The spring 2023 release brought us a number of new features, including the ability to review G/L Accounts. I was skeptical. What time would this save me? I would still have to do my manual account reconciliations in Excel to ensure my non-system generated balances are accurate.
I presented this functionality at a recent user group conference where I was once again reminded to always hire people smarter than you. A previous employee of mine, Cari, was in the session and she explained how she planned on using it. And the lightbulb went off for me. I'm here to say, let's get all our accounting teams using this feature now.
What did she say to convince me? She still uses the very same Excel balance sheet reconciliations I trained her on many years ago. As someone who wants to close her books as quickly as possible at month end, she works on them through out the month. This simple feature, as it stands now, ensures she knows exactly what she's already reviewed and what is left.
Implementing this function is simple. Identify the G/L accounts you reconcile manually each month and update the Review Policy on the card. Select one of the three options:
None: No review allowed. This is the default.
Allow Review: Review is allowed.
Allow Review and Match Balance: Review is allowed; debits and credits must match.
Now it's time to review! Once you've drilled into the ledger, you'll see a new menu option to select, Review Entries.
The first time you being your review, you will probably want to clear all the entries from previous periods. Highlight all the rows to clear and select Set selected as reviewed. All lines selected have been updated with the user name and time of review. What a fantastic audit trail!
Once you've cleared all those previous entries, you can get to the real work. And here is where what Cari taught me in that session. Let's filter out all previously reviewed entries to see what is left for the month / year. By selecting Hide reviewed entries, I now have a manageable list of transactions to verify.
Accidentally marked a transaction as reviewed? Highlight that transaction and Set selected as not reviewed until the details of the transaction can be confirmed. This will clear the Reviewed by and Date.
For all the reconciliation lovers out there, use this feature to save your accounting team the time it takes to remember what transactions have been reviewed, as well as providing and audit trail and confirmation of regular account review.
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