do you know of any tricks when trying to figure out bank reconciliations?

Answer 1

It is all a matter of addition, substraction and getting the data recorded correctly. Having said this there is an easy way to do it: Create an Excel spreadsheet as follows

Column A date of check
Column B payee
Column C check number
Column D check amount/monthly fee charges, etc.
Column E deposit amount/interest and other inputs.

Your first entry is your beginning balance. It is listed in Column E. You then enter your checks as above. Sum column D at the bottom, sum column E at the bottom. Your balance is always the sum of column E less the sum of column D. You can put this in the top of the spread sheet.

When you go to balance you simply make the permanent month end entries and save the file. Then you go in and delete the lines of checks not cleared and deposits not recorded. The column sum differences should equal what the bank says you have. Don't save the file.

I've used spreadsheets since Lotus 123 for this. They are easy to do and take about 2 minutes to balance. At the end of the year you can print the whole register and you have records for tax purposes. Works like a charm.

Answer 2

One thing that comes to mind is when your checkbook balance and the bank statement do not balance is check to see if you transposed a number when writing it in your checkbook.
If what you are off can be evenly divided by nine you have reversed (transposed) your entry.
An example is if you are off $27.00 you can see that nine will go into $27.00 three times so you probably have transposed a figure .In this case if you meant to write $25.00 but wrote $52.00.This is a very common mistake and works with any amount that can be divided by nine.

Answer 3

Where numbers are concern there is no tricks, unfortunately.

Answer 4

no tricks there. garbage in, garbage out.