactions to the correct receipt, invoice or bill.
Now available in live-action:
Integrating your accounting software with your bank feed will allow you to view all your bookkeeping and accounting information from one spot. Xero can quickly pull the data straight from your bank feed and send it straight to your accounting software, making bank reconciliation easier than ever.
Working round the clock:
There are only so many hours in a day we can bookkeep with, but Xero and other accounting platforms aren’t tied to the same restraints. So you’ll never have to play the game of estimation again when it comes to the current overview of your balances with real-time data at your fingertips.
A one-click wonder:
Say goodbye to that tedious and time-consuming five-step process and hello to the beautiful world of one-click matching. With platforms like Xero doing the heavy-lifting, all you have to do is select okay to confirm the automated match is correct. It’s quicker than deciding what to watch on Netflix.
Nearly unmistakable:
Opting for an algorithm to play transaction match-maker means that any bank reconciliation errors will decline sharply. Plus, the process that once took you hours is now complete in seconds, leaving more time for you to chase your bright ideas.
Paperwork begone:
You know that shoebox your store all the receipts in? Hubdoc’s made it redundant. Hubdoc reads all of your receipts, and then auto publishes them to your Xero account via a direct line of communication. No data entry is required.
How do I set up bank reconciliation?
At Orbit, we empower Sydney small business owners by ensuring they understand and can easily access their magic numbers. So if you’re in the pursuit of a Sydney based bookkeeper to get back some of your precious time and reap the benefits of automating bank reconciliation, then book a chat or get in touch today.
