I've been completing a bank rec on Sage and I have stupidly reconciled too soon. I reconciled the necessary transactions then seen the figure on the bank statement matched balance on the bank reconciliation screen and pressed reconcile then yes, yes, yes through pop up boxes as I was rushing then realised the Difference box had a balance of -1246. I have not touched it since as I don't want to get into any more of a mess.
Can I rectify this even though i've reconciled and saved? I can't understand how I have this end balance as I thought that I had reconciled all the relevant transactions.
From your description, you didn't mention whether you'd actually 'set' the closing balance when you started the reconciliation - and since you said "the figure on the bank statement matched balance on the bank reconciliation screen" it might very well be that you've nothing to worry about, and everything balances. So take a deep breath, and ask yourself:
Which figure on the bank reconciliation screen matched the figure on the bank statement?
Was it the box at the bottom (third from right) labelled "Matched balance" ? (If it was, you've no problem: the reason there was a difference was probably because the end balance wasn't set to the one on the statement when you started.)
Or was it the one labelled "statement balance" that's next to it? In which case, yes, there's a mistake to find:
Start a new reconciliation, so that you have access to the buttons along the bottom, and hit "View History" - this will give you access to the archived reconciliations in PDF format. Load the most recent one and check this off against the statement, starting with checking the opening balance - if that differs, the mistake is on a previous reconciliation, in which case load the one before, and so on. If the opening balance matches, then obviously the mistake is on that particular reconcilation.
(If you're sure you're careful and reconcile correctly each time, and the mistake turns out to be on a previous reconciliation, the most likely cause of a problem like this is that you've used file maintenance to make a correction of some sort, perhaps deleting a transaction that was previously reconciled).
If you don't keep the PDF files (you can optionally turn them off IIRC) then it's a little harder, but still possible: You can at least check the transactions on any given reconcilation (just not the opening and closing balances) by searching in the financials screen for the bank reconciled date.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
One other thing - there is a bug in the VAT reconcilation screen in recent versions that may have caught you out. The problem is window redraw related, and the result of it is that when multiple transactions in the upper (unreconciled) pane are 'matched' at the same time - sometimes the wrong transactions end up in the lower (reconciled) pane.
When I first spotted version 1.00 of this bug, I think in the 2010 or 2011 version of Accounts, Sage were already aware of it, and told me it only affected companies operating the VAT on a cash basis. With my programmer hat on, I find that utterly bizarre, but having not encountered it on any company other than one that was on a cash basis, I took them at their word.
They subsequently "fixed" (in very deliberate scare-quotes) the problem, but all they've really done is mask it - I can still trigger the bug, and I *have* reported (and indeed demonstrated) it to them in its new, improved, version 2.00 guise
As to what the problem was - first in its original form:
It was triggered when resizing the panes (dragging the horizontal bar that separates them up or down). Specifically, if it wasn't dragged by a whole line, so that it partially obscured the last visible transaction in the upper pane, the problem would occur: In certain circumstances, when you selected a number of transactions and clicked "Match", most of them would be moved to the lower pane correctly, and for the remaining ones, the wrong transactions would be moved down. The 'next' transaction in the list, IIRC.
The problem (programmer hat again) was probably due to attempting to calculate from window co-ordinates (where the mouse was clicked etc) the index into the list to determine which transaction the click was on; when a line was partially obscured, the calculation became more complicated - and they got it wrong in some cases; a rounding error.
Sage "fixed" this by dynamically resizing the bar, so that its size changed according to its position - to avoid the situation whereby a line in the upper pane could be partially obscured. Theoretically (if my assessment of the problem is correct), this would eliminate the calculation/rounding error. However, this actually leads to version 2.00 of the bug (although it's possible this was a separate bug that was also present, and which I didn't notice):
The problem can be triggered by scrolling the upper pane all the way to the bottom, and then increasing the size of that pane by dragging the bar downwards, so that there is empty space below the last transaction. Now scroll the pane so that a few transactions vanish off the bottom (but don't scroll all the way to the top). Now scroll the pane the other way - this time all the way: The transactions that you previously scrolled off the screen, and the last one that was visible, should now be invisible.
Now for the fun bit:
Click on the blank lines. The missing transactions will appear. Well, all but one of them, anyway! The one that was on the last line before you scrolled back up should still be missing.
Click "Clear" if the transactions are highlighted. Now double click on the last one - and watch as one of the other transactions is moved to the lower pane, and the missing transaction reappears in the upper pane.
Alternatively, instead of clicking "Clear", click "Match" to move the highlighted transactions to the lower pane - and marvel at how one of them is the missing transaction, and one of those that was highlighted remains in the upper pane.
Hopefully, I've explained that in a way that's easy to follow, and you can easily recreate it. (I'm fairly sure my computer doesn't have some unique property - me aside - that means the bug can only happen here!)
The point being that it's possible, because of this bug, to select the last few transactions on your bank statement and match them, and think you've reconciled the bank (if you aren't paying attention) - and finish up with a b0rked reconcilation.
And while explaining it, I tried it on my own accounts to aid the explanation - and I am NOT on a cash basis for my VAT.
__________________
Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
VinceH you are a star!
I do not recall entering an opening balance but I do know that it was reconciled correctly the last time it was done. I am back in after the bank holidays so I will then see what figure in what box matched that on the bank statement and them follow your relevant instructions.
Thank you,
Kiz
No - but it shouldn't matter; the end balance that you enter is really just informational, and and simply assists with the reconcilation by showing a 'difference' in the lower pane (the end balance you've entered minus the balance of the reconciled transactions).
The important thing is that it reconciles: the reconciled balance and the end balance on the statements are the same.
If it bothers you that much, just make sure you remember to set it next time you do a reconcilation.
__________________
Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
