Use this checklist for each legal entity, bank account and currency at month-end. Adapt materiality, deadlines and approvals to the organisation’s accounting policies and risk. Completing boxes is not the objective; every conclusion should be supported by source records and understandable to a reviewer.

1. Define scope and ownership

List every active bank account, payment account and relevant clearing account.
Record legal entity, bank, masked account identifier, currency, ledger account and period.
Assign a preparer, reviewer, due date and escalation contact.
Confirm the accounting cut-off policy: which booking, value and posting dates govern the close.
Bring forward unresolved items from the prior signed reconciliation without changing their origin dates.
Identify opened, closed or dormant accounts and obtain statements for the relevant period.

The account register should be controlled independently of the statement files. Otherwise an omitted account may never appear on the checklist.

2. Secure complete source data

Obtain the official statement or complete API population through period end.
Verify account identity, currency, opening balance and closing balance.
Recalculate the statement roll-forward.
Confirm all pages, date filters, transaction statuses and API continuation pages are included.
Preserve the raw statement or response and record retrieval time.
Obtain cash-ledger detail and the trial-balance amount from the accounting system.
Recalculate the ledger roll-forward and agree it to the trial balance.

API access reduces manual downloads but introduces operational controls. Enable Banking’s API reference, for example, documents date filters, continuation keys and transaction-status parameters. Implementers must test these features rather than assume one response is complete.

3. Perform matching and classification

Match bank and ledger transactions using durable identifiers where available.
Use amount, currency, dates, reference and counterparty as supporting attributes.
Check that no source line is reused accidentally.
Separate exact matches from probable candidates.
Classify remaining items as ledger adjustment, bank error, genuine timing difference, unapplied receipt, or unresolved.
Link customer receipts to invoices only where the allocation is supported.
Keep pending transactions separate from booked transactions under the documented policy.
Identify reversals, returned payments, fees, interest, transfers and duplicate entries.

For every transformed reference or payer name, retain the original value. Normalisation helps search; it is not source evidence.

4. Post and verify adjustments

Prepare journals only for identified accounting events.
Attach bank evidence, invoice, advice or other support.
Use appropriate account coding and tax treatment.
Obtain approval under the journal policy.
Post within the correct period.
refresh the ledger and verify the journal appears once.
Link the journal identifier to the reconciling item.

Do not post a generic difference merely to force agreement. If the cause is unknown, retain an unresolved reconciling item and escalate it.

5. Validate timing differences

Verify that outstanding payments or deposits were validly recorded before period end.
Inspect the subsequent bank statement for clearing.
Record expected clearing date and owner.
Challenge items older than the organisation’s normal settlement window.
Distinguish business-day timing from data or posting failure.

Instant payment infrastructure can operate continuously, but booking and value-date conventions still require attention. Consult bank evidence and, for context, the ECB’s TIPS information.

6. Complete the balance bridge

Show raw bank closing balance.
Add or subtract supported bank-side timing items.
Show raw ledger closing balance.
add or subtract posted, supported ledger corrections.
Confirm both adjusted balances agree.
Investigate any residual without creating an unexplained plug.
Confirm invoice allocations reconcile to transaction and invoice residuals.

Use signed amounts consistently. A payment recorded in the ledger but not yet at the bank is generally deducted from the bank balance when deriving the adjusted position; document the convention on the template.

7. Review and sign off

Reviewer obtains or inspects source balances, not only the preparer’s summary.
Reviewer recalculates the bridge.
Reviewer challenges material manual matches, journals and overrides.
Reviewer samples automatic matches across relevant scenarios.
Reviewer inspects aged and unusual items.
Access or segregation conflicts are documented and mitigated.
Preparer and reviewer record names, dates and conclusions.
Final evidence is stored under the retention policy and protected from silent change.

8. Follow up after close

Track unresolved items to resolution.
Verify subsequent clearing of timing items.
Reverse or correct allocations when receipts are returned.
Analyse recurring exceptions and improve upstream references or controls.
Reopen the reconciliation formally if a material post-close correction is required.

In Invunion

Invunion alpha may help review links between issued invoices and incoming bank transactions. It does not by itself complete this checklist. The account register, source completeness, ledger roll-forward, fees, supplier payments, journals, timing-item validation and reviewer sign-off remain separate controls unless current capability is explicitly verified.

Confirm the alpha’s data coverage, statuses, evidence export, correction process and matching patterns before incorporating its output. Preserve raw source records and review proposed allocations rather than treating a product status as close approval.

Sources

Enable Banking, API reference
European Central Bank, TARGET Instant Payment Settlement

Updated 5 August 2026

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