Map the accounts and their purpose
List operating accounts, reserve accounts, cards, loans, credit lines and merchant balances. Note the legal entity and any purpose attached to a reserve or restricted fund. An association holding project funds may need a fund schedule even if it uses a single operating bank account. Conversely, moving money into a separate savings account does not by itself decide how a grant should be recognized or whether its restrictions have been met.
Use statements to test the imported records
Compare opening and closing balances, dates and totals with the accounting file. Check for missing periods, duplicate imports and old outstanding items. Bank feeds may reconnect with overlapping transactions, so agree the restart cutoff before importing an export as well. Statement and export options vary by institution and account. We do not assume a particular feed, integration, partnership or branch service exists because a financial institution is named here.
An illustrative association event settlement
An Ottawa association receives $5,650 of gross event payments through a processor. The settlement report shows a $565 gross refund and $150 fees, leaving $4,935 deposited. The bookkeeping entry preserves the original receipts, the refund and the fee, with any applicable sales-tax treatment handled separately. Recording only $4,935 as revenue would lose the event’s gross activity and make the next refund harder to trace. A transfer of some cash to reserves is another transaction, not another expense.
Resolve customer and funding receipts carefully
Government-contract EFTs, membership payments and funding instalments may arrive with short bank descriptions. Retain remittance advice, invoice references and relevant agreements before allocating them. A receipt can settle several invoices or include an approved credit. Grant recognition and restricted-fund treatment depend on the arrangement and accounting policy, so preserve that context for the accountant. Unidentified receipts belong on an exception list until their source and purpose are resolved.
End with balances someone else can explain
Save reconciliations and the reports used to prepare them, including loan details and processor transactions still unsettled. Assign a person and follow-up date to each old outstanding item. Use authorized access, statements or exports rather than sharing banking passwords. FSRA’s directory is a useful place to confirm Ontario credit-union listings, while current account capabilities should be checked directly with the institution. A complete monthly file helps the owner, treasurer and accountant work from the same supported balances.
Put this into practice
Sources and current guidance
A practical next step
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