BANK RECONCILITAION A.
Purpose and importance of bank reconciliation. * Purpose
A Bank reconciliation is a process performed by a company to ensure that the company’s records (check register, general ledger account, balance sheet, etc.) are correct and that the bank’s records are also correct. For example, the balance on the bank statement is probably not the amount that appears in the company’s records. In all likelihood the checks written by the company in the days immediately before the date of the bank statement will not have cleared (been deducted from) the checking account. These are called outstanding checks. Another possibility is that the company received money on the closing date of the bank statement and properly recorded the amount in its records. However, the money was deposited into the bank too late in the day and will appear on the next bank statement. This is known as a deposit in transit. Let’s begin the bank reconciliation by assigning some amounts to the items just mentioned:
Balance per bank statement at October 31 $6,442.56; outstanding checks as of October 31 $3,400.00; deposits in transit at October 31 $1,000.00. The adjusted balance per the bank statement on October 31 is $4,042.56 ($6,442.56 + $1,000.00 – $3,400.00). * Importance of Bank Reconciliatiom * Preparation of bank reconciliation helps in the identification of errors made in the records of the hotel or the bank. * Cash is the most vulnerable asset of an entity. Bank reconciliations provide the necessary control mechanism to help protect the valuable resource through uncovering irregularities such as unauthorized bank withdrawals. However, in order for the control process to work effectively, it is necessary to segregate the duties of persons responsible for accounting and authorizing of bank transactions and those responsible for preparing and monitoring bank