A balance check compares the closing balance printed on your bank statement with the balance 2Fin works out for the same account on the same day. Type the figure and the date, and Fin shows its own balance, the difference and, when the two disagree, the lines most likely to explain it — on every plan, in the web app and the Windows app.
Reconciling a bank account means showing that your records and the bank agree on what was in the account on a given day. In 2Fin that is the balance check: you bring the one figure only the bank can give you, the closing balance on a statement, and Fin brings everything it has read for that account up to that date. When they agree, the account balances to the cent on that day (two slips that cancel each other out still need the line by line read). When they differ, the difference is the size of whatever is missing, doubled or misplaced, and Fin goes looking for it. Bank reconciliation for a small business, in plain words.
The closing balance and end date you typed — the one figure only the bank can give you.
Worked out from the bank’s running balance on the latest day it has one, or from your last saved check plus the lines since, with the source named.
Matches your statement, or how much higher or lower the statement is than 2Fin.
Every check you save, kept per account as history, newest statement first.
Step 1
Choose Balance check in the menu, or open an account’s details and pick Check against a statement. Every account you have connected or imported a statement for is listed.
Step 2
Enter the closing balance as it is printed on the statement, in the account’s currency, and the date the statement ends.
Step 3
Fin works it out from the bank’s own running balance on the latest day it has one, or from a check you saved earlier plus the lines since, and says which it used. The difference sits beside it: your statement higher or lower than 2Fin.
Step 4
When the balances differ, Fin lists up to ten likely explanations with the lines behind each, and marks the ones that explain the whole difference.
Step 5
A saved check is kept in the account’s history, and the next check can start from it.
A difference has a size, and the size is a clue. Fin reads the lines since the last time the account agreed with the bank and lists up to ten likely explanations, the ones that would explain the whole difference first, each with the lines behind it. The check itself changes nothing: you decide what to fix, then check again.
Either it does not belong in this account, or your statement has it twice and 2Fin has it once.
Recorded the wrong way round — money out instead of money in, or the reverse — it moves the balance by twice its amount.
Lines since your last check on the same day, for the same amount, with a similar description. If one is a copy, removing it closes the gap by its amount.
A move between your own accounts that shows on one side only, so the half that belongs here may not have come in yet.
Banks cut statements at different times of day, so a line dated on the end date may sit on the next statement.
And a line dated the day after may already be counted in this statement’s closing balance.
When nothing stands out, Fin says so, and the next place to look is your statement, for a line 2Fin has not brought in yet. A missing month is a statement upload away; a bank feed you connect with your own key keeps the account current from then on. Data history lists every statement import and removed import with its line counts, which is often where a month brought in twice, or never, shows up.
Anyone who keeps books in 2Fin, and especially the people whose figures feed a tax form or an accountant’s working papers.
One check when each statement lands, and the quarter’s activity statement starts from books you know are complete.
Every bank account and card checked before the month closes, with the history of each check kept beside the account.
A reconciled month is the first thing an accountant asks for. The saved checks show when each account last agreed with the bank.
Books that agree with the bank make the aged receivables, aged payables and the balance sheet as at today worth reading.
Invite your accountant into the books, or send them the year’s accountant pack and journal file by email.
See how Fin reads a statement you already have — what you kept, and how cash moved — in your browser.
Definitions: bank reconciliation. A loan account on the statement? See how each repayment splits into interest and principal with the free loan repayment calculator.
Balance check, answered
Balance check is on every plan, Free included, in the web app and the Windows app.
