There are several things that the bank reconciliation brings to light that you may or may not be aware of. Here are some examples:

Service charges, insufficient fund checks, interest items and other credit/debit memos - These items must be recorded into the G/L and should not be put on the MISC tab. These entries can be entered as journal entries. If it is for trust or commission, they must be entered against a deal. Therefore a MISC transaction should be setup in 2.1 and finalized as fallen through and therefore will not show on any transaction reports. No entries should be made on the Trust screen for this deal, use either ledger adjustments or journal entries to record activity.

Correct amount posting of checks - In some cases the bank may slip a decimal or reverse two numbers, in other cases you may have entered a check manually and put in the wrong amount. If you are out by a figure that is divisible by 9, this indicates that the amount has been transposed. Ie. Item recorded as $89 instead of $98.

Pre-authorized payments - These need to be recorded as a journal entry. They can be setup as a recurring journal entry (F.1.2) if the amount doesn't change from month to month.

Deposit made to the incorrect account - Since real estate companies have several accounts, it is not impossible for either the bank or your staff to make a deposit to the wrong account. The simplest solution is to call your bank and have them move the money back to the proper account. If this problem straddles a month-end and you are out on your bank reconciliation, you can use the miscellaneous section of the bank reconciliation to balance, that's what it is designed for! In the next month, when the bank corrects the deposit, this miscellaneous can be deleted from the bank reconciliation. If this option is not chosen, ledger adjustments or journal entries will be required.

Cheques recorded for the wrong date - If a cheque or cheque reversal has been recorded for the wrong date, the date can be changed in F.F.6. You can also change the cheque # in this option as well. If the deposit is recorded for the wrong date, it must be reversed and reposted for the correct date.

It is not good enough that you balance your Lone Wolf system to your bank statement - You should also check it over and look for any items that may be out of place. This goes for all your bank accounts.

Look for any stale-dated checks - Checks you have issued which are outstanding for a period of greater than 6 months (in some areas 1 year). If you have stale dated cheques in your trust account, you should consult your local real estate council to determine what you should do in this situation.

Look for any checks or deposits that are outstanding between your bank accounts - A transfer of money from escrow to general where the check was never cashed and the deposit was never made. Or maybe something was recorded for the wrong bank account.

Outstanding deposits - Remember with Lone Wolf that you are posting deposits as they are made. Other than a day or two, a deposit should not be outstanding unless it's made right at month end.

Miscellaneous items - In the system there is a provision, which allows you to make a Misc. entry in order to balance Lone Wolf to the bank statement. This Misc. Items section however is only provided for temporary use.

For a tutorial on how to complete a bank reconciliation in Lone Wolf, please log into the Support page of www.lwolf.com and click on the Video Tutorials button.