Balance sheet reconciliation process
- Reconciliations due this close
- 42
- Each preparer carries
- 14.0
- Preparation hours this close
- 17.5
The numbers on this page come from the inputs you enter and the method stated: sixty minutes to an hour and nothing else. No benchmark, no industry average and no assumption about how long a reconciliation should take. Where a page cites a rule it names it, and the rule is the source.
The balance sheet reconciliation process is four steps and one constraint. Take the general ledger balance, find the support that should equal it, explain any difference, and have someone independent review and sign. The constraint is the close: all of it has to happen inside the same few days as everything else. This page is about running that process at the scale a real schedule imposes, rather than describing it as though there were one account.
Open the Balance sheet reconciliation checklist Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Fix the schedule before the close
Which accounts are reconciled, and how often. Not every account needs a monthly reconciliation, and deciding that once is what makes the monthly list finishable. The worksheet returns what a given monthly count actually costs in hours.
Prepare against the support, not the prior month
A reconciliation that agrees to last month's reconciliation proves nothing except that nobody looked. The support is the bank statement, the subledger, the amortisation schedule, the invoice; the reconciliation exists to tie the ledger to it.
Review as work arrives, not at the end
Review capacity is the constraint nobody counts. The worksheet returns review hours per reviewer per close day from your own numbers, and if that figure is above what a person has, the close was never going to land on time.
Balance sheet reconciliation process: common questions
How many accounts should be reconciled monthly?
That is your company's decision and its auditor's expectation, not ours. The worksheet prices whatever share you choose, so the decision can be made against a number rather than a feeling.
What makes a reconciliation acceptable?
That is an accounting and audit judgement and this hub does not make it. Operationally, one with a named preparer, a named reviewer, a date and the support attached is one you can defend.
Does Tieoutly connect to our ledger?
Not today. It keeps the account, the reconciliation, the schedule and the sign-off; the balance comes from wherever your ledger already is.
Will it do what you need for Balance sheet reconciliation process?
Tell us how your close runs today and where the reconciliations stall; a person who has run one answers.