Accountant guide, part 4: bank reconciliation and statements

This is part 4 of 4 of the Xenia accountant guide: 1. Your overview and how the books work · 2. Setting up the books · 3. Posting, vouchers and the ledger · 4. Bank reconciliation and statements.

Reconcile the bank

Reconciling checks that the books agree with the money in the bank. Do it each month, or more often if the hotel banks every day. Open Reconcile and choose the Bank account.

Import the statement

Export the statement from the bank as a CSV file. It needs a Date column, a Description column and either an Amount column or Debit and Credit columns. A file with any bad row is refused whole, so a half-read statement never reaches the books.

1. Under Import a statement choose the CSV file.

2. Give it a Label (for example "October 2026").

3. Enter the Closing balance from the bank's statement. It is optional, but without it Xenia cannot tell you whether the difference is explained.

4. Choose Import.

Xenia reads the lines and matches the ones it can by amount and date, then tells you how many matched on their own.

Read where it stands

The Where it stands today card sets the books against the bank:

• Balance in the books and Balance on the statement.

• Statement lines not in the books: fees, interest or transfers nobody has recorded. They need a voucher.

• Book lines not on the statement: cheques and deposits still on their way.

• Adjusted books and Adjusted bank. When these agree, the card says Fully explained; if not, it says by how much you are out.

Below it, On the statement, not matched and In the books, not reconciled list what is left over. Under Statements each import shows how many of its lines are done ("1 of 2 done"). Choose a statement to open its lines.

Go through the lines

Each line says whether it is Not matched, Matched, Matched (auto) or Set aside. The Show list narrows the lines to one of those. A line that is not matched has two buttons.

Match opens Match to the books. It lists the unreconciled lines in the books for this bank account near the line's date, and marks the one with the same amount. Tick the line (or lines) the bank line stands for. Match is available only when the ticked lines add up exactly to the bank line: the box says Adds up exactly, or how much it is still short or over.

If nothing in the books is near that date, the dialog says so: post the entry first (usually a journal voucher), then come back. When you match, the line shows the entry it was matched to, and the numbers above change.

Set aside is for a line you will not reconcile against the books. It asks Why is it being set aside? (at least five characters) and puts the line aside, with your reason shown under it and recorded in the audit trail.

A line that is matched or set aside has Undo instead. It asks Why is the match being undone? (at least five characters), and puts that one line back to Not matched, with its Match and Set aside buttons again. For a matched line it also puts its entry's lines in the books back as unreconciled. The audit trail records who did it and why. Undo works on one line at a time, not on a whole import.

The statements

Open Statements. There are four, and each reads straight from the ledger. Choose the dates with From and To, and the Compare with list adds the period before or the same dates last year. Print or save as PDF and CSV take any of them out.

Income statement

Revenue by account, expenses, and Net income for the period.

Balance sheet

What the hotel owns, owes and is worth, as at a date.

VAT report

For each month, the Sales, the VAT charged, what has been Paid or reversed, and the Net, with what is owed to the tax authority at the end. It reads from the VAT payable account, so it agrees with the books by construction.

Trial balance

Every account's debit or credit balance as at a date. It says Balanced when the debits equal the credits.

A month-end checklist

• Post every folio for the month, and the supplier deliveries and payments.

• Write and post the month's vouchers: bank charges, salaries, rent, accruals.

• Reconcile each bank account, and write a voucher for any fee or transfer that was not in the books.

• Open the trial balance and check it says Balanced.

• Print the income statement, balance sheet and VAT report for the month, and send them to the owner.

• Look at Outstanding balances under Reports and ask the front desk to chase what is owed.

If you get stuck at any point, ask the owner first, and the Xenia support team after that.