Workflows

Bank Rec & Month-End

the matching of bank activity to the books and the checklist of entries and reviews that closes a property's accounting period

The job in one minute

What it produces

Every bank line matched to the ledger daily, three ties proven to the cent each month (bank to ledger, trust, deposits), and a closed period with evidence behind every checklist line.

Who owns it

The property accountant prepares; the controller reviews and locks the period; treasury owns bank access; where the manager is a licensed broker, the broker signs the trust reconciliation.

How often

Matching daily, close monthly. The Atlas plans 3 to 18 hours a week per reconciliation process and 12 to 60 hours a month for the checklist. Hours are planning estimates.

  • 40properties
  • 3accounts each
  • 120reconciliations a month

Why it hurts

The clean lines match themselves. The time goes to the rest: a lockbox batch that posted twice, an NSF reversal nobody booked, a deposit refund posted against rent income.

Old reconciling items are the tell. A difference carried for three months is one nobody researched. For a broker holding client money, a trust account that does not tie is a licensing problem whatever the hours.

Systems it touches

Bank portals are where most of this work happens, and they are the least connected. The agent works them from the accountant's own machine and session.

  • Yardi Voyager
  • RealPage
  • MRI
  • AppFolio
  • Entrata
  • Buildium
  • Bank portals
  • County tax portals
  • Outlook
  • Excel
  • SharePoint

12 steps · 7 actions · 3 decisions · 2 human reviews

The workflow, step by step

Action Decision Human review Select a step in the flowchart to jump to it.

Watch it recordedBank reconciliation in AppFolio Property Manager
  1. Action · Agent

    Each morning, download prior-day activity for every operating, trust and deposit account.

  2. Action · Agent

    Pull the platform's receipts, lockbox and ACH batches, and check register for the same date.

  3. Decision · Agent

    Match by amount, date window and reference, including one-to-many for batch deposits.

  4. Action · Agent

    Mark matches in the reconciliation screen and list the rest.

  5. Action · Bank

    Read each unmatched line and any remittance image; propose a class such as NSF, bank fee or duplicate batch.

  6. Human review · Accountant

    The accountant confirms the class and approves any journal entry.

  7. Decision · Agent

    Flag receipts not deposited within the state's deadline (two working days in Texas).

  8. Action · Bank

    At month end, complete each bank reconciliation.

  9. Action · Agent

    Run the trust tie and the deposit tie.

  10. Decision · Agent

    Any difference other than 0.00 stops that property's close; old items are flagged.

  11. Human review · Accountant

    The accountant reviews each reconciliation; the broker signs where the state requires it.

  12. Action · Agent

    Work the close checklist with linked evidence, then publish the close log.

✓ Done

Rules vs judgment

A tie is a subtraction. It never goes to a model.

Exact ruleThe model readsA person decides
Match keys and date windowsBank descriptions like "ACH RTN R01"Every entry that clears an item
Tie arithmetic to the centRemittance PDFs and lockbox imagesAny tie difference, however small
Deposit-deadline testPDF statements with no exportWrite-offs of stale items
Item aging and lock preconditionsMemo lines on returned itemsThe trust signature and the period lock

When it stops

  • A bank portal asks for a one-time code. That download pauses for a named person while other accounts keep running.
  • The same lockbox file posts twice. The batch-ID rule catches it before matching.
  • A deposit refund is paid from operating cash. The deposit tie shows the gap and a transfer is proposed.
  • A security deposit lands in the operating account. A same-day transfer is proposed and the commingling is flagged.
  • A transfer between properties is booked on one side only. Both closes stop until the pair is booked.
  • The bank changes its export layout. The step flags and a person re-shows it once.

What you end up with

Per account per month: the statement as downloaded, matched and unmatched lists, the class and approver for each item, three tie calculations, and the signed reconciliation. Per close: the checklist with evidence links and the lock timestamp. Owner statements start only after this.

See how owner packages build on a locked period in Owner Statements.

Questions

What if a bank offers only PDF statements?

The agent reads the PDF into a table first. If the lines do not sum from the opening to the closing balance, the step stops.

Why reconcile daily if the rule is monthly?

Deposit deadlines and fraud windows are measured in days. An unrecorded ACH found on day two is a phone call. Found on day 35, it is a research project.

Can the agent move money between accounts?

It prepares the transfer with the tie that justifies it and routes it for approval. We recommend view and download rights only, so release stays with treasury.

No prompts. No babysitting. No Integrations.

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