Reconcile a bank account

Match your books to a bank statement by entering the statement's ending balance and ticking each line that appears on it until the difference is zero.

In the sidebar, open Bookkeeping, then Reconciliation. The page address is /bookkeeping/reconciliation. A new reconciliation opens at /bookkeeping/reconciliation/new.

Before you start

• Have the bank statement in front of you. You need its ending balance and its list of lines.
• Import or add every line on the statement first (see Import a bank statement). A line that is missing from Nova cannot be ticked.
• Your role needs permission to manage reconciliation to start, tick, complete or abandon one. Read permission lets you look.

Steps

1. Under Account at the top, pick the bank, cash or credit-card account the statement is for.
2. Press Start reconciliation. The Start reconciliation window opens.
3. Check the Account and type the Statement ending balance exactly as printed on the statement. For a credit card, type what you owe as a negative number. Press Start reconciliation. Nova shows Reconciliation started. and a new row appears with the status in_progress.
4. Click the row, or choose Clear transactions from its actions menu. The reconciliation window opens with every line in the account, newest first, and the difference so far.
5. Tick the Cleared box on each line that appears on the statement. Press Load more transactions if the list is long. Lines already ticked in an earlier reconciliation show ticked; leave them alone, because unticking one takes it out of that earlier reconciliation.
6. The difference in the window does not refresh as you tick; the row in the list behind it does. When the list's Difference reads zero, close the window and open the row again.
7. Press Complete & lock. Nova shows Reconciliation completed and locked.

What you see

• The list shows each reconciliation's Status, the Statement balance you entered, the Cleared total, the Difference (green at zero, red otherwise) and Cleared #, the number of lines ticked. Nova counts from the last completed reconciliation's statement balance; the first one for an account starts from zero.
• A completed reconciliation shows a lock next to its status. Its lines cannot be recategorized until you reopen it, and a ticked line cannot be voided until it is unticked.

If something looks different

• Start reconciliation is greyed out: the account picked under Account uses a currency that is no longer your organization's currency. Choose a current account.
• The difference will not reach zero: a line is missing from Nova, a line is in Nova that the bank never processed, or (on an account's first reconciliation) the account had money in it before your first line. Add the missing line (see Add a bank transaction by hand) or leave the extra one unticked and look for it on next month's statement.
• Complete & lock is greyed out: the difference in the window is not zero. Close the window and open the row again to refresh it.
• You entered the wrong ending balance: choose Abandon from the row's actions menu or the window's footer, then Abandon in Abandon reconciliation?. Every tick is released, the row stays with the status abandoned, and you can start again.
• You need to change a completed reconciliation: choose Reopen on its row or in its window, then Reopen in Reopen reconciliation?. The ticks are kept. Adjust them, then complete it again.
• The list reads that there are no reconciliations yet: none has been started for the account picked under Account.

Open Reconciliation