Bank Reconciliation — Synthetic Worked Example

DEMO-OPERATING · USD · 1–30 September 2026 · evidence available by 5 October

OPEN — not fully reconciled. Synthetic practice only; all evidence notes invented. No postings.

Positive means cash into the company account; negative means cash out. Opening controls: bank and books $10,000; no prior outstanding items. Closing controls: bank $9,548; books $10,200.

Review decisions

Repeated bank transaction TX03 appears in B03 and B13 with identical transaction fields. E15 supports excluding B13 (-$450) only; raw row is preserved. Raw bank closing = $10,000 - $902 = $9,098; accepted closing = $10,000 - $452 = $9,548. Books closing = $10,000 + $200 = $10,200. Evidence has 15 unique IDs, all available by cutoff; no cash-source rows fall outside account, currency or September scope.

Nine supported pairs use nine distinct rows on each side. Matched movement is -$300. Equal IDs, amounts and nearby dates do not prove identity. The four $600 candidate combinations remain in the register: E06 maps B07/ACH771 to L06/P041 (Alder); E07 maps B06/ACH884 to L07/P042 (Birch). B06–L06 and B07–L07 lack supporting notes and are not accepted. Retain B08/L08 debit and B09/L09 reversal separately.

Bank bridge: $9,548 - $900 outstanding check L10/CHECK104 + $1,400 deposit in transit L11/DEP930 = $10,048. E12 cites October 3 clearance FUT02; E13 cites October 2 clearance FUT01. These are cutoff-available practice notes, not additional September bank transactions.

Books bridge: $10,200 - $35 fee B10/FEE09 + $8 interest B11/INT09 = $10,173. These are proposed missing-book entries, not postings. Remaining difference = adjusted bank $10,048 minus adjusted books $10,173 = -$125, corresponding to unexplained bank debit B12/UNK49. E14 supplies no receipt or authorised explanation. Request documentation; keep open; do not invent a balancing entry or assume a bank error.

Blank exclusion fields mean accepted; blank candidate evidence means unsupported. Blank counterpart IDs in evidence identify one-sided items. A zero proposed adjustment on B12 means no adjustment proposed, not no bank cash effect. Amounts in candidate/evidence tables must not be summed. Running balances and controls are not additive across rows.

Reviewer summary

Independent source controls

Signed bridges — proposals only

Supported matches

Unmatched both directions

Candidates — not automatically matches

Bank rows including excluded duplicate

Original cash ledger

Original practice evidence

Calculation rules

• Source variance = opening + signed movements − closing control.
• Duplicate exclusion: evidence-identified B13 only; original source rows preserved.
• Candidate generation: equal signed amount, account and currency; never acceptance by amount alone.
• Supported acceptance: both IDs and both payment/invoice references agree with cutoff evidence, same signed amount, and unique use on each side.
• Unmatched = accepted source rows not consumed by supported matches.
• Adjusted bank = bank closing + supported timing movements.
• Adjusted books = books closing + supported fee/interest movements.
• Residual = adjusted bank − adjusted books. Unexplained items are left open.