Bank reconciliation

Bank reconciliation is the monthly ritual that proves your books match your bank account. The treasurer opens the bank statement, walks through each transaction, confirms each one exists in the system, and locks the period when both sides agree to the cent. HomeHerald’s reconciliation flow does this in one screen, per account, with a live diff banner so you know when you’re done.

Where to find it

Finances > Accounts in the admin sidebar. On the row for the account you want to reconcile, click the Reconcile button (emerald, with checkmark icon). Bank reconciliation is part of Herald Automate; on a plan without it, the Accounts page shows an upgrade prompt in place of the Reconcile button.

The table view swaps for a scoped reconciliation workspace. The account is locked (you can’t accidentally reconcile against the wrong one), and there’s a Back to Accounts link at the top to return.

The four step flow

Step 1: Pick the period

The default period is last full calendar month (so opening the flow on May 5 defaults to April 1 to April 30). You can change it via the date pickers, or use the quick pick buttons for this month and the two months before it, shown by name.

The period should match the period your bank statement covers. Most US bank statements cycle calendar month, so the defaults usually match.

Step 2: Enter the bank statement balances

Two fields:

• Statement Opening Balance (what your bank statement says was the starting balance for this period)
• Statement Ending Balance (what your bank statement says was the ending balance)

If you’ve reconciled prior months, the system will warn you if the opening balance you typed doesn’t match the prior closed reconciliation’s ending balance. That mismatch usually means a record was edited after the prior period closed, which means you’ll need to investigate before you can reconcile this period.

Step 3: Tick the matching transactions

The lower portion shows every cash event in this account that hasn’t been reconciled yet. Each row has a checkbox.

Walk through your bank statement line by line:

1. Find the matching row in the system.
2. Check the checkbox.
3. The “Cleared” balance at the bottom updates immediately.
4. Continue until every line on your bank statement is ticked.

The system shows a live banner at the bottom:

• Cleared = your starting balance + the impacts of the rows you’ve ticked (this is what your books say)
• Statement = the ending balance you typed in
• Difference = Statement minus Cleared (should be zero when reconciled)

When Difference is $0, you’re balanced.

Step 4: Close the period

Once Difference is $0, the Close [period] button becomes active (emerald). Click it.

The system confirms the action (“Close April 2026 reconciliation for BoA Checking?”), then atomically:

• Creates a Reconciliation record with the statement opening, ending, system ending, and the IDs of every ticked transaction.
• Stamps each ticked transaction with a reconciliationId and reconciledAt. This is the soft lock.
• Clears the picker and unticks everything for the next period.

You’ll see a success toast.

Months behind? Catch up

If nobody has reconciled in a while, click Catch up next to the month buttons. It covers all unreconciled activity through today in one pass and fills in the opening balance for you, so the only number you look up is Bank Balance Today. Tick what you recognize, then use True up to bank balance to book whatever is left as a single bank adjustment. The true-up asks why the gap is there when it is large, and saves your answer on the adjustment.

What if the difference isn’t zero?

The most common reasons:

• A bank line you didn’t tick: check the bank statement for any line you missed.
• A bank line that’s not in the system: bank service charges, interest earned, ATM withdrawals, missed vendor payments, wire fees. Use the Add Adjustment button (top right of the transaction list) to add these inline. The new record auto ticks itself, so your difference will resolve immediately.
• A typo in the opening or ending balance: re check both numbers against the statement.
• An outstanding check: a check you issued in this period but the bank hasn’t cashed yet. Don’t tick it. It’ll appear as a carry forward in the next period when the bank shows it.

Add Adjustment: the discrepancy fixer

Click the + Add Adjustment button at the top right of the transaction list during reconciliation. The modal asks:

• Direction: Money In (rare, e.g. interest earned) or Money Out (common, e.g. bank service charge). A Money In adjustment has a Count as income checkbox: tick it for interest or a vendor rebate; leave it unticked and it raises the bank balance without showing up as income.
• Date (constrained to the statement period)
• Amount
• Description (e.g., “Bank service charge - April”)

On Save, the new record is added and auto ticked. Your diff updates immediately. This is how to handle bank fees, interest, missed bills, or any other transaction that’s on the statement but not yet in the system.

Money Out adjustments are added as an Administrative expense. You can re-categorize them later in Finances > Transactions if you want better expense categorization.

Outstanding (carry forward) transactions

Sometimes a check issued in March doesn’t clear the bank until May. In May’s reconciliation, that March check still appears in the list (because it was never reconciled), tagged with an amber Outstanding chip and a slightly tinted row background. Tick it the same way as any other transaction.

This is how HomeHerald handles the gap between book date and bank cleared date without losing track of anything.

Locked transactions: the soft lock

Once a reconciliation is closed, every ticked transaction is tagged to it. In Finances > Transactions, those rows show a RECONCILED chip with a padlock icon. Their date is locked: you cannot move a reconciled transaction to another day without reopening the reconciliation first. Other fields can still be edited, but you’ll see an amber warning explaining that editing will throw the closed period out of balance.

If you decide to edit anyway, you should also reopen the affected reconciliation and re-reconcile.

History tab

In the reconciliation workspace, there are two tabs: New Reconciliation and History.

The History tab shows past closed reconciliations for this account, most recent first. Each row shows:

• The period (e.g., “April 2026”)
• The closing balance ($96,079.51)
• How many transactions were matched
• The date it was closed

Two buttons per row:

• PDF: download a reconciliation report (account, period, opening, ending, who closed it, list of all matched transactions, page numbers). Useful for board files or auditor packets.
• Reopen: undo the close. Asks for an audit reason (logged on the reconciliation doc), then unstamps every transaction’s reconciliationId and marks the doc as REOPENED. Use this if you discover a missed transaction after closing.

Finding a past reconciliation report

Every closed period is also listed under Finances > Reports > Reconciliations, grouped by account and newest first, with the same PDF button. That is where to look when an accountant asks for a specific month, or when you want the whole history in one place instead of one account at a time. Reopening stays here on the Accounts page, where the audit prompt lives.

Tips for fast reconciliation

• Have your bank statement open in a separate window. The flow works best with both side by side.
• Tick the easy ones first: large unique amounts (rent, big vendor bills) are quick matches.
• Tick all the matching dues at once: if you collected 38 dues payments via Stripe, they’re probably all in the system already, in chronological order. Use the “Tick all” button if you trust they all match.
• Check the running diff frequently: the closer it gets to zero, the easier the remaining work.
• If you hit a $5 or $15 difference: it’s almost always a bank service charge or wire fee. Add Adjustment > Money Out > Administrative.

Common questions

“My bank statement shows a Stripe payout of $2,396.40. The system shows 12 individual Stripe payments totaling $2,500.00 and 12 convenience fees totaling $103.60. How do I reconcile this?”

Those fee rows exist because your community absorbs the fee (4% + $0.30 per card payment). Tick all 12 payments and all 12 fees; they net to $2,396.40 and match the payout line. If your community passes the fee to residents, there are no fee rows and the payments alone add up to the payout.

“Can I reconcile two months at once?”

You can: the date pickers take any start and end date, and Catch up covers everything unreconciled through today. One statement period at a time still gives the cleanest audit trail, because each closed period then matches one bank statement.

“What if I closed a reconciliation by mistake?”

Use the Reopen button on the History tab. You’ll be asked for a reason (gets stored on the reconciliation doc for the audit trail), then the period unlocks and you can re tick from scratch.

“Does HomeHerald connect directly to my bank?”

No. You enter the statement opening and ending balances manually, and the transaction list comes from records already in the system. There is no bank feed and no statement import.

What’s next

• Once a period is closed, its matched transactions are date-locked, so they cannot slip out of that month’s P&L unless someone reopens the period.
• Print the reconciliation PDF and file with your meeting minutes for the audit trail.
• Keep an eye on the Cash Position tile on the Dashboard between reconciliations to spot anomalies early.