The Bank Reconciliation screen is used to reconcile bank statement activity against GL 1000 book entries.
What this screen is for
Use Bank Reconciliation to compare the bank statement to PAX cash activity and finalize a reconciled statement when the cleared balance matches the bank ending balance.
This screen is not where normal customer payments, vendor payments, or credit card payments should be entered. Those entries should be recorded in their own workflows first. Bank reconciliation is used to clear, review, match, adjust when appropriate, and finalize cash activity.
Screen path
Dashboard > Finance > Banking > Bank Reconciliation
Reconciliation dashboard
The dashboard shows Cash in Bank (GL 1000) and recent reconciliations.
Each reconciliation row shows:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
Date |
Bank statement date. |
Ending Balance |
Ending balance entered from the bank statement. |
Status |
In Progress or Reconciled. |
Items |
Count of cleared book entries. |
Select a reconciliation row to open it. Select New Reconciliation to start a new statement reconciliation.
New reconciliation
New Bank Reconciliation captures:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
Beginning Balance |
Uses the ending balance from the most recent reconciled statement when one exists. If no prior reconciliation exists, the beginning balance can be entered. |
Period Start |
First date in the statement period. |
Period End |
Bank statement ending date. |
Ending Balance per Bank Statement |
Ending balance from the bank statement. |
Only one bank reconciliation can be in progress at a time.
Reconciliation workspace
The reconciliation workspace shows:
Cleared BalanceDifferenceStatement BalanceAdd AdjustmentReconcile, shown only when the difference is effectively zeroBook Entries (GL 1000)Bank Statement
The Book Entries (GL 1000) panel shows unreconciled GL 1000 activity through the statement date. PAX builds short descriptions from related customer payments, vendor payments, vendor prepayments, credit card pay-downs, refund checks, bank adjustments, discounts, and manual journal references when available.
The Bank Statement panel is populated by Import CSV. The importer accepts CSV, TSV, and TXT files and looks for date, description, amount or debit/credit, check number, and reference information.
Positive statement amounts are treated as deposits. Negative statement amounts are treated as payments or withdrawals.
Matching and adjustments
Users can:
- Check a book entry to mark it cleared.
- Check a bank statement line to mark it reviewed.
- Select a book entry to highlight possible bank-line matches by amount.
- Select a bank statement line to highlight possible book-entry matches by amount.
- Select a highlighted match to link one book entry to one bank statement line.
- Use
Multi-Selectto match multiple book entries to one bank statement line when the amounts add up. - Use
Add Adjustmentwhen a true bank or book adjustment is needed.
Adjusting entries require an amount, GL account, description, and date. If the adjustment is tied to a bank line, PAX uses the bank line amount.
Do not use Add Adjustment just to force a reconciliation to balance. Use it only when the adjustment represents real activity, such as a bank fee, bank interest, or other approved cash adjustment that does not already exist in PAX.
What happens behind the scenes
Opening the Bank Reconciliation screen does not change records.
When a reconciliation is created, PAX stores the period start, statement date, beginning balance, ending balance, and user.
When statement lines are imported, PAX adds bank statement lines to the reconciliation. Reconciled statements cannot receive imports.
When book entries are cleared, PAX creates or removes bank-cleared item records for the reconciliation. Reconciled statements cannot be modified.
When statement lines are reviewed, PAX updates those bank statement lines.
When a match is made, PAX marks the book entry cleared and the bank line reviewed, then stores the match relationship.
When an adjustment is posted:
- Positive amounts debit GL 1000 and credit the selected offset account.
- Negative amounts debit the selected offset account and credit GL 1000.
- The cash line is marked cleared in the reconciliation.
- The selected bank line is marked reviewed when the adjustment is tied to a bank line.
When Reconcile is selected, PAX calculates:
beginning balance + cleared deposits - cleared payments
The reconciliation can finalize only when the calculated cleared balance matches the bank statement ending balance within the allowed tolerance. Finalizing changes the status to reconciled and locks the statement from normal edits.
Troubleshooting
I cannot start a new reconciliation
Likely cause: Another bank reconciliation is already in progress.
Safe fix: Open the existing in-progress reconciliation and finish it before starting another one.
Contact support if: No in-progress reconciliation is visible but PAX still blocks the new one.
Import CSV says no valid lines were found
Likely cause: The file does not include recognizable date, description, and amount information.
Safe fix: Use a clean bank statement export in CSV, TSV, or TXT format. Confirm the file includes transaction dates, descriptions, and either amount or debit/credit columns.
Contact support if: The bank export has the expected columns but PAX still cannot import it.
The Reconcile button is not shown
Likely cause: The difference is not zero.
Safe fix: Review uncleared book entries, unreviewed bank lines, matches, statement imports, and approved adjustments. Do not enter an adjustment unless it represents real cash activity.
Contact support if: The bank statement and GL activity appear fully reconciled but the difference remains.