Reconcile daily cash receipts

There are three distinct types of Cash Receipts handled by the system. All require the user to reconcile the amount deposited to the bank with the amount entered into the system. It’s important to have the ability to preview before permanently saving, especially if you are reconciling the bank account in the system.

Type	Definition, System Menu and Posting Characteristics	System Reports
Point of Sale	Sales > Order > Point of Sale Goods and services are exchanged for immediate payment. A POS sales order cannot be posted unless full payment has been tendered. Posted deposits are batched separately by the system for cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.	Point of Sale Audit Trail Point of Sale Journal
On Account	Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Cash Receipts Goods and services are exchanged for a promise to pay later, otherwise known as Accounts Receivable. Posted deposits are batched in accordance with user input.	Cash Receipts Audit Trail Daily Cash Receipts Journal Cash Receipts History Report Cash Receipts Journal
Miscellaneous	Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Cash Receipts > Miscellaneous Funds from outside sources enter the organization and do not pay down customer balances. Examples include vendor rebates and transfers from outside bank accounts. Posted deposits are batched in accordance with user input.	Cash Receipts Audit Trail Daily Cash Receipts Journal Cash Receipts History Report Cash Receipts Journal

Credit cards can be challenging to reconcile because the funding of the bank account is not within your control in the same way as cash and checks. For example, you can determine the date of a regular (cash and check) deposit, and post in the system accordingly so that the system “lines up” with the bank statement. However, if credit cards are entered into the system on a given date, the bank’s results will deviate due to the 2 to 5 business days required to fund the account.

One solution is to proactively preview all credit card activity in the system before posting and compare to the end of day report generated by the credit card machine. You can also use merchant reports to view the timing of bank deposits. If your credit card processing is automated through Authorize.net, daily batching will occur automatically, usually at a specified time each evening.

Another common cause of credit card reconciliation difficulties occurs when the merchant processor deducts a fee directly from a point of sale transaction. For example, a sale that posts into the system as a $100.00 cash receipt might deposit to the bank as $97.50 if there is a 2.5% processing fee. When this occurs, extra care must be used to make a journal entry to debit credit card fees and credit cash on the same day as the POS transaction is posted.

Use the following reports and inquiries to verify before posting:

Point of Sale Audit Trail (Sales > Order > Point of Sale)

• Choose the batch or batches you want and click the REPORT button to preview.
• All transactions are identified with the payment source.
• Point of Sale batches are itemized on the bank reconciliation by payment type and batch. There may be multiple entries if more than one type of credit card was accepted.

Cash Receipts Audit Trail (Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Cash Receipts Posting)

• Click the PRINT USER AUDIT button.
• The system will provide a listing of all entries made by the user currently logged in, with payment type. If there are multiple users posting into one batch, the report will only show the current user’s activity.
• Cash Receipts batches are itemized on the bank statement by batch. This makes it simple to tailor the bank deposits to the individual batches.

This illustration shows the various forms of cash receipts batches, as seen on the Bank Reconciliation.

Go to Accounting > Bank Reconciliation > Bank Reconciliation, choose a Statement Closing Date and Balance, and then click Search to view the uncleared transactions.

To request a report after a Point of Sale batch or Cash Receipts batch has already been posted, go to Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Daily Cash Receipts Journal. A similar report is available on Accounting > End of Month Closing & Journals > Cash Receipts Journal.; You can narrow the results down on either report by date, branch and bank account. For Point of Sale activity only, go to Accounting > End of Month Closing & Journals > Point of Sale Journal.

Unless you check the bank activity on a daily basis, you will not always be aware exactly when an ACH payment is funded. For G/L reconciliation reasons, it is always preferable to enter payments within the month of the bank statement. This can be problematic if you wait for the paper statement to arrive because the ACH payments will not be able to be posted into the closed A/R period.; Additional confusion can arise when ACH payments from different dates are posted together. It is recommended that these items be posted on a daily basis before closing the month (whenever possible).

Of the payment types, checks are in most cases easiest to deal with because each check can be directly traced to a customer and the bank deposit may be tailored in the system to match the bank. Checks should be deposited separately for those received at the point of sale and those received on account.

Cash is mentioned separately because it does not always end up being deposited to the bank. Therefore, a separate G/L account is recommended to “hold” the cash to allow the bank statement to balance. Consider setting up a Petty Cash G/L account if you do not deposit the cash in your regular operating account. Users with Point of Sale operations may choose to keep the funds in the cash register until a certain threshold is reached.

Another unique quality of cash is that it might not be deposited on a daily basis. In situations like this, the cash component of a Point of Sale batch can be left unposted until it is appropriate. On account payments should be posted immediately so the customer receives a timely account credit and avoids unwarranted finance charges.

Please keep in mind that there can only be one Cash Receipts Posting batch open per company. Here are some tips to facilitate a streamlined cash reconciliation process.

• Restrict or manage the ability of multiple users to post cash receipts if you operate more than one branch. Consider centralizing this function.
• Avoid leaving a batch in progress for a period of time unless necessary controls are in place.
• Always create separate batches for payments received by ACH and by credit card.
• Cash and checks taken to the bank by deposit slip can be batched together.
• The User Audit Report provides a summary of activity generated from a single user’s login only. Refer to the Balances on the right side of the Cash Receipts Posting screen to determine if there is already a batch in progress before starting a new one.

This example indicates that a batch is in progress.

The following illustration highlights a situation in which on account payments of varying modalities are combined into a single batch. The bank statement will show the $214.60 ACH payment separately. The $22.50 credit card payment will be funded with other credit card deposits that were processed on the same date.

Inform contains the following cash receipts reports:

Accounting > End of Month Closing & Journals: these reports can be produced by *account period* and *date range* and are intended for use as a monthly journal.

• Cash Receipts Journal. This report is divided into sections: total cash receipts for requested period, point of sales receipts by day, total receipts by customer and miscellaneous receipts by transaction.



• Point of Sale Journal. This report displays only point of sale receipts. It is divided into a detail and summary sections based on the selected dates or period.

Accounting > Accounts Receivable: These reports may be produced for *date range only* and are intended to be used to review daily activity.

• Daily Cash Receipts Journal: The report provides a detailed look at all receipt for the requested date range. It features a G/L Distribution based on either posting date or entry date.



• Cash Receipts History Report: This report is organized by customer account and displays detailed information about cash receipts from each customer during the selected range.