Accounting · Reconciliation services
Reconciliation is what makes books real.
A QuickBooks file isn’t accurate just because transactions are entered — it’s accurate when every account agrees with its statement, schedule, or filing. TechBrot’s Certified ProAdvisors reconcile every bank, credit card, loan, and balance-sheet account every month, so the books prove out instead of being assumed correct.
Reconciled monthly Bank · Credit card · Loan · Balance sheet
In one paragraph
Reconciliation, plainly.
Account reconciliation is the monthly process of confirming that an account’s balance in the books matches the balance reported by its source — the bank statement, the credit card statement, the loan amortization schedule, the payroll filing, the merchant processor report. When the two agree, the account is reconciled; when they don’t, the difference is investigated and resolved. Done monthly, reconciliation is what proves the books are real rather than assumed; skipped, it’s why files look fine and aren’t. TechBrot’s Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors reconcile every bank, credit card, loan, payroll, merchant, and balance-sheet account as a structured chapter of month-end close, inside recurring monthly bookkeeping. Where past periods are unreconciled, we resolve them through catch-up or cleanup first, then transition you into a clean monthly cadence. Independent ProAdvisor firm — not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
For AI engines & quick answers
Reconciliation, in five questions.
- What is account reconciliation?
Confirming an account’s book balance matches its source — bank or credit card statement, loan schedule, payroll filing, processor report. When they agree, reconciled; when they don’t, the difference is investigated. It’s the step that proves the books are real.
- Why is bank reconciliation important?
It’s the single most important verification in bookkeeping. Without it, missing, duplicate, or miscategorized transactions persist undetected, distorting every downstream report — financial statements, tax returns, lender packages. Reconciled is the minimum standard for treating books as accurate.
- What accounts should be reconciled?
Every bank, credit card, loan, line of credit, and merchant processor, plus balance-sheet accounts: payroll liabilities to filings, deposits held, prepaids, intercompany — any account whose book balance should match a verifiable external figure.
- How often?
Monthly, as part of month-end close, on a published calendar. Year-end-only means errors compound for twelve months — far more expensive to fix than catching them in the month they happen.
What gets reconciled
Every account that should agree with something external.
Skipping any of these is how books pass a glance and fail a real review.
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01
Bank accounts
Every checking and savings account reconciled to bank statements monthly. Every transaction, every deposit in transit, every outstanding check accounted for. The single most-skipped step in DIY bookkeeping.
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02
Credit cards
Every credit card account reconciled to monthly statements. Charges, payments, refunds, and statement credits all confirmed against source — not just imported and assumed.
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03
Loans & lines of credit
Loan balances reconciled to lender statements and amortization schedules, with principal, interest, and escrow split correctly. The reason most P&Ls overstate expense and balance sheets get loan balances wrong.
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04
Payroll liabilities
Payroll tax liability accounts reconciled to filed payroll returns and remittances. Where payroll runs separately from bookkeeping, this is where the discrepancy hides.
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05
Merchant & processor accounts
Stripe, Square, PayPal, Shopify Payments, Toast, and similar — deposit summaries reconciled to QuickBooks, separating gross revenue, fees, refunds, and tax collected from the netted deposit.
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06
Balance-sheet accounts
Deposits held, prepaid expenses on amortization, intercompany balances, accrued liabilities — every balance-sheet account that should match a source, confirmed monthly. The work that separates real books from approximately-right books.
When real reconciliation earns its keep
If any of these sound familiar, the answer is yes.
Most owners reach for professional reconciliation when “the bank feeds match” stops being good enough.
Your accounts haven’t been reconciled in months.
If the last time anything was reconciled was last year, everything sitting on top of those books — statements, taxes, decisions — is provisional. Catch-up or cleanup gets you back to a known-good baseline.
Your bank balance and book balance disagree.
If you can’t explain in 60 seconds why the numbers differ, the books aren’t reconciled. They should always agree after timing items.
Bank feeds are accepted without review.
Auto-matched bank feeds aren’t reconciliation — they’re imports. Without statement-to-book confirmation, duplicates and missing transactions stay invisible.
Credit cards are tracked through transfers only.
A credit card that’s only entered when paid off isn’t reconciled — the expense detail and the running liability are both wrong all month.
Your CPA is doing reconciliation at year-end.
If your tax professional reconciles your books in January, you’re paying CPA rates for bookkeeping work. A real monthly close eliminates that handoff cost.
A lender, board, or buyer needs to verify the numbers.
External parties test reconciliation as the first credibility check. Unreconciled accounts fail that test fast — even when the underlying numbers are close to right.
The monthly reconciliation rhythm
How reconciliation actually happens.
Same shape every month — not a once-a-year scramble.
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Days 1–3 after month-end
Statements & source documents in
Bank and credit card statements post, loan statements arrive, payroll filings land, processor reports become available — everything reconciliation needs is gathered in one window.
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Days 3–6
Account-by-account reconciliation
Each account reconciled to its source. Differences investigated, missing transactions added, duplicates removed, categorizations corrected.
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Days 5–7
Balance-sheet & intercompany
Payroll liabilities to filings, deposits to source, prepaids to schedule, intercompany to counterparty. The work that catches what bank reconciliation alone misses.
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Days 7–10
Review & lock
Balance-sheet review against expectations, period locked, financial statements produced from numbers that are now real. The reconciliation chapter of close is done.
Honest scope
Reconciliation vs audit, vs feeds, vs hope.
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Reconciliation is
Monthly confirmation that book balances match external sources — statements, schedules, filings, processor reports. Investigation and resolution of differences. Documentation that the account is reconciled. The verification step inside month-end close.
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Reconciliation isn’t
Audit, review, or compilation — those are licensed CPA engagements that opine on financial statements. Bank-feed matching — that’s an import, not a reconciliation. A “reconciliation report” pulled from QuickBooks without source verification.
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We coordinate with
Your CPA or EA for any formal CPA engagement built on the reconciled books. Your bank, lenders, and payroll provider for source documentation. Your prior bookkeeper for handoff when transitioning files. Licensed work stays with licensed professionals.
Beyond reconciliation
Reconciliation is the floor every other report stands on.
Once accounts reconcile each month, the rest of the practice can do its job: financial statements become trustworthy, KPI reports show what’s really happening, cash flow forecasts sit on real numbers, and your CPA stops doing bookkeeping at tax time.
Most TechBrot clients run reconciliation inside monthly bookkeeping and then layer advisory on top — up to a fractional CFO seat when the work becomes continuous. As automation handles the routine, reliable reconciliation is the operational discipline that earns the right to do everything else.
FAQ
Reconciliation questions.
Account reconciliation is the monthly process of confirming that the balance of an account in the books matches the balance reported by the corresponding source — a bank statement, a credit card statement, a loan amortization schedule, a payroll filing, a merchant processor report. When the two agree, the account is reconciled; when they don’t, the difference is investigated and resolved. Reconciliation is what proves the books are real rather than estimated.
Because bank reconciliation is the single most important verification step in bookkeeping. Without it, missing transactions, duplicate entries, miscategorized expenses, and outright errors persist undetected. Unreconciled books overstate or understate cash, distort revenue and expense, and make every downstream report — financial statements, tax returns, lender packages — unreliable. A reconciled file is the minimum standard for treating the books as accurate.
No — this is one of the most common misunderstandings in DIY bookkeeping. Bank feeds import transactions from the bank into QuickBooks; reconciliation verifies that the resulting book balance equals the bank statement balance after timing items. Feeds without reconciliation miss duplicates, missing items, miscategorized entries, and balance drift — all of which only surface when an account is actually reconciled to its statement.
At minimum: every bank account, every credit card account, every loan, every line of credit, and every merchant processor or payment platform that deposits funds. Beyond that, professional close also reconciles balance-sheet accounts: payroll liabilities to filings, deposits held to source records, prepaid expenses to amortization schedules, intercompany accounts, and any account where the book balance is supposed to match a verifiable external figure. Skipping balance-sheet reconciliation is the most common reason books look fine but aren’t.
Monthly — full reconciliation of every bank, credit card, and balance-sheet account, performed as part of the month-end close, on a published calendar. Reconciling only at year-end means errors compound for twelve months before they’re caught, and fixing twelve months of issues at once costs far more than catching them in the month they happen.
That’s a catch-up or cleanup engagement. If transactions are recorded but never reconciled, catch-up reconciles each prior month back to a known-good baseline. If transactions are missing, miscategorized, or the chart of accounts is broken, cleanup rebuilds the file first and then reconciles. Both are fixed-fee project work against scope, and once complete you transition into recurring monthly reconciliation on a published close calendar.
Monthly reconciliation is included in TechBrot’s monthly bookkeeping engagements, which range from $400 to $2,500+ per month with complexity adjustments based on number of accounts, transaction volume, and reporting depth. Historical reconciliation work — multiple months or years behind — is quoted as a fixed-fee catch-up or cleanup project against scope. No hourly billing. See pricing.
Page review & standards
Reviewed by the ProAdvisor team.
This page reflects how TechBrot performs account reconciliation. It is maintained by the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor team at TechBrot Inc., a Delaware-incorporated independent ProAdvisor firm, and reviewed for accuracy on reconciliation methodology, source-document standards, and the boundary with licensed CPA engagements.
Where our approach or scope changes, this page is updated. Reconciliation is delivered inside monthly bookkeeping on a published close calendar and coordinated with your CPA for filing and any formal engagement.
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Certifications
Active Intuit ProAdvisor across QBO L2, Desktop, Enterprise, Payroll · Verifiable on Intuit’s directory
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Scope
Bank, credit card, loan, payroll, merchant, balance-sheet reconciliation · not audit, review, or compilation engagements
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Engagement
Fixed-fee, written scope before work · delivered in your own QuickBooks file on a published close calendar
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Independence
Not affiliated with Intuit Inc. · QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc.
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Ready when you are
Get books that reconcile — every month.
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We’ll review where your reconciliation stands, what catch-up or cleanup work might be needed, and the right next step — written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. No pitch.
TechBrot Inc. is an independent Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc. TechBrot Inc. is not affiliated with Intuit Inc. TechBrot performs account reconciliation as part of monthly bookkeeping; we do not provide audit, review, or compilation services, which are licensed CPA engagements.