Using Auditor to Find and Correct Report Problems
Contribution and Deposit Report Totals Don't Agree
This is often caused by entering different dates for the Deposit Date and Offering Date. The Deposit Date controls what appears on the Deposit report, while the Offering Date controls what appears on the Contribution report. Generally, both the Deposit Date and Offering Date should be the date the offering was collected, usually Sabbath, or the cut-off date in the case of AdventistGiving deposits.
Another possible cause is a partially-deleted deposit. The Deposit report pulls from View Journal, while the Contribution report pulls from View Offerings. So if someone with Auditor access deleted an offering in one place, but not in the other, then your reports will not agree.
Deposit Appears but Contributions Don't
The Offering Date is probably incorrect. This date is not restricted to the current month, so it's possible to enter a date that is months or even years off. Edit the Offering Date to match the Deposit Date and all will be well.
Contributions Appear but Deposit Doesn't
Look at the Deposit report again, this time showing "All" bank accounts. Chances are, the deposit is in the wrong account. It is unusual for treasurers to simply change the deposit account without realizing it, so check whether the default account has been deactivated in Edit Accounts, as this causes Jewel to choose a non-default account for the deposit. Also check whether the default account has been changed in Maintenance / Properties / Accounts tab.
Donations Missing from Receipt
Usually there are multiple versions of the person's name in Maintenance / Edit Names, and some contributions were recorded under another version of the name. Find all versions of the name, and use Combine Names to get rid of the extras.
Check that the Donor has the Get Receipt option checked in Maintenance / Edit Names.
Possibly the donation was recorded under the wrong name. If the donor can supply a date and amount, go to Reports & Graphs / Deposit, click on the deposit for that date, then look at the Trial Deposit to find and correct the donation.
If the deposit appears on the Deposit report but the contributions aren't on the Contribution report, check that the Offering Date matches the Deposit Date.
Check the AdventistGiving mapping to ensure that the donations weren't mapped to the wrong name. Go to Reports & Graphs / Names, and scan the AdventistGiving Name column for the donor's name.
When the Bank Reconciliation and Financial Summary Don't Match
Usually, this is an issue with the timing of the bank reconciliation. To determine whether Jewel's balance is truly off, go into the reconciliation for the affected account, ensure that the Ending Date is after today, then use the Select/Clear All Items button to select all items. Write down the Cleared Ending Balance, then Cancel out of the reconciliation and do NOT save your work. Go to the Financial Summary, make sure the ending date is after today, and see if the Ending Balance of the affected account matches the Cleared Ending Balance you wrote down. If it does, all is well; the treasurer just needs to reconcile when prompted by the NextStep button. If the Cleared Ending Balance does not match the Financial Summary Ending Balance, then Jewel must be corrected.
Usually the problem has to do with transactions whose reconciliation status is incorrect. So check the list of uncleared transactions to see if something adds up to the amount of the discrepancy. If so, reconcile those transactions, either by adding them to the correct bank rec(s), or by completing a new bank reconciliation with just those transactions. Date the new bank reconciliation one day before the most recent completed bank reconciliation (so it doesn't affect the Beginning Balance or Ending Date of the next monthly bank rec), and set the Ending Balance to whatever value gives you a difference of $0. Then check your Cleared Ending Balance against the Financial Summary once more.
If that doesn't resolve the problem, try searching for a transaction in the amount of the discrepancy, or half or double the amount. Sometimes a one-sided general journal gets entered, or a transaction gets incorrectly "corrected" in the back end. If you find such a transaction, correct it, delete it, or make a correcting entry, as appropriate. If you enter a correcting entry, you may need to clear it as in the preceding paragraph.
If all else fails, make an adjusting entry, then clear it as above. Be sure to enter a good memo. Note that if you accidentally enter the adjustment incorrectly (like I do about half the time!), you can use Auditor to correct it even though it's reconciled. You don't need to start over.