> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.arcuserp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Reconciling, Start to Finish
> The whole bank reconciliation process in Arcus, in order: set a start point once, give every bank line its record, then close each month against the statement.
Reconciling a bank account proves that your books and your bank agree. In Arcus it happens in three
stages, always in this order:
1. **Set the start point once** for each account: a baseline.
2. **Work the bank lines** as they arrive: every line gets its record.
3. **Close each month** against the bank statement, oldest month first.
You need permission to view accounting to look, and permission to post accounting to change
anything. If you have never connected a bank, read [How Bank Feeds Work](/support/accounting/how-bank-feeds-work)
first.
## Before You Start
* The bank account exists on **Finance > Close & Reconcile > Bank Reconciliation** and its card
shows the right **GL account**. If the link is wrong, a reconciliation can look clean while the
books are wrong.
* A bank feed is connected and mapped (recommended). You can reconcile without one, but you then
enter every line yourself.
* Your bank statements, or the bank's monthly statement PDFs, are at hand for the month-end step.
## Stage 1: Set the Start Point (Baseline)
A baseline tells Arcus: "everything on this account up to this day is already settled." From then
on Arcus only asks you about what happens after that day. You set it once per account, before your
first month-end close.
Click **Set baseline** on the account card. The wizard has three steps.
The short checklist is [Set the Start Point](/support/accounting/set-bank-baseline).
### Step 1: Pick the Day and the Balance
* **Baseline (anchor) date**: the day you are starting from. Usually the last day of a month, just
before you began keeping these books in Arcus.
* **Real bank balance at that date**: the closing balance printed on your bank statement for that
day. Not the ledger balance. On a credit card or line of credit the field reads
**Balance owed at that date**: enter the amount owed, as a positive number.
When a feed is connected, Arcus shows a **Suggested balance from your bank feed** (on a card,
**Suggested balance owed from your bank feed**): the bank's current balance minus the activity
after your chosen day. Click **Use this** to take it, or type
the statement figure. If a pending item sits after that day, Arcus shows two readings, with and
without it; use the one that matches your statement.
### Step 2: Preview
Arcus shows what the baseline will do:
* **GL lines to mark reconciled**: every unreconciled ledger line on this account dated on or before
the day.
* **Feed lines to close**: every bank line dated on or before the day. They are closed under the
baseline, not excluded: they are real bank events whose money is already inside the balance you
entered.
If some of those bank lines are already in your books, Arcus says so and suggests matching them
first. That is optional but better: a matched line keeps the link between the bank and the entry.
Two pickers let you hold things back:
* **Keep GL lines open (in-transit checks / deposits)**: a check you wrote before the day that the
bank had not paid yet, or a deposit you made that the bank had not credited yet. These stay open
so they can clear in your first month. This is the only control that changes the variance.
* **Keep bank feed lines for review**: bank lines before the day that you still want to look at.
They stay in For Review. This does not change the variance.
### Step 3: Apply
Click **Apply baseline**. Before writing anything, Arcus proves the arithmetic:
> Posted GL balance at the day, minus the kept-open total, equals the cleared-ledger balance. The
> cleared-ledger balance must equal the bank balance you entered.
If the two agree to the cent, the baseline applies. If they do not, Arcus shows the **Variance**
with every figure behind it and does not apply.
**When there is a variance, fix the books, not the baseline.** A variance means your ledger and the
bank disagreed on that day. The usual causes are:
* A check or deposit before the day that the bank had not cleared yet: keep it open in the picker.
* A bank charge, fee or transfer before the day that was never recorded: record it, dated on or
before the day, then apply again.
* A typing slip in the balance: check it against the statement.
There is also a box: **Accept this variance and apply anyway (recorded on the baseline session)**.
Use it only when you know what the difference is and have decided to carry it. The difference
stays in your books, and the baseline cannot be redone from this screen to fix it later.
### What Applying Does
* Marks the ledger lines on or before the day as reconciled.
* Closes the bank lines on or before the day, except the ones you kept for review.
* Stamps the day and balance on the account; the card shows a **Baseline** badge, and **Reconciled
through** shows the day.
* Adds a completed session for the day to **Completed periods**.
* Posts **no journal entries**. Nothing is deleted.
**A baseline cannot be undone or changed from the screen.** Pick the day and the balance with care.
If an account's baseline was set wrong, contact support.
## Stage 2: Work the Bank Lines
Every bank line after the baseline needs its record. Open **Finance > Close & Reconcile > Bank
Transactions**, pick the account, and work the **For Review** tab. Each line shows what Arcus thinks
it is and offers the right action:
| What the line is | Its action |
| - | - |
| Arcus found the record it belongs to (a customer payment, bill payment, printed check, payout, deposit ticket or journal entry) | **Approve**. Read the proposed record first. |
| A customer's payment that is not in Arcus yet | **Record customer payment** |
| A payment of bills already entered | **Record vendor payment** |
| A payment with no bill entered yet | **Create bill + payment** |
| Money sent to a vendor ahead of the bill | **Record vendor prepayment** |
| An expense or income with no record, such as a fee or interest | **Create expense** (money out) or **Record income** (money in). The match workbench names the money-out action **Record expense**, as does a line's **Details** window. |
| Money moved between two of your own accounts | **Record transfer**, or **Link to recorded transfer** when the other half is already recorded |
| A second copy of a line, or bank noise | **Exclude** |
Work the inbox every day or every week. A line that is matched or recorded is **cleared**. If you
chose wrong, **Undo** on the **Categorized** tab (it reads **Unmatch** for a line matched to a record
that already existed) puts the line back in For Review; a few records,
such as a receipt already applied to invoices or an entry in a closed period, are corrected where
they live instead. For the full list of actions and what each one posts, see
[Bank Transactions](/support/accounting/bulk-recategorize).
## Stage 3: Close Each Month
When every line for a month has its record, close the month against the statement.
The short checklist is [Close a Month](/support/accounting/close-a-bank-month).
### Start the Session
On the account card, click **Start reconciliation**.
1. **Statement date**: the last day the statement covers.
2. **Ending balance**: the closing balance on the statement. On a credit card or line of credit
the field reads **Ending balance owed**: enter the amount owed as a positive number.
3. **Notes** (optional), such as the statement month.
4. Click **Begin reconciliation**.
When the bank feed can work out the account's balance for the statement date you picked, any date,
a box below the balance shows it, headed **Balance on** the date **from your bank feed** (on a card,
**Balance owed on** the date **from your bank feed**), with one line saying how Arcus worked it out.
**Use this** copies it into the ending balance field, and the button then reads **In use**. It is a
cross-check, not the statement: if the two differ, type the closing balance from your statement.
**Pull latest balance** appears only when the statement date is today, and it reads today's
balance only.
If something is worth a second look, such as no baseline yet, an ending balance of \$0.00, a feed
that needs attention, or a previous month that closed with a difference, Arcus asks you to confirm
each item before it opens the session. Confirming posts nothing.
### Read the Difference
The top of the workbench always shows five figures:
| Figure | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Opening balance** | Carried from the last completed month, or from the baseline. |
| **Cleared** | The total of every bank line cleared for this period: lines matched here, plus lines you matched or recorded in the review inbox. |
| **Reconciled balance** | Opening balance plus Cleared. |
| **Statement ending** | The ending balance you entered. |
| **Difference** | Statement ending minus Reconciled balance. You are driving this to \$0.00. |
The difference is bank-side arithmetic. It compares the statement's ending balance with the
opening balance plus the cleared bank lines dated after the opening day and on or before the
statement date. It does not read your ledger balance. So a difference means one of three things:
* A bank line in the period is not cleared yet. Find it on **To match** and give it its record.
* The ending balance was typed wrong. Fix it with **Edit details**.
* The opening balance is wrong, because an earlier month closed with a difference.
Pending lines never count, and a line dated on or before the opening day is never counted twice.
### Clear What Is Left
The workbench has four lanes: **To match**, **Suggested**, **Matched** and **Excluded**. On
**To match**, select a bank line and the ledger entries that add up to it, then click **Match**,
or use the line's own actions. **Suggested** lists matches Arcus proposes, each with a confidence
chip; read each one, then accept them one at a time or several at once. See [Bank Reconciliation](/support/accounting/reconciliation) for
every control on the workbench.
### Complete
Click **Complete**.
* At **\$0.00** the dialog reads **Ready to complete**. Click **Complete reconciliation**. Arcus marks
the cleared lines and their ledger entries reconciled and posts nothing.
* With a difference, the dialog says by how much. You can tick **Complete anyway (record the
difference as unreconciled)**. **This is a last resort.** The gap is stamped onto that month and
does not carry into the next one: the next month opens from the statement balance, so the gap
will never resolve itself. It stays visible under **With differences** in Completed periods, and
the next session warns about it. Fix it with an adjusting journal entry, or better, find the line
and finish at \$0.00.
If you need to stop, leave the session open and come back with **Resume**. **Cancel session**
unwinds the session's own matches and posts nothing.
## Completed Periods
Every completed month appears under **Completed periods** on the hub, with its statement date,
statement balance, recorded difference and completion time. A completed month is locked: its
figures are what you agreed to, and later changes elsewhere never move them. To correct a completed
month, post an adjusting journal entry.
## Keep to This Order
* **Lines first, then the month.** Closing a month before its lines are worked only produces a
difference to chase.
* **Months in order.** Each month opens from the month before it, so close January before
February.
* **One account at a time is fine.** Each account has its own baseline and its own months.
## Related Articles
Connections, history, re-connecting, pending lines, and the review inbox.
Short answers to common questions.
The baseline wizard, step by step.
Start reconciliation, the workbench and Complete, step by step.
Every action on a bank line, and what each one posts.
The hub, the workbench, account health, and completed periods.
Deposit tickets and how they match the bank.
Close the accounting period once its reconciliations are complete.
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