Infor ERP TakeStock’s Bank Reconciliation process minimizes the effort required to reconcile the differences between your bank statement’s balance and the bank balance shown in TakeStock.

The process allows you to enter transactions in TakeStock that were not processed through normal Deposit or AP Check transaction processing to make the balances agree. Once reconciled, you would then reconcile new transactions going forward, using the previous reconciliation balance as your starting point.

To make this process easier, the Bank Reconciliation Entry program has been redesigned to contain two tabs: Statement Info and Transactions. The program window is now resizable. Below are screen shots of the two tabs. (You must be running TakeStock version 6.0.080 or higher to see these enhancements.)

On the Statement Info tab, Reconciliation Entry now tracks the new amount of reconciled transactions compared to the difference between the previous and current statement balances. The difference is displayed in the “un-reconciled” field.

To use this enhanced feature for existing bank accounts, you must update certain fields in TakeStock that are not normally updated by the user. If no reconciliation has been performed, the Last Bank Statement Date and Balance field on the Controls tab of Bank Account Maintenance are enabled so the information can be entered for use in Reconciliation Entry. See the screen shot below.

When you receive a bank statement, run Bank Reconciliation Entry and enter the bank code of the bank account. Enter the statement date and ending balance from this statement.

You can enter bank transactions and also indicate that transactions have cleared the bank on the Transactions tab. Use this program to indicate that payments posted to the banking system by the AP Payment Register have cleared, in addition to deposits posted to the banking system by the AR Cash Receipts Register.

You can enter and clear any additional transactions listed on the statement that was not posted automatically by the system, such as bank fees, service charges, etc. These transactions are entered by clicking on the ADD button at the bottom of the Transactions Tab.

The Transaction Detail window is displayed. It allows you to select the adjustment code, enter the adjustment date, adjustment amount, date from statement, and a memo field to explain the transaction.

It is also possible to hide un-needed transactions. In the browser grid on the Transactions panel, right-click in the grid area of the screen and select “Hide transactions after the statement date”.

After clearing all of the transactions and entering necessary adjustments, you should run the Reconciliation Register. The Reconciliation Register has been enhanced to include an option to perform a Final Statement Update. When this option is selected, and the reconciliation is in balance, the register update process will finalize the statement.

The update marks all transactions that were reconciled on the statement with the statement date (instead of deleting them). This updates all cleared transactions with the statement date (making them “past” instead of “open”) and moves the ending statement date and balance to the corresponding beginning statement fields in preparation for the next bank statement.

Performing the reconciliation process on a timely schedule (monthly) can minimize the effort and time needed to complete this task. If you are not using the TakeStock Bank Reconciliation sub-module, now may be the time to take advantage of the enhancements and begin performing your bank reconciliation in TakeStock.

Keith Baynard is a Software Consultant specializing in TakeStock. He can be contacted at 864-848-1172.