What does an account reconciliation look like — can I see an example of one?

What does a finished bank account reconciliation look like?

This is the whole artifact, as a reviewer or lender would receive it. The figures are invented.

Account: 1010 Operating checking, account ending 4471 Period: month ended March 31, 2026 Second record: bank statement for March 1–31, 2026 (support B-1) Purpose: ties the general ledger cash balance to the balance the bank reports Prior-period items still open: none (all February reconciling items cleared in March)

Prepared by: J. Rivera, April 4, 2026 Reviewed by: M. Chen, April 6, 2026

A bank reconciliation matches the cash balance in your books to the bank statement. Line 2 is a deposit in transit: money the business received and recorded that the bank had not yet recorded. Line 3 is outstanding checks: checks the business recorded that had not yet cleared the bank. Line 6 runs the other way: the bank has charged a fee the books do not show yet.

What is each part of the reconciliation for?

Read the example from top to bottom and it breaks into six parts. A well-prepared reconciliation has the same six, whatever the account. The Support and Expected to clear columns and the reviewer's signature are the evidence: a schedule without them is complete as a calculation but not yet evidenced.

1. Identification (the header). The header records the account, the financial period covered, what the second record is, and the purpose of the reconciliation, including where the supporting documentation comes from. It tells a reader exactly which balance on which date is being proved, so two people never argue about different numbers.

2. The second record's balance (line 1). The figure from outside the ledger that the ledger is tested against. For your own account, this is whatever independent record should agree with the ledger: a statement, a detail report, a schedule or a count.

3. The ledger balance (line 5). The figure in your general ledger for the same account on the same date. It must be the balance that appears on the trial balance or balance sheet, because that is the number the reconciliation proves. It is the balance before any correcting entries this reconciliation identifies: fees the bank has charged but the books have not yet recorded are deducted from the book side, which is why line 6 sits below line 5.

4. Reconciling items (lines 2, 3 and 6). Each difference between the two records, listed one per line with an amount, a reason and a support reference. Such differences are called reconciling items, and they arise for reasons that include timing differences, errors in the ledger and errors in a subsidiary system. Each item also records when it is expected to be resolved.

5. The result (lines 4, 7 and 8). The two adjusted balances and the difference between them. The difference line is the reconciliation's conclusion: zero means every part of the gap has been explained.

6. Evidence of preparation and review (the sign-off). The preparer signs and dates the reconciliation, and the reviewer signs and dates it separately. Without the second signature, no one else has checked the work.

Does the same shape work for an account that is not a bank account?

Yes. Here is accounts receivable. The second record is now a report produced inside the business: the aged receivables report from the sales ledger. Reconciling receivables means matching the detail of unpaid customer invoices to the receivables total in the general ledger, and the aged report is run as of the last day of the period.

Account: 1200 Accounts receivable, trade Period: month ended March 31, 2026 Second record: aged receivables report as of March 31, 2026 (support AR-1) Purpose: proves that the general ledger receivables total is made up of identifiable unpaid invoices

Prepared by: J. Rivera, April 4, 2026 Reviewed by: M. Chen, April 6, 2026

Put it next to the bank example: the header, two balances, itemised differences, a zero difference line and two signatures are identical. Two things change, and they are the two things you change for your own account.

Where the second record comes from. A bank or loan account is compared with a statement from an outside party. Receivables, payables, inventory, prepaid expenses and accruals are usually compared with a record kept inside the business: a subsidiary ledger, an amortization schedule, an accrual schedule or a physical count. Write that record's name and date in the header and its balance on the first line.

What the reconciling items look like. Against an outside statement, most items are timing: things one side has recorded and the other has not yet. Against an internal record, most items are postings that reached one record and not the other, like the journal entry in line 2 that went straight to the ledger and the credit memo in line 5 that never reached it.

To map your own account, fill in the header, put the second record's balance on the first line and the ledger balance halfway down, and list every difference between them until the difference line reaches zero.

How does a reconciling item point to its support instead of containing it?

Look at the Support column. Line 3 of the bank example says "(3,420.00), B-3" and nothing more. B-3 is a separate page kept with the reconciliation:

B-3 Outstanding checks at March 31, 2026

The reconciliation carries only the total and the pointer. The detail, and the documents behind it, sit in the support file, which is labelled with the same codes: B-1 the bank statement, B-2 the deposit receipt, B-3 the check list, B-4 the trial balance. Each reconciliation's support file carries its own code series, which is why the receivables schedule uses AR-1 to AR-4 and no two documents share a code. Supporting documentation is attached for each reconciling item. A reviewer follows each code, confirms that the support shows the amount on the line, and then checks whether the item cleared on the date given in the last column.

This is the part people miss when they copy an example. A reconciliation with the right layout but an empty Support column looks finished and proves nothing, because no one can check where any figure came from.

How can you tell a finished reconciliation from an abandoned one?

A finished one passes every one of these checks, and you can test both examples above against them:

• The header is complete. Account, period, second record and its date are all named.
• The ledger balance is the real one. Line 5 of the bank example matches the trial balance for that date.
• The difference line is zero. If an amount is genuinely unexplained it is shown as its own reconciling item with a specific reason, a support reference and an expected clearing date — "timing, will clear" with no support is not an explanation.
• Every reconciling item is explained and supported. Each has a reason, a support code and, where the schedule carries a clearing column, an expected clearing date. Reviewers look for explanations of reconciling items and of significant changes in the balance.
• Old items are followed up. Items carried over from the last period show their current status, and items that have stayed open for a long time have been chased. The bank example's header line records that no February items remain open.
• The preparer has signed and dated it. If anyone else reviewed it, they have signed and dated it as reviewer. If no one has, it is a finished reconciliation that has not been reviewed, and say so when you hand it over.

Here is the same bank account reconciled badly:

Prepared by: (blank) Reviewed by: (blank)

The difference of 1,885.00 is in fact the 1,850.00 deposit in transit plus the 35.00 fee, but the schedule never says so. It has no period in the header, no support codes, no clearing dates and no signatures. The give-away is a nonzero difference explained only in words: that is where the work stopped.

What will someone look at first if you are handing one over?

A reviewer's content checks are that the ending balance agrees with the ledger, that each reconciling item is explained, and that significant changes in the balance are explained. Hand over the finished schedule together with its labelled support file, so every code on the schedule leads to a document. Your working notes, draft matching and scratch calculations stay with you; the requester needs the reviewable version, not how you got there.

What other layouts carry the same content?

You will meet the same six parts in several layouts, and a correct reconciliation can look quite different from the examples here:

• Single column, as above: second record, then ledger, then difference, top to bottom.
• Side by side: the second record's side in the left column and the ledger side in the right, each adjusted down to the same figure.
• Starting from the ledger: the ledger balance first, adjusted until it reaches the second record's balance.
• Spreadsheet or software: reconciliations are completed in spreadsheets or in reconciliation software; look for the same six parts in either.

Judge any of these by whether the six parts are present and the difference is explained, not by whether it looks like the examples here. The step-by-step bank tie-out, the named formats and three-way reconciliations, and building one in a spreadsheet are separate topics.