Bank Reconciliation Guide

How do I reconcile a bank statement? Bank reconciliation guide

“How do I reconcile a bank statement?” Open a reconciliation session for the cashbook and the month, enter the statement’s balances, upload the statement, let Auto Matching pair it with your cashbook lines, confirm or reject what it suggests, then explain whatever difference is left with a posting that fits it, before you print the audit pack and mark the session approved.

By the end of this guide, you will have matched every line on your primary bank’s March 2026 statement to your BigLedger cashbook, worked out what the RM 450 difference actually is instead of guessing at it, posted the document that explains it, and saved an audit pack ready for Friday’s sign-off. Plan on about 30 minutes the first time you do this for a cashbook; once the routine sticks, you will be in and out in 15. You will work mostly in the Bank Reconciliation applet, with brief detours to the Cashbook and Payment Voucher applets when the variance needs a fix.

Meet GadgetSphere

GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd runs 22 consumer-electronics branches across Malaysia, with most receipts banking into the primary-bank account for each store. This morning the March 2026 statement for the Klang Valley branch 01 cashbook (GS-KV-01) landed in your inbox. The bank says the closing balance is RM 47,200; BigLedger says RM 47,650. The RM 450 gap has to be explained, the reconciliation has to be closed, and the audit pack has to sit on the finance manager’s desk before Friday.

Reading this guide against your own books

Everything below is worked on GadgetSphere’s numbers so that each step has something concrete in it. None of those values are yours. Before Step 1, write down your own four:

Which cashbook. The guide says GS-KV-01. Yours is the cashbook whose Account Number on its Details tab is the account number printed on your statement — that field is what ties a cashbook to a real bank account, so match on it rather than on a name that looks familiar. Get this wrong and you will reconcile another branch: the cashbook is fixed when the session is created and cannot be changed on screen afterwards without deleting the session.
Which period. The guide says 1–31 March 2026. Yours is the first and last day of the month your statement covers.
Your two closing balances. The guide says RM 47,650 on the BigLedger side and RM 47,200 on the bank’s. Yours are whatever Step 4 and your statement say, and which of the two is larger is the first thing Step 8 uses — so note the direction, not just the size of the gap.
Which accounts and settlement methods. The guide posts to EXPENSE-BANK-CHARGES through a bank-transfer settlement method. Yours are your own chart’s equivalents, and Step 1 is where you find out which settlement methods your branch actually uses.

Bank reconciliation is a comparison, not a calculation. Your job is to pair what BigLedger thinks happened with what the bank says happened, then name every difference that is left. Naming it is not the same as posting something: some differences are timing and need no entry at all, and the ones that do need an entry need the right entry. If you ever find yourself “adjusting the balance” to make it agree, stop — you are hiding the problem, not solving it.

Bank reconciliation: a few terms to get straight

Reconciliation session — one row that holds the work for a single cashbook over a single date range. It carries the four balances (your opening and closing, the bank’s opening and closing) and is what you create, fill, and finally mark Reviewed and Approved.
Cashbook line vs. cash statement line — a cashbook line is what BigLedger thinks happened: it is written when a Receipt Voucher, Payment Voucher, POS settlement, Cash Transfer or Cash Adjustment reaches FINAL (the adjustment posts nothing to the ledger). A manual journal, however correct, writes no cashbook line — remember that when you get to Step 8. A cash statement line is what the bank says happened (one row imported from the bank file). Reconciliation pairs the two.
Open amount — how much of a line is still unexplained. Every cashbook line and every bank statement line starts with its full value open, and each match you save subtracts the matched amount from both sides. A line whose open amount has reached zero is accounted for; every line still carrying one is what Step 8 investigates.
Confirmed link vs. possible link — a confirmed link is a saved pairing between a cashbook line and a statement line. A possible link is a candidate the auto-matcher found but is not confident enough to save on its own, so it parks the suggestion for you to review and confirm.

Before you start

The Chart of Accounts is set up and your sales, purchase, and POS (Point of Sale) documents are posting cleanly. See the Chart of Accounts Setup Guide if you are not sure.
The cashbook for the branch you are reconciling exists in the Cashbook applet. For this guide, the cashbook code is GS-KV-01 and it points to your primary-bank current account.
All settlement methods used by Receipt Voucher (Internal), Payment Voucher (Internal), and in-store POS terminals for GS-KV-01 already post to that same cashbook. If they post somewhere else, fix that first or your variance hunt will go nowhere.
The company timezone is set to Asia/Kuala_Lumpur in the Organisation applet. Reconciliation uses this to decide which transactions fall inside March 2026.
The February 2026 reconciliation for GS-KV-01 exists with the right closing balances, so the March opening balances have something to inherit (BigLedger pre-fills them from the cashbook’s most recent session).
Your March 2026 bank statement file is downloaded and ready, in either your primary bank’s native format or the generic CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format.
You are a member of the GS-KV-01 cashbook (Cashbook applet > Members tab) — the Bank Reconciliation create screen only lists cashbooks you are a member of — and your user holds the Bank Reconciliation, Cash Statement and Cashbook Transaction Line permissions your administrator assigned through the Permission Wizard. Roles are whatever your tenant named them; the permissions are what count.

Step 1: Confirm the cashbook is wired to the right bank account

Master Data > Cashbook

Open the Cashbook applet and find GS-KV-01. Check three things before you touch the reconciliation screen.

First, the cashbook’s company is GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd (GS), the branch is Klang Valley 01, the currency is Malaysian Ringgit (RM), and the linked General Ledger account reads CASH-PRI-KV01 (cash, primary bank, KV branch 01).

Second, open the Settlement Method listing (it is a separate menu item in the Cashbook applet, not a tab on the cashbook) and filter it to GS-KV-01’s branch. Every method the branch uses — the POS card terminal, the POS cash drawer, the bank-transfer method your accounts clerks pick on a Receipt Voucher (Internal) or a Payment Voucher (Internal) — has a Cashbook field on its Details tab, and each one should read GS-KV-01. If any of them point to a different cashbook, the receipts will never appear on this reconciliation and the variance hunt will lead you in circles.

Third, open the Weightage Configuration tab and confirm there is an ACTIVE configuration. Without it, the auto-matcher falls back to its built-in rule — equal weights, and an automatic link only when the amount is exact and the payee name is near-identical — so almost everything ends up as a possible match instead of a confirmed one.

Fix anything wrong here before moving on. A misrouted settlement method is the single most common reason a reconciliation refuses to close.

If you see receipts in the branch’s daily takings report that are missing from this cashbook, a settlement method is almost certainly wired to a different cashbook. Fix the mapping in Cashbook first, then come back.

Step 2: Create the March 2026 reconciliation session for GS-KV-01

Bank Reconciliation > New

From the sidebar, open Bank Reconciliation. You should see February 2026 for GS-KV-01 near the top of the list (group the listing by cashbook if the list is long). Click New.

On the create form, pick Company GS and then the cashbook GS-KV-01. The cashbook list only shows cashbooks you are a member of — if GS-KV-01 is missing, that is the Members tab in the Cashbook applet, not a bug. Branch fills in from the cashbook you picked, which is where it always comes from: a branch saved under Default Selection does not change it.

Stop here for a moment and check the cashbook once more. It is immutable once the session is created — you cannot change it later without deleting the whole session — so getting this right now matters. If you picked the wrong one, close the form without saving and start again.

Once you are sure you have the right cashbook, you are ready to set the period.

If GS-KV-01 does not appear in the cashbook list, ask your administrator to add you as a member of that cashbook and to check your Bank Reconciliation permissions.

Step 3: Set the period and enter the four balances

Bank Reconciliation > (your new session) > Details

Set Opening Date to 1 March 2026 and Closing Date to 31 March 2026. The form refuses an Opening Date on or before February’s Closing Date (Opening date should be later than … based on the cashbook selected), which is the nudge that stops two sessions overlapping. The Name field auto-fills to March 2026 from the Opening Date. Leave it unless your team uses a different naming style.

Now the four balance fields. Cash Book Transaction Opening Balance is read-only and already filled with February’s cashbook closing balance — RM 41,830 for GS-KV-01. Treat that figure as a preview: it is the closing figure stored on February’s session, and when you click Create in Step 4 BigLedger works the opening out again from the cashbook lines themselves. Beneath Cash Statement Opening Balance there is a Prev Cash Stmt Closing Bal hint button that copies in February’s bank closing balance; click it and RM 41,830 lands on that side too.

Now type in the Cash Statement Closing Balance from your bank statement: RM 47,200. Leave Cash Book Transaction Closing Balance alone; it is read-only and will be calculated for you. Leave Status alone as well — a new session starts as Processing, and you change it only when the work is done (Step 10).

If the pre-filled opening balance is wrong, February’s session is wrong — its closing date is not 28 February 2026, or a February voucher was voided after the close. Fix February first; otherwise March inherits a bad opening balance.

Step 4: Create the session and check the calculated cashbook balance

Bank Reconciliation > (your new session) > Create, then open the session again from the listing

Click Create. At that moment BigLedger works out both cashbook figures from the cashbook lines, in your company’s Kuala Lumpur timezone: the opening is every active GS-KV-01 line dated before 1 March, and the closing is that opening plus every active line dated 1 to 31 March. Lines whose receipt, payment or POS settlement was voided are left out. The two results are stored on the session. After that, a background job refreshes them: every time a cashbook line on GS-KV-01 is written, voided or re-dated, BigLedger asks for a refresh, and a job that runs every 30 minutes works out the stored figures of every active session on that cashbook again. That job runs only where it is scheduled on your tenant; where it is not, the figures stay as they were at Create. The bank’s two figures are simply the ones you typed — nothing adds up the uploaded statement lines to check them.

Open the session again. You should now see your side: Cash Book Transaction Opening RM 41,830, Cash Book Transaction Closing RM 47,650. Compare against the bank side: Cash Statement Opening RM 41,830, Cash Statement Closing RM 47,200. Openings match. Closings disagree by RM 450 (47,650 minus 47,200). That is exactly the gap your finance manager flagged.

If the stored opening is not the RM 41,830 the create form showed you, the difference is a document dated in February or earlier that was posted, voided or re-dated after February’s figures were last worked out. February’s reports were drawn before it arrived, so look at February before you go further.

Your closing balance appears twice, and the two can drift apart. Beneath Cash Book Transaction Closing Balance there is a greyed line, Calculated Cash Book Transaction Closing Balance. The field holds the stored figure — worked out at Create, and again by the background job where it runs. The greyed line is worked out every time you open the session or return to its Details tab: the stored opening plus the period’s cashbook lines as they stand now. Today the two agree. They part company when a document dated inside the period is posted, voided or re-dated — and Step 8 may ask you to do exactly that. Where the job is scheduled they come back together within about half an hour; where it is not, they stay apart. The refresh icon beside the greyed line is greyed out too and does nothing when clicked, so waiting for the job is the only way the stored figure moves on its own. All three reports start from the stored figure, so whenever the two disagree, read the end of Step 8 before you trust a report.

Make a note: BigLedger thinks GS-KV-01 has RM 450 more than the bank does. The variance must therefore be either a cashbook line the bank has not honoured yet, or a bank charge the bank already took but you have not posted.

If your closing comes out wildly different from what you expected (more than the RM 450 you already know about), check whether a January or February voucher was back-dated into March. Fix the source date and re-save.

Step 5: Upload the March bank statement

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Upload Statement

Switch to the Upload Statement tab and open the upload form. Choose your bank’s layout from the Import Format list — BigLedger ships a parser per Malaysian bank export (several banks have a -01 / -02 variant for their different internet-banking layouts, and a Pdf variant for PDF statements). If your bank is not on the list, pick Default Format, download the template CSV from the form, and paste your statement into its columns.

Bank Statement Name pre-fills from the file name; rename it to something like 2026-03 Primary KV01 so future-you can find it again. Attach the statement file and upload. The file becomes a Cash Statement record for this session.

Open that Cash Statement and its View Statement tab, and scan the parsed rows. Each row shows the bank’s transaction date, payor, references, description, and amount. If the upload was rejected with The Headers Order Does Not Match The Expected Order, you exported a different layout from the format you chose — try the other numbered variant of the same bank, or fall back to Default Format. A PDF that comes back with No transactions found is a layout the parser does not know; export a CSV instead.

Once you can see your statement lines, you are ready to let BigLedger do the heavy matching.

If you used Default Format and some rows are missing, open Default Statement Helper, click the file, and read the Checking tab: it names the rows whose Transaction Date, Amount or Payee/Payor Name failed validation. Fix them in the CSV and upload again; rows with errors are never promoted into the reconciliation.

Step 6: Run Auto Matching and wait for it to finish

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Auto Matching > Run

Switch to the Auto Matching tab and click Run Automatching. Every button on the tab greys out while Processing Auto Matching is on. The matcher is now scoring every possible pairing of cashbook line to bank statement line using the weights you set up in Cashbook (amount, date, reference, payee), looking at cashbook lines from 90 days before your Opening Date to 90 days after your Closing Date so that a February receipt the bank only cleared in March can still find its partner.

Pairs that score at or above your threshold are saved as confirmed links. Pairs that score well but below the threshold are parked as possible links for you to review. Weak pairs are dropped. Unless you ticked one-to-one matching, it also looks for up to five open cashbook lines that add up to a single statement line — the shape a card-acquirer settlement usually has.

Wait until the buttons come back before doing anything else; running the reports while the matcher is still working will give you half-finished numbers. The screen re-checks the job after a minute and then every 30 seconds. When it is done, know that the tab shows no totals of its own. To see what is left, open Unmatched Txn Lines (under Cashbook Transaction Lines) and Unmatched Cash Stmt Lines (under Cash Statement Lines), or generate Report 3, and note how many lines are still open on each side before moving on.

If the buttons never come back, the background job failed before it could clear the flag. Ask your administrator to look at the job queue log; do not run the reports in the meantime.

Step 7: Confirm or reject the possible matches

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Auto Matching > Unmatched Txn Lines — then Manual Matching > Reconcile for the ones you reject

You review the matcher’s suggestions where it made them, which is on the Auto Matching tab, not on Manual Matching. Open Unmatched Txn Lines: it lists every cashbook line that still has an open amount, and against each one the statement line the matcher thought was the likely partner but was not confident enough to link on its own. Walk down the list.

For each row, eyeball four things: date within a day or two, amount matches to the cent, reference looks right (your receipt or payment number on one side and the bank’s transfer reference on the other), and the payor or payee name is recognisable. If all four agree, click Add (or Reconcile on the bank-side listing). The possible link becomes a confirmed link and the row disappears.

If the candidate is clearly wrong (for example, the matcher paired your RM 1,200 supplier payment with a RM 1,200 customer receipt because the amount was identical and nothing else on the statement line carried data), leave it and match it by hand instead: on the Manual Matching tab’s Reconcile sub-tab, click the cashbook line, pick the right statement line under Matched Bank Statement Lines, and click Reconcile. Partial matches are allowed — a RM 1,000 statement line can be settled by three cashbook lines.

Work top to bottom. Most months for GS-KV-01 will leave you with a handful of true exceptions, plus the RM 450 you are still hunting.

If you confirm a wrong pair by accident, go to Manual Matching > Unreconcile, find the line, and Undo Reconcile before you continue; the link is deleted and the open amount goes back on both sides.

Step 8: Work out what the variance actually is, then post the fix that fits it

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Report > Report 1, then Manual Matching

This is the step that costs money when it goes wrong. Once you know the number, the temptation is to think of something that would explain it and post that. Resist it. A wrong explanation makes the two closing balances agree and leaves your books further out than they were when you started — and because the balances now agree, nobody looks again.

So find out what it is before you post anything. The investigation is four questions in a fixed order, and it works on any variance of any size.

First, halve the possibilities by direction

Compare your two closing balances and note which one is larger. That single fact halves the work, and it is the reason the orientation section asked you to write the direction down rather than just the amount.

If BigLedger is higher than the bank, arithmetically only two families of cause can do it:

Money in that you have and the bank does not — a receipt you recorded that the bank has not credited yet, a receipt recorded twice, or a receipt recorded for money that never actually arrived.
Money out that the bank has and you do not — a charge, interest, a direct debit or a standing instruction the bank took and nobody booked.

If the bank is higher than BigLedger, the mirror applies:

Money in that the bank has and you do not — a customer paying straight into the account, interest received, any direct credit nobody raised a receipt for.
Money out that you have and the bank does not — a cheque written but not yet presented, or a payment recorded that never actually left.

Half the possibilities are gone before you have opened a single screen. Anything you are about to consider that does not sit in one of those two families is not your variance — and a cause from the wrong list will move your books further apart, not closer.

In GadgetSphere’s case BigLedger says RM 47,650 and the bank says RM 47,200, so it is the first list.

Second, generate Report 1 before you post anything

Report 1 starts from the cashbook closing balance stored on the session, takes off your own unmatched lines, adds the bank’s unmatched lines, allows for the items matched into another period, and arrives at an Expected closing balance of the cashbook — what your cashbook would read if the bank were right about everything. It then sets that against the bank closing balance you typed. Each item it lists sits under a heading that names its side, so the list tells you which side each part of the difference is on, and it is your candidate list. Generate it now, while the books are still untouched. If you post first and generate afterwards, you have destroyed the evidence that would have told you whether the posting was right.

Read its Variance / discrepancy line for what it is. It is not the gap between your books and the bank: in GadgetSphere’s month it already reads RM 0, because the RM 450 is in the list as an unmatched bank line. The variance is whatever the listed items do not explain — a bank closing balance typed wrong, a statement upload that is missing rows, or a stored cashbook closing that is older than the cashbook lines (Step 4). If it is not zero before you have posted anything, find which of those it is first.

Make sure Auto Matching has finished before you generate, or the report is built on a half-finished match state and every number in it is provisional.

Third, split what is left into the four places it can hide

Generate Report 3 as well. Its sections divide the gap between your two closing balances between the two sides, and when Report 1’s variance is zero they account for all of it. Read them in this order, because the first two are usually not your problem at all:

Difference in opening of cashbook opening balance vs bank statement opening balance. If this is not zero, part or all of your variance was inherited from an earlier period. It did not happen in March and you will never find it in March — go back and settle February’s session first.
Matched with previous or future period, on either side. This is timing: real transactions, correctly recorded on both sides, that simply landed in different months. They need no entry at all. (The auto-matcher deliberately looks 90 days either side of your dates so it can pair them — Step 6.)
Cashbook transactions unmatched balance. Something you recorded that the bank does not show. Manual Matching > Reconcile lists the lines.
Bank transactions unmatched balance. Something the bank shows that you never recorded. Manual Matching > Bank Statement Lines lists them.

Most months, 1 and 2 account for nothing and the whole variance is in 3 or 4. When 1 is non-zero, stop and fix the earlier period — everything you do in March on top of an inherited difference is guesswork.

Fourth, name every line that is left

Now go line by line through what is still open in 3 and 4. Each line has one cause, and there are not many causes. This table is the whole of it — find the row that matches what you are looking at, confirm it the way the middle column says, and do what the last column says.

The line in front of you	What it usually is	How to confirm it	What to do about it
Your side: a payment or receipt with no partner on the statement, dated near the end of the period	Timing — the bank cleared it after your closing date	Look for it on next month’s statement, or in internet banking, dated after your closing date	Nothing. It is a genuine reconciling item, and Report 1 lists it as one. Posting anything here double-counts it
Your side: two lines with the same date, amount and payee, and the bank shows the transaction once	A duplicate document	Open both from the Document column; they are two separate document numbers for one real event	Void the duplicate source document, not the cashbook line and not a journal. If either copy is already matched, Unreconcile first — the server refuses to change a reconciled voucher’s amount
Your side: a line whose amount is close to a statement line but not equal	One transaction recorded at the wrong figure, or a bank fee deducted in transit	The payee and reference agree; only the amount differs	Match them partially — a link can settle part of a line — then explain the residue on its own merits. Usually it is a charge, which is the bank-side row below
Your side: a line that belongs to a different bank account	The settlement method on the source document points at another cashbook	Open the document and check its settlement method against Step 1’s list	Correct the settlement method on the document, unreconciling first if it is already matched. The line then leaves this cashbook
Your side: a line whose date is inside the period but whose bank entry is in a different month	Either a wrongly dated document, or ordinary timing	Compare the document’s own date with the date the bank shows	If the document date is wrong, fix it at source and re-save. If the bank simply cleared it in another month, it is timing — row 1
Your side: a line no statement will ever show, in any month	A rounding residue, or an amount written off	Nothing matches it on this or any later statement	Unmatched Adjustment on the line’s matching screen closes it on the reconciliation only — it posts nothing, so the accounting still needs a voucher or a journal of its own
Bank side: a debit or credit with a bank’s own description and no document anywhere	A charge, interest, a direct debit or a standing instruction you have not booked	Search the cashbook for the amount and the date; nothing comes back	Post it — as a voucher, never a manual journal. This is GadgetSphere’s case, and the rest of this step walks it
Bank side: a line that matches a document you know exists, but the document is nowhere on the Reconcile tab	Either the document is not FINAL, or it is FINAL and its cashbook posting never ran	Check the document’s posting status. If it is FINAL, run Financial Report > Error Checking > Trace Document on it and read the Missing Cashbook check	Set it FINAL, or click Resolve on that check, which writes the missing cashbook lines. Do not enter a second document — you would double-count
Bank side: a line you are sure you matched last week, back at its full amount	Someone voided the source document, or adjusted its settlement method, after you matched it	The cashbook line is gone and your calculated closing balance moved; nothing on the reconciliation screen announces it	The statement line is right; your side is what changed. Find the source document, read its posting statuses, and either match the replacement line or account for the void
Bank side: a credit from a customer with no receipt behind it	The customer paid straight into the account	The payor name on the statement is a customer, and no receipt voucher exists	Raise the Receipt Voucher against their invoice, so the receivable clears too. A bank-charges voucher would balance the cash and leave the customer still owing you
Bank side: a charge or transfer that is not yours at all	The bank has made an error	No document, no expectation, and nothing in your records anticipates it	Post nothing. Raise it with the bank and leave the line open. This month will not reconcile to zero, and it should not be made to

Two lines that never appear on this reconciliation at all, and are worth knowing about before you go looking for them: a manual journal to the bank account moves the General Ledger but writes no cashbook line, so it can never close a variance here; and a VOID cashbook line is excluded from the calculated balance rather than reversed by it.

Now post only what needs posting

Look back at your table rows. Timing items need no entry. Duplicates need a void. A wrong date needs the source document corrected. Only the bank-side rows where money genuinely moved and nothing was recorded need a new document — and for those, the document has to be a voucher.

Do not reach for a manual journal. A journal debiting bank charges and crediting CASH-PRI-KV01 would put the ledger right, but it writes no cashbook line — cashbook lines are only created when a voucher, POS settlement or cash transfer goes FINAL — so the reconciliation would never see it and the variance would stay open for ever.

GadgetSphere’s RM 450, worked through the method above. Your side is higher, so it is money in you have that the bank has not, or money out the bank has that you have not. Report 3 shows the opening difference at zero and nothing matched into another period, so it is not inherited and it is not timing. The cashbook unmatched balance is zero and the bank unmatched balance is RM 450 — the whole variance is on the bank side, bucket 4. On Manual Matching > Bank Statement Lines one line still carries an open amount: 31 March, RM 450, described Quarterly Account Maintenance. A search of the cashbook for RM 450 around that date returns nothing, and no document in BigLedger relates to it. That is row seven of the table: a charge the bank took and nobody booked.

Open the Payment Voucher (Internal) applet in a new tab and create a voucher dated 31 March 2026 with the bank as the payee:

Expenses tab: one line to EXPENSE-BANK-CHARGES (bank charges expense), RM 450, description Mar 2026 quarterly service charge - primary bank GS-KV-01
Payment tab: one payment line of RM 450 using GS-KV-01’s bank-transfer settlement method — that is what routes the line into this cashbook

Set it to FINAL. FINAL queues two background jobs, and within a few seconds they write the cashbook line and the journal (Dr EXPENSE-BANK-CHARGES / Cr CASH-PRI-KV01). If the cashbook line does not appear on the Reconcile tab after a minute, the voucher is still FINAL but its cashbook job failed — almost always because the settlement method you picked has no cashbook (the job log says MISSING_CASHBOOK) or the cashbook has no GL code (MISSING_GL_CODE). Fix the settlement method, then run Financial Report > Error Checking > Trace Document on the voucher: its Missing Cashbook check has a Resolve button that writes the line. Return to the reconciliation, re-run Auto Matching (Step 6) or match it by hand, and the new cashbook line pairs with the bank’s RM 450 charge.

Now go back to the Details tab and read both of your closing figures. The greyed Calculated line reads RM 47,200 — the bank’s figure — because the voucher’s line now sits inside the period. If the stored Cash Book Transaction Closing Balance above it reads RM 47,200 as well, the variance is closed. If it still reads RM 47,650, it was worked out before the voucher existed. Give the background job about half an hour, then open the session again: if the stored figure has moved to RM 47,200, the job runs on your tenant and you are done. If it never moves, the job is not scheduled for you, and the next section is for you.

Had that RM 450 turned out to be a deposit the bank cleared on 2 April, the right answer would have been to post nothing and let Report 1 carry it as a reconciling item. Had it been the same supplier payment keyed twice, the right answer would have been to void one of them. The voucher above is correct for this cause and wrong for those — which is why the table comes before the posting.

If the stored closing is older than your fix

Every line is matched, the greyed Calculated line agrees with the bank, and Report 1’s variance is not zero. Subtract the calculated closing from the stored one: in GadgetSphere’s month that is RM 47,650 minus RM 47,200, RM 450 — the voucher you just posted, to the cent. Report 1 starts from the stored figure, which was worked out before the voucher existed. It is not a new difference, and posting anything to make it go away would create one.

If the stored figure catches up within about half an hour, the background job did it and there is nothing to choose. If it does not, the job that keeps it current is not scheduled on your tenant, and what to do about the stale figure is a choice, and each choice costs something:

Keep the session and explain the figure. Note on the pack that Report 1’s variance equals the stored minus the calculated closing, and name the documents posted since you created the session. The cost: everyone who reads the pack has to follow the arithmetic, and a later difference can hide inside the one you explained.
Delete the session and create it again. The new session stores figures that include your fix. The cost: deleting a session also deletes the statements uploaded to it and every match in it, so you upload and match again.
Ask BigLedger to recalculate, or to schedule the job. BigLedger can rerun the calculation, but it reruns it for every active session on your tenant, not this one alone; scheduling the job keeps every session current from then on. The cost: the wait, and earlier months whose cashbook lines have changed get new stored figures that no longer agree with packs already printed.

Which of these your team uses is for whoever signs off the month to decide, once, and write down.

If it still does not resolve

If you have worked every open line and the variance will not go, do not make it disappear. Unmatched Adjustment will take a line off the unmatched list and posts nothing, so using it to force a tidy Report 3 buries a real difference under a clean-looking one. Leave the session as it is, keep the reports showing the true variance, and take the unexplained amount to whoever signs off your month — an unexplained RM 450 that is visible is a much smaller problem than an explained RM 450 that is wrong.

If you void a document after its cashbook line has been reconciled, BigLedger undoes the match for you, without saying so. It deletes the cashbook line from the session, deletes the saved match with it, and adds the matched amount back onto the bank statement line, which reappears on your unmatched list at its full amount. A session you had already signed off now has an open bank line again, and nothing on the screen says why. So Unreconcile first, then void. The bank line still comes back as open, but now you know why, and you can match it to the replacement document straight away.

Step 9: Generate Reports 1, 2 and 3 as the audit pack

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Report

You generated Reports 1 and 3 in Step 8 to work out what the variance was. Now that the fix is posted, generate all three again — these copies are the evidence, and they have to reflect the books as they now stand.

Open the Report tab. Three reports are available, each with its own Generate Report button:

Report 1 starts from the bank statement closing balance, adds and removes the cashbook lines unmatched this period and the lines matched against a previous or future period’s statement, and arrives at the expected cashbook closing and the variance. It is the report that tells you which side a variance sits on.
Report 2 is the reconciling-items schedule — balance as per cash book, balance as per bank statement, the items between them, and the discrepancy — useful when an auditor asks you to walk through individual matches.
Report 3 is the sectioned overview: cashbook and bank opening and closing balances, matched and unmatched balances on each side, cross-period matches, and the difference in opening balances. This is the one to keep as the period’s evidence.

Generate all three. Export each grid and save the files into your shared finance folder under 2026-03 Bank Recon / GS-KV-01 / together with the original bank statement file and the bank-charges payment voucher from Step 8.

Then check the reports against one of the two endings a correct reconciliation can have. They are different, and telling them apart is the point of Step 8.

The clean ending. Every line matched. On Report 3 the unmatched balance sections on both sides are zero, and on Report 1 the Variance / discrepancy line reads RM 0. Report 3’s cashbook closing is the stored figure, so it equals the bank’s RM 47,200 only when the stored figure agrees with the greyed Calculated line on Details. If it still reads RM 47,650 after the half-hour, Report 1 shows RM 450 and Report 3’s two closings differ by the same RM 450: that is the stale figure from the end of Step 8, and the pack carries whichever of those three choices you made. This is the month you are aiming for and the one most months give you.

The honest ending. Some lines are still open, and they are open for a reason you have named — a deposit the bank cleared in April, a charge the bank should never have taken. Report 3’s unmatched sections are then not zero, and that is correct. Report 1’s variance still reads RM 0, because every open line is one of the items it lists: the variance line measures what the list does not explain, not what is still open. Forcing them to zero with an Unmatched Adjustment would post nothing and hide a real difference behind a tidy number.

The test that applies to both endings is the same one: there is no line left on either side that you cannot name. Go down Report 3’s unmatched sections and say out loud what each line is. If you can do that, the pack is complete. If even one line makes you shrug, go back to Step 8’s table — and if the reports simply disagree with what is on screen, Auto Matching has probably not finished, so wait and regenerate.

When you finish on the honest ending, write the named exceptions on the pack — date, amount, what it is, what you are waiting for. A difference somebody can read is a much smaller problem than a difference that was made to disappear.

If Report 1 contradicts what you see on screen, Auto Matching probably has not finished its background work; wait, then regenerate.

Step 10: Mark the session approved — and know what that does not do

Bank Reconciliation > (your session) > Details > Status

Return to the Details tab. Status offers five labels: Processing, Ready for review, Pending amendment, Approved by HOD and Reviewed and Approved. None of them is CLOSE. They describe a sign-off, so pick the one that matches where March stands. Use Ready for review when you hand it to whoever checks your work, Pending amendment when they send it back, and Reviewed and Approved once they accept it. Then click Save. That label is how the rest of the team knows March is done for GS-KV-01.

April’s create form shows March’s closing balances as its openings whatever this label says. The pre-fill reads the cashbook’s most recent session that has not been deleted, and never looks at the label. What April stores is then worked out again from the cashbook lines at Create, and by the background job where it runs (Step 4).

Be clear about what the label does not do. Nothing in BigLedger reads it, so it locks nothing and enforces nothing. It also does not check who sets it: anyone who can save the session can pick any of the five, including Reviewed and Approved on their own work. If your team needs a preparer and a separate reviewer, keeping those two people apart is your own control, not something the product does. Links can still be undone in an approved session, and a voucher back-dated into March later changes March’s cashbook side and April’s opening. Where the background job runs it rewrites March’s stored figures too, so a March pack printed before the voucher no longer matches the screen; where it does not, April’s stored opening differs from March’s stored closing by that voucher. The one guard BigLedger does enforce is on the vouchers themselves — while a receipt or payment voucher’s cashbook line is linked in any session, the server refuses to change its amount or transfer details (Cashbook txn lines are bank-reconciled. Unreconcile them from the bank recon … before changing amounts). Voiding is not blocked, which is why Step 8 says unreconcile first.

So part of the controller’s job is to keep an eye on the GS-KV-01 cashbook for back-dated entries between now and April’s close, and to set the March fiscal period to LOCK_TXN in Chart of Account once the month is fully closed — a voucher dated into a LOCK_TXN month is refused at FINAL with The selected date falls within a locked fiscal period, so nothing new can land on March’s cashbook side. (Stock transfers are the one document type that lock does not check; they carry no cashbook line, so they cannot disturb a reconciliation.)

If you finished on the honest ending, the same labels apply and nothing about them changes. The status is a signal to your colleagues, not a validation, and BigLedger neither refuses it nor checks your variance first. What changes is what you have to say. Tell whoever signs off your month what is outstanding, in one line each, and say when you expect it to clear — a deposit that cleared on 2 April clears itself next month, a bank error does not clear until the bank agrees. Whether a month with an open exception can be marked Reviewed and Approved at all is your organisation’s rule, not BigLedger’s. The product will let you either way.

Send a short note to your finance manager confirming March 2026 GS-KV-01 is reconciled, naming any exception you left open, point them at the audit pack folder, and you are done.

If Save fails with a permission error, your user has read but not write permission on Bank Reconciliation; ask your administrator to adjust it through the Permission Wizard.

What success looks like

Open the session’s Details tab — for GadgetSphere, March 2026 on GS-KV-01 — and check that the stored Cash Book Transaction Closing Balance agrees with the greyed Calculated line beneath it, or that the pack records what your team did about the difference. Then open Report 3, read down the unmatched sections on both sides and name every line you see. In the clean ending there are none and Report 1’s Variance / discrepancy reads RM 0. In the honest ending there are a few, you can say what each one is and when it clears, and Report 1 still reads RM 0. A Report 1 variance is never “the open items”; it is something the list does not explain.

Then check the pack itself: the session Status carries the label your team uses for a finished month (Reviewed and Approved if you used the full chain), and the bank statement file, Report 1, Report 2, Report 3 and any document you posted are together wherever your team keeps month-end evidence. If one of those is missing, or there is a line on Report 3 you cannot name, you are not done yet.

Common mistakes

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The variance grows every month instead of shrinking.	A settlement method (POS card terminal, in-branch receipt, or in-branch payment) is wired to the wrong cashbook, so its takings never land where you are looking for them.	Open the Cashbook applet, audit every settlement method linked to the branch, and remap any stragglers to GS-KV-01 before the next month-end.
After reconciling, a previously matched line vanishes from your side, its bank line is back on the unmatched list at its full amount, and the greyed Calculated closing on Details moves.	Someone voided the original receipt or payment voucher after you had matched it. The void deleted the cashbook line and its saved match, and handed the matched amount back to the bank statement line.	Find the voided document: the bank line that came back on Bank Statement Lines tells you the amount and date. If the void was right, match that bank line to the replacement document, or re-run Auto Matching. There is no leftover pair to clean up. Next time, Unreconcile before voiding, so the change is deliberate.
Auto Matching produces a flood of possible matches and barely any confirmed ones.	The cashbook has no ACTIVE Weightage Configuration, so the matcher falls back to its strict built-in rule (exact amount and a near-identical payee name), or the threshold is set to 100.	In the Cashbook applet, open GS-KV-01 and add an active weightage configuration that reflects what your bank statement actually carries (card-acquirer statements often have no reference or payee, so weight amount and date), with a threshold around 85.
You booked the bank charge as a manual journal and it never appears on the reconciliation.	Manual journals do not create cashbook transaction lines; only vouchers, POS settlements and cash transfers do.	Reverse the journal (clone and swap) and enter the charge as a Payment Voucher with a payment line on this cashbook’s settlement method (Step 8).
Every line is matched, yet Report 1’s variance equals a payment voucher you posted during the reconciliation.	The stored cashbook closing was worked out before the voucher existed, and the background job that refreshes it has not run yet or is not scheduled on your tenant; every report starts from it.	Subtract the greyed Calculated closing from the stored one on Details. If that equals the variance, nothing is wrong with your matching. Wait about half an hour and look again; if the stored figure never moves, choose one of the three ways at the end of Step 8 and record it on the pack. Do not post anything to clear it.
Reports 1, 2, and 3 show numbers that do not match the screen.	You generated the reports while Auto Matching was still running in the background, so the report numbers are based on a half-finished match state.	Wait for the Processing indicator on the Auto Matching tab to clear, then regenerate all three reports.
You declare the reconciliation done with a small variance still showing, telling yourself you will catch it next month.	Skipping the variance hunt because it feels small; the unexplained difference rolls forward and compounds.	Treat any non-zero variance on Report 1 as a stop sign and work Step 8’s four questions on it — direction, Report 1, Report 3’s four sections, then the line-by-line table. Post only what that says to post, re-run Auto Matching, and only then mark the session Reviewed and Approved.