Templates / Bank reconciliation
Bank Reconciliation Template
A row-per-transaction sheet for matching your bank statement to your books by hand.
What it is
A bank reconciliation template is a working paper that lines up every transaction on your bank statement against the corresponding entry in your books, so you can prove the two agree at period end. Each row holds one transaction: its date, description, reference number, and signed amount. Two more columns record whether the line has been matched and any note explaining the ones that haven't.
The point of the exercise is to explain every difference between the bank's number and your books' number, not just to note that a difference exists. Most differences come down to timing: a check you wrote hasn't cleared yet, or a deposit the bank hasn't processed. Others are real: a bank fee you haven't recorded, a duplicate entry, or a transposed digit. A template forces you to work through the list line by line instead of eyeballing two totals and hoping they're close.
This version keeps the columns generic enough to work for a checking account, a savings account, or any bank export with a date, description, reference, and amount. Add a row for every transaction on the statement, then work through your books doing the same, marking each pair as matched.
Columns
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Date | Transaction date as it appears on the statement. |
| Description | The statement's own description text for the line. |
| Reference | Check number, transfer ID, or other reference if present. |
| Amount | Signed amount: negative for money out, positive for money in. |
| Matched (Y/N) | Whether you found the corresponding entry in your books. |
| Notes | Why a line is unmatched, or which ledger entry it ties to. |
How to use it
- 1.Export your transactions for the period from your bank's online portal as a CSV.
- 2.Copy each transaction into a row of the template, keeping the sign of the amount as shown on the statement.
- 3.Go through your books and find the matching entry for each bank line, using the amount and date as your first filter.
- 4.Mark each matched pair "Y" and note anything unusual, like a split payment or a rounding difference.
- 5.For everything left unmatched, decide whether it needs a journal entry (an unrecorded fee, for example) or will clear on its own in the next few days.
- 6.Total the unmatched amounts. That total should explain the entire gap between your bank balance and your book balance.
Skip the spreadsheet
A spreadsheet works, but it doesn't match lines for you or remember what you did last month.