[Christopher Smith]

With most rents and sales deposits being deposited directly into the bank these days, inevitably there are occasions when a transaction appears on the bank statement that you are unable to match to a file in Gateway.

It is not possible to process a receipt for the transaction until you know whose money it is - so what do you do to keep in balance in the meantime?

We recommend creating an Adjustment on your reconciliation. This will keep you in balance while you investigate the identity of the unkown deposit.

As soon as the deposit is identified, simply process the receipt and remove the adjustment by ticking it off in the reconciliation.

To add an adjustment for unknown deposit

1. Open the Transactions Menu
2. Select the Reconciliation Wizard and click on the Advanced Reconcilation Button



3. Enter Todays Date
4. Open the Adjustments tab



5. Open the File menu and select New
6. Enter the Date the deposit appeared on your Statement
7. Enter in the Amount of the deposit as a negative
8. Specify and Details that you know about the deposit



9. Click OK



The adjustment will reduce the bank statement balance you are reconciling to until the deposit can be identified and receipted correctly into Gateway.

NOTE: Adjustments should never remain on you reconciliation for more than a couple of days without being rectified.

[Ken]

You have mentioned an adjustment should remain on your reconciliation for more than a few days ... If you dont know who paid the money how are you supposed to allocate it in a few days as it probably wont be apparent until you call someone and say your rents behind and they say I paid two weeks ago ...

An alternative to putting in the reconciliation would be setting up a creditor called suspense unallocated payments and receipting to the creditor..

I believe that if the payment cant be allocated within one year it should be submitted to the fair trading compensation fund ?

[Christopher Smith]

Hi Ken,

That is correct- we recommend that the adjustment should only remain on there for a few days and certainly, using a holding creditor to receipt these deposits is a commonly used alternative, although you will need to confirm that your auditor is satisfied with this method of recording.

If possible, the ideal method of tracking down an unidentified adjustment is to immediately contact your bank and ask for their assistance in finding out where this deposit has originated from.

On your last note - REINSW legislation states that any unidentified or unclaimed funds must be held in trust for a period 2 years. If, after this time the owner is unable to be contacted or has not claimed the unidentified funds, they must be paid to the Public Trustee - you can contact your nearest REINSW office for further information and also for the forms to complete when submitting these unclaimed funds.