Bank Reconciliation Categories

Bank Reconciliation Template: Automate and Easily Reconcile Transactions

by with 3 Comments bank reconciliationtemplatevba
 
 

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS A NEWER VERSION OF THIS TEMPLATE AVAILABLE HERE

A bank reconciliation can be a time-consuming process but this template can help speed it up. By assigning categories and setup quick ways to match items, you can quickly accelerate the reconciliation process. With an easy interface to match transactions, this template should help speed up what can otherwise be a tedious process.

Download Options

This version has been discontinued. Instead, please refer either to the 2020 or 2023 versions.


Note on #NAME? Errors

If you see this error message in the spreadsheet it means you have not enabled macros when opening the file or the calculations have not been able to update. If you think macros have been enabled and updated calculations but don’t see the results updated, then just try re-opening the file and that should fix the issue.

How to Use This Template

This template allows you to easily reconcile your bank to your book by 1) categorizing transactions, and 2) reconciling any matches based on those categories.

Setting up Categories to Match Transactions

 

In order to categorize transactions, you will need to use the Setup tab to first create the rules that will find and identify categories. The setup tab has five columns: Category, Identifier, Key, Length of Key, and Gap.

Bank Reconciliation Categories
 

The Category column is simply the name of the category (e.g. wire transfers, deposits, cheques).

The Identifier is what needs to be in your transaction description to be flagged as belonging to this category. For example, suppose the following description on your bank statement indicates cheque # 1234 was cashed:

C#1234

In the above example you would want to set C# as your identifier since that is how you can identify this is a cheque and should belong to the cheque category. The category can have multiple rules (for example, the way a cheque is indicated on your bank is likely not the same as on your general ledger)

The next column, the Key, is what should be used to try and match and reconcile these types of transactions. This is a drop-down selection as there are multiple options: use date, use letters after identifier, use numbers after identifier, and use alphanumeric string after identifier. You can also leave this blank if you don’t want the template to try and automatically reconcile these transactions or if there is no discernible key that can help identify the transaction.

To use the date will mean just the date is used, nothing else. In the case of a cheque this will not work since you might have multiple cheques deposited in a single day, so to just look at date will not correctly reconcile these types of transactions.

In the case of cheques you will want to select ‘Use numbers after identifier’ since that will pull only numbers and not any text. If you need text you can select the option for ‘Use letters after identifier’, or if you need both numbers and letters – ‘Use alphanumeric string after identifier’

The Length of Key column is how long you want the key to be. Suppose the following description:

C#12340000000

Although the cheque number is 1234 the description leaves trailing numbers afterward or might have some other detail afterward that doesn’t pertain to the cheque number. In this case you will not want every number, but just the first four.

The Gap column is used if you don’t want to start retrieving text or numbers after the identifier. For example:

C#001234

In the above example there are two zeros before the cheque number. In such a situation I would set the gap to 2. This would skip the first two characters after the identifier and then start pulling numbers or text after that.

In my example image above I set the identifier to C#, a key length of 4, and a gap of 2. Here is some sample data and how it extracts the key field based on the rules I set out above:

Sample Bank Rec Data

In the first row there was no space between the identifier and the cheque number, as a result, my key only pulled the last two numbers.

In the second row there was one space, so only three numbers were pulled.

In the third row there were two spaces and as a result all four numbers were correctly extracted into the key field.

In the fourth row I added trailing 0s after the cheque number but since my length is set to 4, it does not include those extra numbers.

In the fifth and six rows I show that whether it is numbers or letters before the cheque number is irrelevant since the gap is set to 2. Now in the case of row six, I would not need to set a gap because if I am only looking at numbers it would have skipped the letters anyway.

Note that these rules are not specific to either the book or bank tabs; any rules will be applied to both. However, in all likelihood you would need to setup rules for the same type of transaction multiple times since the way your book shows a type of transaction is probably not the same way your bank will.

If for whatever reason there is no consistency in how some of your transactions appear you could leave the details on the setup tab for the key as blank, that way you still can categorize the transactions (if there is an Identifier) but with nothing set for the key the template won’t match any of those transactions for you, which brings me to the next part: reconciling the data.

Matching Transactions

 

In order to reconcile that data you will of course need to download your transaction details into the ‘Bank’ and ‘Book’ tabs. Columns A:D are highlighted in yellow and those are the only ones you need to fill in. They include fields for Date, Description, Debit, and Credit. The Description field is the field that will be used for finding what category a transaction belongs to and extracting the key.

Columns E:H are formulas and are pulled from columns A:D.

In order for the template to match and reconcile items, it will look at the following:
– Are the categories the same?
– Do the keys match?
– Do the amounts match?

If all three criteria match, then the Status column will show a ‘-‘ indicating 0; that the amounts are reconciled. Otherwise it will show a value of ‘O/S’

There is also column I, Manual Override. If you mark an ‘X’ in this field, it will make transaction marked as reconciled, regardless of whether the template finds a match or not.

Manual Override

In the above screenshot the second row is reconciled once I enter an ‘X’ in the Manual Override column. Any reconciled items will highlight in green.

Alternative, you you can select a line item that has a status of O/S and click CTRL+SHIFT+X which will bring up the Reconciler window which will show you potential matches for the item you are looking to reconcile.

 
Reconciler

In the above example I pressed the shortcut keys while selecting the row with the $5,000 wire transfer. Since it is O/S it pulls up the Reconciler window. The Reconciler shows all the wire transfers from both the previous O/S tab as well as the Bank tab (in this example I was on the Book tab). Exact dollar matches show up at the top. Note the first result shows an amount of -$5,000 – the negative does not indicate a credit, it pulls the amount from the amount field which just shows the negative as being an outflow of cash. Because an outflow of cash on the bank is a debit, if I select the -$5,000 it will show $5,000 DR as being the amount matched, which is shown on the next screen:

Matching Transactions

Because the debits match the credits, the Match Selections button has turned green and can now be pressed. Doing so will enter an ‘X’ in the manual override field for these amounts. You will only be able to match the selections if the debits and credits match. You can select multiple items if they add up to the total outstanding.

Completing the Bank Reconciliation

Once all the bank and book data are entered and you have finished matching which items you can, go to the Reconciliation tab where there you will see three buttons on the right hand side:

Bank Reconciliation Buttons

The Reconcile button will generate the reconciliation and show you which items are outstanding. It will group the outstanding items by category – refer to the screenshot at the beginning of the post. If the adjusted balances match and the amounts reconcile to 0 then it will highlight that line in green, otherwise it will be in red to indicate a variance. The reconciliation date you will need to enter in the yellow highlighted cell.

The New Month data will clear all your existing data but before doing so will put your existing O/S items into the Previous OS Items tab so on your next month’s reconciliation they can be used to match new transactions.

For example, if cheque #1111 does not clear this month it will be moved to that tab. If on next month’s transactions there is a transaction on the bank for this cheque number the template will be able to reconcile it automatically. Nothing extra needs to be done to do this, as when looking for matches, both the bank and book tabs look at the Previous OS Items tab to clear any items from there as well.

Lastly, the Clear Data button will do just that – get rid of everything from every tab.

The template at the top has some sample data so you can test out and see how it works.

Cover Letter Menu

Create a Customer Cover Letter with my Form Letter Template

by with No Comment lettertemplatevba
 

This template allows you to create a customized letter – be it a cover letter or any other kind of letter from a pre-defined list of sentences and paragraphs that can also utilize variables. In order to accomplish this you will first have to setup the sentences, paragraphs, and variables you will want to use. But once you have done so you can easily reuse them going forward.

 

Setting Up Variables and Paragraphs

In my template I have two sections – one for variables, and one for paragraphs. In the variables section you can setup variables that can be used in your content. These will be values that will likely change from one letter to the next. In my example I have a % sign in front of the variable name. The purpose for this is to make it easier to accurately identify where a variable has been used. However you don’t need to use it, but you would want to ensure your variable name is unique and not a word that you might use in your content that you don’t intend to use as a variable.

 
Form Letter Variables

In the paragraphs section here you can setup sentences or entire paragraphs that you would potentially like to add to your letter. The title is just a way to identify the content, the paragraph is which paragraph the content relates to. For example, I have multiple titles that relate to the paragraph called experience.

 
 
Form Letter Paragraphs
 
This means that if I add all of these items, they will be stitched together to form only one paragraph. This is just to help organize my paragraphs to make sure I don’t have a paragraph for each item I want to add. You may not have enough to write a paragraph about each skill set you have, but instead you may want to add it on to a paragraph that relates to the content.
 
If I look at the title labeled ‘Introduction’ this has a related paragraph by the same name. There are no other items that relate to the introduction paragraph. So this means if I add the Introduction, it will be an entire paragraph on its own, and no other items I add will be added to it. The Introduction also has all three variables I setup – %HIRINGMANAGER, %POSITION, and %COMPANY. These are all variables that you would expect to change from one cover letter to the next. I can certainly use more variables and put them into other content but in this example I only did it in the Introduction.
 
If you need to add more rows you certainly can do that, as well as changing the existing content, titles, and related paragraphs. If you want to add lines within a cell, all you have to do is when you are editing in the cell click ALT+Enter and you will create an additional line of text within that cell. This will allow you to help space out your descriptions as you wish.

Updating Variables

Once your paragraphs and variables are setup, click on the Create Letter button. You will first be prompted to enter values for your variables. Here I will update the name of the hiring manager I’m applying to, the name of the company, and position.
 
Cover Letter Variables
 
Once done, click Update Variables.

 

Finalizing the Letter

 
Next, you can select the content you wish to add to your letter. The titles will appear in the drop down boxes. Go from top to bottom. As you select an item it will be added to your letter.
 
When I add Introduction my variables are now updated to reflect what I entered at the earlier screen. You can also edit the letter in the preview box.
 
However should you make any changes to the drop downs your edits will be gone. So make sure to do edits only after you’ve selected all the content you wish to use.
Edit Form Cover Letter
Once you are done, click on the Copy to Clipboard button and you can now paste it into a word processing document, email, or wherever you like.
awater

How to Make a Waterfall Chart in Excel

by with No Comment chartsintermediatetemplatevbafreewaterfall

 

 

waterfall chart
This is a chart that is useful in reviewing variances and monitoring change from one period to another. Favourable (positive) variances are green, and unfavourable (negative) variances are red. In this example I used a statement of cash flow. Increases or inflows in cash are favourable, while decreases or outflows of cash are unfavourable.

 

On the data tab all that is required is the change column (B), and the remaining formulas can stay intact.

If you were to track the changes in an income statement, you want to be careful to make sure favourable changes are positive and unfavourable ones negative. For example, if sales are up 100,000, that should be favourable since it has a positive impact on net income. However if expenses are up 100,000 that is unfavourable since it has a negative impact on net income, so although it is technically an increase, the change should be negative. This is where the cumulative change column is helpful because it shows you the running balance, and the ending figure in that column is what you are reconciling to. If that number is not correct then you know somewhere a sign is wrong or an amount is missing.

 

The remaining columns (D:H) simply have to do with the appearance of the chart. Columns D:E are positive changes, G:H are negative, and F represents the amount that is not visible or blank. The purpose for the blank values is what allows the waterfall chart to create the effect of starting from the last position and just showing the change in the cumulative value.

 

 

aproject

Project and Special Event Budget Template

by with No Comment budgetstemplatevbafree

 

The project budget template is designed to help track expenses that you do not need to compare against multiple time periods. That being said you could copy the template and create a separate instance for each period you want to cover. This template does not use macros so does not requiring enabling content.

 

The budget categories can easily be added by just entering a new category in the space below and the formulas will autofill and the chart adjust to contain the new category. To remove a category you can delete the cells and adjust the table by pulling on the corner in the bottom right section of the table (in the overbudget column). This will re-size the data to ensure the chart is not pulling up blank values and making the chart show blank values.

 
 
See above for the sample categories, and the chart below summarizes the data visually to show how much of a budget remains, how much has been spent, and how much is overbudget.
 
aexpmanager

Expense Manager Template: Maintain Budgets, Manage and Review Expenses

by with One Comment budgetstemplatevba
This template is designed to allow you to easily track and manager your expenses using budgets and copying transactions downloaded from your bank or credit card statement.
 
The template can be downloaded here
 
DOWNLOADING TRANSACTIONS

Once you have a download of your transactions from your statement, copy the data into the Import tab. The transaction dates into column A, the description from your statement in column C, and the amount in column D. Important to note that expenses should be positive (refunds negative), as should income. For payments/transfers I will cover further down but it will be negative if it is an outflow from the account/payment source or positive if an inflow. The source of your transactions will be selected in cell G2.
 
 
The suggested vendor column will autofill once it finds vendors matching the description you copied in column C. If not, you will want to setup the vendors using the setup button on the right of the page and click on manage vendors from where you can add, modify, and delete vendors. Once vendors are setup and all the suggested vendors are filled, click on the next button which is to Apply Names. This will fill the vendor column. After this is done you are ready to click on Copy Expenses. This will now move your transactions into the All Transactions tab. We focus on this tab next to go over how to manually enter transactions.
 
MANUALLY ENTERING TRANSACTIONS

You can manually enter transactions from the All Transactions tab by clicking the New Expense button at the top (or CTR:+SHIFT+T as the shortcut key is noted in each of the buttons up top).
 
 
 
MODIFY TRANSACTIONS AND ALLOCATIONS

You can also modify existing transactions by clicking on the Modify Transaction button on the same tab which is the same screen as the new expense screen (see below) except filled out with the selected transaction’s details.
 
 
 Additionally, you can change the allocation. When setting up a vendor you assign a default category. However in this template you can break out a line item into as many as ten different cost categories. For example, if you go to a department store it may not be as simple as saying all those expenses relate to groceries, clothing, baby items, electronics, or whatever else is sold there. You could have all those cost categories and more in one receipt. This is where you can break out that detail, by clicking on the Change button next to the category drop down.
 
 
ACCOUNT TRANSFERS/CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS

Payments from one account to another are not an expense and may not be important enough for you to track. However, for the sake of completeness and making sure all your transactions are accounted for and balances reconciled, this can be accomplished here by setting up a vendor equal to the name of another payment source. In this template if you make a payment from one payment source to another it is recognized as a transfer rather than an expense (in the manual entry screen you can also specify transfer rather than expense). If the source of your payment is the bank and your vendor is your credit card (e.g. you are paying your credit card from your bank account) then on your bank account this amount should be negative and on the credit card it will be a positive. Transfers should add up to 0 every month unless you are missing one side of the entry. You can also manually enter transfers from the AllTransactions tab. Again, transfers are not necessary but helpful for the sake of reconciling to make sure all balances match.
 
ACCOUNT BALANCES

The Balances tab is used for reconciliation purposes to make sure the balance on your statement at the end of the month matches the balance here. It will reconcile according to the statement month and year rather than just looking at the calendar month and year. This will allow you to more easily reconcile to a specific statement. In row 17 you will want to enter any opening balance you have from these accounts.
 
BUDGET CATEGORIES

You can create budgets and also break them into multiple categories. By default I have setup my categories into whether the expenses are essential, discretionary, or irregular. However you can change these from the setup button (from the All Transactions or Import tabs), selecting Manage Expense Categories, and then selecting Manage Budget Categories.
 
 
 
From the Managing Expense Categories section you can create, modify, and delete budgets as well as change monthly amounts.
 
CASH FLOW AND PER DOLLAR SPENDING

These tabs show spending based on the budgets created and arranged in accordance with the different budget categories.
 
SUMMARY
 
Lastly, the summary tab provides a summary of the expenses. In row 1 you can specify the month, year, and budget category you wish to review. The bar graphs below show in red how much an expense is over budget, and if there is dark green that indicates the budget has been partially used and the dollar amount specifies how much has been used with the light green portion what is remaining
 
 
Further down below the graph you will see a summary of the largest expense items, as well as top items by category where you will be able to select multiple expense categories to review at once. Alternatively, you could also go to the All Transactions tab and filter the data from there to view what made up an expense category.

NOTE ABOUT CUSTOM FUNCTIONS

 There are multiple custom functions in this template and occasionally they might get stuck – show an error instead of the calculated value. To correct this just hit ctrl+alt+F9 if you notice error values as this should fix the issue.
aprogress

Show Progress Using a Picture in Excel

by with One Comment progressbartemplatetips & tricks
Please note this works only on versions of Excel 2010 and newer

There are many different ways to show progress in Excel, and in this post I am going to provide you a template to show you how you can do this through an image. Link to the template is here
In my example, I’ve inserted a picture of a glass of beer from clip art. In order for this to work I need two pictures of the same image. One that shows what the image looks like when at 100%, and one when it looks like when it is at 0%.
Certainly you don’t need to use clipart for this and can do it in a photo editing program but what I did was just used the picture editor to recolour the image with white, or ‘washout’
Now I have two images, I need to name the one that is empty as pictureempty, and the one that is 100% as picturefilled – this image needs to be on top of the pictureempty image. To do so you right click on the picturefilled image and select bring to front. Now, importantly, the images need to overlap one another. Carefully align the pictures so they are exactly overtop of one another. If they’re not, you’ll notice after running the macro anyway and can adjust accordingly.
Once you’ve got them aligned then all that’s left to do is change the percentage and click the update button and you will see the picture be filled from bottom to top based on the percentage you have entered in. Without clicking the button it will not update.
t account excel template spreadsheet

T-Account Template

by with One Comment t-accountstemplatevbafree
A good way to plan and organize your journal entries is to use t accounts. This template will allow you to setup and manage multiple accounts and see the impact of all your entries. It’s a quick way to plan and hopefully prevent any mistakes before they happen.

Download Options

Free version: Download Here For the full version (no ads/workbook locks) click on the following button:
 

About This Template

This template allows you to easily setup t-accounts and make entries on the left hand side of the spreadsheet and see the affect on the related t-accounts on the right hand side.
There are placeholders for 10 different t-accounts with the first row specifying the GL number (this will need to match the GL column in the entries to correctly update the t-account), the GL description (for reference only and not needed for calculations), and if there is an opening debit or credit balance for the account. Once setup, any entries you enter will automatically update the t-account which will show the updated balance as well.
Below is how this looks with the sample data in the template. Feel free to test out the template with the embedded Excel file below
aexp

Expense Report Template for Excel

by with One Comment accountingtemplatevba

If you’re looking for a way to manage your employee expense reports and don’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars every month, then this expense report template could be a great option for you. You can set up rules and flags for categories and it will keep track of when and who a report was approved be.

Benefits of using this expense report template

The expense report template is designed to help with the following:

  • Unlike online reporting solutions, you have all the data and can store and save it as you wish.
  • Complete customization. Setup multiple approvers, categories, and flags as you need.
  • Make it easy for employees to enter expenses across multiple categories and branches
  • Allow management to easily change and setup desired limits for expenses
  • Bringing problem items to the attention of managers to force them to acknowledge and allow them to comment on individual issues.
  • An approval process that stamps the date, time and user ID of the employee who has reviewed the report and the manager who approved it.
  • Integration with the ribbon so buttons are readily available in the tab.

Setup limits for expenses

Let’s move over to the SETUP tab. This will show you the customization you can do with this report.

Under the expense categories section I can specify the dollar limit per category, the GL code, as well as if it is per attendee (PerAtt). The limit is at what amount the expense gets flagged. It won’t prevent the user from completing the report, but the limit instead acts as a way to flag expenses over the limit.

For example, in my table below if someone made a claim for $3,000 for air travel, it would get flagged for the manager to review.

In the case of meals, this is a moving target since it is largely dependent on the number of people at a given meal. If it is a company even with dozens of people then a limit of $50 or $100 will not be terribly useful. This is where the PerAtt column comes into play. For meals at $50 and an “X” marked in the PerAtt column, the $50 limit will be multiplied by the number of attendees indicated on the expense report (the data tab has this information). This will allow the limit to grow with the number of people in attendance.

The GL code column is for accounting purposes as to which account it should be booked to.

expense categories

Other setup options

In the next section of the setup tab it relates to branches and what GL suffix is to be added if necessary. If no branches are used this can be left blank. The accounting password is what will need to be entered when the accounting button is pressed at the data tab which will unlock all the tabs including setup. Also, there is a section for a list of employees and their approvers and the approver passwords.

expense report setup
If you need to set up more approvers or sections, make sure to insert a row above the last entry to ensure that formulas remain intact.
The last section in the setup relates to the GL coding for which account to credit as well as the tax account.
expense gl accounts

Using the data tab

The DATA tab is where all the data entry goes. I have filled out some expenses as below. Since both of them are over my pre-defined limits, they will both be flagged.

expense report template sample

Once the file is sent to the manager for review, he will press on the Manager Review button which will prompt for a password. If correctly entered, the Manager tab will show and it will show the following items as being flagged:

expense report template review

The information is pulled from the data tab and under the reviewable reason it explains why it has been flagged. There is also space for the manager to put their comments regarding the items so that once the report is sent to accounting for processing accounting will see any comments by the manager to confirm they have acknowledged and approved the expenses.

Finally, the accounting tab prepares the GL entry. This is triggered once the accounting button is clicked and password is entered

Get the expense report template today!

Download – Expense Report Template (Trial Version – 10 Entries)

Buy The Full Version – No limitations, coding unlocked and no ads

*default password to access the setup/accounting tabs is 5678
*passwords for approvers is listed in the setup tab

prepaid expenses template excel spreadsheet

Prepaid Expenses Template

by with 4 Comments accountingtemplatevbafree

***NEW VERSION AVAILABLE HERE ****

If you’ve got several prepaid expenses to track then this template can help you manage and reconcile that. You can select different start dates and durations and can easily modify the template to adjust it to your needs and add more items to it.

How This Template Works

This template will help you track and amortize prepaid expenses. If you’re looking for an amortization template, however, check this post out.

I have some sample data entered into it and the top section is where you can enter the details. This includes the prepaid item, the starting balance (or the total expense), the number of periods you want to expense it over, and the first period you want to start expensing it from. You can add additional items and just copy the formulas over.

The first month where I’ve entered is January 2024. However,  you can change that  to a different month and the other months will automatically increment. This spreadsheet covers 24 periods or two years as some expenses could possibly stretch longer than just one year. However, you can stretch this to more than 24 periods by again copying the formulas further down.

The section on the right allows you to enter your general ledger (GL) balance. Here you will see any variance between what that amount is and what the prepaid balance should be. This will help you to reconcile your prepaids and identify which items you still need to account for.

The prepaid expenses template is flexible and should be easy to change as needed. There is no coding in this template as it’s entirely driven by formulas. If you can copy formulas, you can easily modify this file as needed to suit your needs.

Another template that might help in your reconciliations is my  t-account template which can help plan your entries.

If you have any feedback on this template please feel free to leave a comment!

Download Options

Free version: Download Here. The free version is limited to three prepaid items to track and the sheet is locked.

For the full version (no restrictions/ads/worksheet locks) click on the following button:

acashflow

Cash Flow & Calendar Template

by with No Comment calendarcashflowtemplate

In this post I have attached a simple calendar template that will allow you to generate a new calendar by just changing the month name or year. In addition there is an empty space for each day that by default tracks cash flows (from the data tab). You can enter in dates and cash flows in the data tab and they will populate on the calendar for those days. Of course the formulas can be overridden to put other data in the calendar.

Below is what the template looks like with some sample cash flow numbers filled in

Cash Flow & Calendar Template