Reconciling the Debit Account
Debit card guidelines: If your church chooses to use a debit card, it is strongly recommended that you set up a separate, dedicated bank account. The checking and debit accounts should not be linked, and money is only transferred from checking to debit manually, by the treasurer, when needed. This protects the money in your checking account in case of bank fraud. (See Credit or Debit Card? and Debit Account Setup)
Debit account in Jewel: The debit account is set up as a separate “Bank Account” in Jewel. The debit purchases are recorded individually as “Electronic Payments” checks in Jewel. The manual transfers from checking to debit at the bank are recorded in Jewel using Transfer Funds, and the debit account is reconciled monthly just before closing the month, so that any fraudulent charges are quickly discovered, reported and reversed. If reported after the grace period that your bank gives (which varies, but can be as little as 30 days), full recovery of the stolen funds may not be possible, which means your church forfeits that money.
- NOTE: To save time and improve accuracy, wait until you are ready to reconcile, then enter all the debit purchases that are on the statement, all at once, as part of the reconcile process. When you use this method to enter all of your automatic and electronic payments into Jewel in the month that they were actually paid, using the date that is on the bank statement, you will eliminate duplicates, skipped entries, and incorrect amounts. Reconciling will be faster and more accurate.
- EXCEPTION: If your practice is to reconcile after closing each month because you are waiting for the statement to arrive in the mail, you will need to enter the payments directly from the receipts that are turned in, since it is important that they be posted to the month of the purchase. (Reconciling after closing is not optimal. Consider reconciling before closing each month, even if you have to go to the bank and ask for a printed statement.)
To reconcile, you will need:
- The debit account bank statement for the month that you are closing.
- End of month “Debit Card Activity Reports” from all Debit card holders, including one from yourself, if you hold a card.
Enter all the debit purchases on the statement, one by one.
Enter any transfers that got missed.
Once all the payments have been entered, reconcile the account in the usual way. When the difference is zero, click “OK √” to finish, then click “Yes” to print the bank rec report. Attach this report and all “Debit Card Activity Reports” to the Debit statement and file in date order with the other Debit statements in your “Bank Statements” folder.
- NOTE: Once you have finished reconciling the debit account, any leftover Deposits/Transfers/Withdrawals on the debit bank rec page are probably duplicates or errors. Void or delete them each month as you go along and they won’t pile up and affect your financial summary balances. Electronic payments can be voided, then cleared next time you reconcile. Transfers or General Journal Entries can be Deleted. Ask your support person for assistance if needed.