Reconciliation Guides
How I reconcile.
Seven working guides covering the reconciliations a multi-location practice actually has to get right. These are the methods I use, written out in full — the proof formats, the step order, and the specific things that go wrong. No gated downloads, no email wall.
Why publish the method? Because the method is not the hard part. Doing it every month, in order, without skipping the step that is inconvenient — that is the hard part. If these guides let your team close faster without me, that is a genuinely good outcome. If reading them tells you that you would rather hand it to someone, you know where to find me.
The three-way bank proof
Book balance, bank balance and the reconciling items, written as one statement that either ties or does not. No judgement calls.
Closing the books in five business days
The close is a dependency chain, not a checklist. Put the steps in the only order that works and the calendar stops being the problem.
Intercompany that actually nets to zero
Due to and due from, entity by entity, in a matrix that has to be symmetrical. Where one-sided postings come from and how to stop them.
Deposits, merchant fees and the clearing account
Card batches settle net, post gross, and arrive a day or three later. The clearing account is the proof — and it has to return to zero.
Payroll: the gross-to-net proof
One register, three places the money goes, and a liability rollforward that explains every dollar still sitting on the balance sheet.
Posted cash versus deposited cash
The bridge between the practice management system and the general ledger, and why the write-off bucket is where underpayment hides.
Who owns each balance sheet line
Every account gets an owner, a support schedule and a frequency. The account nobody owns is the one that is wrong.
How to use these
Start with 07
The balance sheet account inventory is the diagnostic. Build it first and it will tell you which of the other six guides you need, in which order.
Then fix the chain
Cash before revenue, revenue before accruals, accruals before consolidation. Guide 02 sets the order; fixing a later step before an earlier one is wasted work.
Build artifacts, not answers
Every guide ends with what you keep. The file is the deliverable — the agreeing number is just evidence that the file is finished.
A note on scope
These guides describe general method. They are not accounting, tax or legal advice for your situation, and they are not a substitute for a CPA where you need one — I am not a CPA and JMW-Inc is not a CPA firm. Where a guide touches on unclaimed property, escheatment or payroll tax, treat it as a prompt to get specific advice for your state, not as the advice itself.
Something missing?
If there is a reconciliation you fight with every month that is not covered here, tell me and I will write it up. The list grows based on what people actually ask about.