Bank Reconciliation & Accounting Program

[access2010]

The charity where I volunteer had a custom Database Linked to their Windows 3.1 Accpac Program in 1994. Over the years it has been modified more than many times. Can I please receive a suggestion on where I can purchase a MsAccess 2007 Program to run our Accounting programs as we do not want to lose our tables. The first module we would like to start with is a bank Reconciliation.

Thank you.
Nicole

 

[theDBguy]

I've no experience with this, but what I've seen recommended a lot of times is eBay.

 

[June7]

What do you mean by "run our Accounting programs"?

You want to abandon AccPac? Looks like it would have been a pricey investment.

Why do you need Access 2007 specifically? I just purchased Office 2021 from https://flixeasy.com/product/microsoft-office-2021-professional-plus-lifetime-activation-1pc/

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

where I can purchase a MsAccess 2007

Can you explain why you need MS Access 2007 specifically?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

The charity where I volunteer

It might be worth you investigating what is available from Microsoft, as many companies offer charities their products at significant discounts.

 

[DickyP]

My recommendation would be to use Money Manger Ex - its free! And works well. MM Ex website.
It uses SQLIte for data storage.

You'd have to customise it to suit your needs, however. I have run Scouts and PTA accounts using it.

Whatever you do I suspect you'll have a lot of work.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

The charity where I volunteer had a custom Database Linked to their Windows 3.1 Accpac Program in 1994. Over the years it has been modified more than many times. Can I please receive a suggestion on where I can purchase a MsAccess 2007 Program to run our Accounting programs as we do not want to lose our tables. The first module we would like to start with is a bank Reconciliation.

Thank you.
Nicole

Out of interest why would you want a bank rec program. How many transactions do you have? To me, a bank rec program is a solution looking for a problem. A bank rec is the last thing I would bother about. Depending on the nature of the charity, I would think you need a decent nominal ledger. I don't know whether you have a sales ledger (probably not) or a purchase ledger (possibly). I presume you have a decent payroll system already.

As I say, the only thing you really need is a decent general ledger/nominal ledger, with a coding structure that lets you extract a set of accounts without too much difficulty. I assume that's all set up well already.

If you want a bank rec, then I presume you have a cash book module, but it's a lot of work building a cash book, which is really a glorified spreadsheet.
Again depending how big you are, a manual/excelc ash book might be adequate .

I'm not guessing. I'm a qualified accountant.

 

[DickyP]

Out of interest why would you want a bank rec program. How many transactions do you have? To me, a bank rec program is a solution looking for a problem. A bank rec is the last thing I would bother about. Depending on the nature of the charity, I would think you need a decent nominal ledger. I don't know whether you have a sales ledger (probably not) or a purchase ledger (possibly). I presume you have a decent payroll system already.

As I say, the only thing you really need is a decent general ledger/nominal ledger, with a coding structure that lets you extract a set of accounts without too much difficulty. I assume that's all set up well already.

If you want a bank rec, then I presume you have a cash book module, but it's a lot of work building a cash book, which is really a glorified spreadsheet.
Again depending how big you are, a manual/excelc ash book might be adequate .

I'm not guessing. I'm a qualified accountant.

I too am a qualified accountant and am baffled by your querying the need for a bank reconciliation which the basis for due diligence on any account whether automated or on paper.

I feel that your reply is biased towards large scale accounying: such things as nominal, purchase, sales ledgers aren't in the vocabulary of most charity treasuries I've known. Understandable as we don't know how big the Charity in question is and it may, as you say only need a manual cash book. Hence my earlier suggestion of MM Ex. In fact  anything other than a spreadsheet!

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Sorry, I've been ought for a few hours.
I'm not saying don't do a bank rec, just I can't understand why you would need a module to do that in an access database.

I do a few very small club type things and I keep the records on a spreadsheet, rather than manually, but I don't cross reference the entries to bank statements to automate production of a bank rec.

I assumed anything but a tiny charity would have numerous purchase invoices they might need to control, but probably not a sales ledger. If it's a registered charity they are still going to produce accounts so they need quickbooks or safe or something similar.they might also need to manage gift aid, depending on what they do. They might even do VAT returns.

Does an access bank rec mean you have to have a bank statement table, and a cash book table, and match the two together? I don't have a bank statement items table. All I do is tick off the cash book items manually, and get a resulting total.of uncleared lodgements and unpresented cheques. The cash book tab generates a balance at bank by adjusting the CB balance for the uncleared items, which ought to agree with the bank statement.

 

[access2010]

I've no experience with this, but what I've seen recommended a lot of times is eBay.

Thank DBguy you for your suggestion and we are now doing a search.

 

[access2010]

What do you mean by "run our Accounting programs"?

You want to abandon AccPac? Looks like it would have been a pricey investment.

Why do you need Access 2007 specifically? I just purchased Office 2021 from https://flixeasy.com/product/microsoft-office-2021-professional-plus-lifetime-activation-1pc/

Thank you June 7 for your link which I will discuss with my boss.

We are currently using Access 2007 which is linked to our Accpac Data.

 

[access2010]

It might be worth you investigating what is available from Microsoft, as many companies offer charities their products at significant discounts.

Thank you for your question Uncle Gizmo, We are currently using Access 2007 which is linked to our Accpac Data.

 

[access2010]

My recommendation would be to use Money Manger Ex - its free! And works well. MM Ex website.
It uses SQLIte for data storage.

You'd have to customise it to suit your needs, however. I have run Scouts and PTA accounts using it.

Whatever you do I suspect you'll have a lot of work.

Thank you DickyP for the link which I will discuss with my boss.

 

[access2010]

Out of interest why would you want a bank rec program. How many transactions do you have? To me, a bank rec program is a solution looking for a problem. A bank rec is the last thing I would bother about. Depending on the nature of the charity, I would think you need a decent nominal ledger. I don't know whether you have a sales ledger (probably not) or a purchase ledger (possibly). I presume you have a decent payroll system already.

As I say, the only thing you really need is a decent general ledger/nominal ledger, with a coding structure that lets you extract a set of accounts without too much difficulty. I assume that's all set up well already.

If you want a bank rec, then I presume you have a cash book module, but it's a lot of work building a cash book, which is really a glorified spreadsheet.
Again depending how big you are, a manual/excelc ash book might be adequate .

I'm not guessing. I'm a qualified accountant.

Thank you gemma-the-husky for your question.

The reason we need bank Reconciliation(s) is for the Auditing of each of the Endowment funds which have separate bank accounts.

 

[access2010]

I too am a qualified accountant and am baffled by your querying the need for a bank reconciliation which the basis for due diligence on any account whether automated or on paper.

I feel that your reply is biased towards large scale accounying: such things as nominal, purchase, sales ledgers aren't in the vocabulary of most charity treasuries I've known. Understandable as we don't know how big the Charity in question is and it may, as you say only need a manual cash book. Hence my earlier suggestion of MM Ex. In fact  anything other than a spreadsheet!

Thank you DickyP your comments and your link which I will discuss with my boss.

 

[June7]

You already have a program running under Access 2007 and you want another program to run under Access 2007? One that will use the table structure you already have? That is highly unlikely.

 

[access2010]

Sorry, I've been ought for a few hours.
I'm not saying don't do a bank rec, just I can't understand why you would need a module to do that in an access database.

I do a few very small club type things and I keep the records on a spreadsheet, rather than manually, but I don't cross reference the entries to bank statements to automate production of a bank rec.

I assumed anything but a tiny charity would have numerous purchase invoices they might need to control, but probably not a sales ledger. If it's a registered charity they are still going to produce accounts so they need quickbooks or safe or something similar.they might also need to manage gift aid, depending on what they do. They might even do VAT returns.

Does an access bank rec mean you have to have a bank statement table, and a cash book table, and match the two together? I don't have a bank statement items table. All I do is tick off the cash book items manually, and get a resulting total.of uncleared lodgements and unpresented cheques. The cash book tab generates a balance at bank by adjusting the CB balance for the uncleared items, which ought to agree with the bank statement.

Thank you gemma-the-husky for your G.R.E.A.T. idea which I will discuss with my boss.

 

[DickyP]

Sorry, I've been ought for a few hours.
I'm not saying don't do a bank rec, just I can't understand why you would need a module to do that in an access database.

I obviously misunderstood your comment about BS reconciliation being unnecessary: and by definition I don't expect to do a BSR in code. The whole point is that it is an exercise to be aware of your situation.

I do a few very small club type things and I keep the records on a spreadsheet, rather than manually, but I don't cross reference the entries to bank statements to automate production of a bank rec.

As to my dislike of keeping accounts on a spreadsheet it comes from regularly taking over accounts run on a spreadsheet and without exception the spreadsheets have been wrong, and taken unnecessary time to get the accounts they purport to represent straight.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

If you want a bank rec module, you would need a table with all the items from the bank statement, and another table with all the items in your cash book. You then cross reference all the items on the bank statement to the cash book, inserting any items on the bank statement into the cash book where they don't exist, such as bank charges. You should then be able to identify reconciling items in the CB - lodgements not credited and unpresented cheques. However matching bank statements to cash book records is most likely non trivial for a computer programme, as many of the references are unlikely to correspond exactly, and it will take longer to do it in a database than it would just putting a "cleared" indicator in a CB (paper or spreadsheet).

You are also creating both a bank statement table that you don't really need, and a cash book table that you may not need either, as you can probably work from an analysed cash book or spreadsheet (which is why I do like to use a spreadsheet). It's probably easier to tick off the items in the CB/spreadsheet against the BS, and then anything unticked is a reconciling item. (Or maybe a CB error) If references don't match exactly you can generally see which item jn the CB corresponds to the BS entry. If you can't download statements from the bank you would have to key them into the database manually. If you can download them, you still have to write an import process, and make sure that you don't duplicate/omit any.

You could do the CB in an access table, but it's extra work. If @DickyP isn't keen on seeing a CB spreadsheet I imagine he would be even less keen on doing it in a database. I've never seen the need personally. This is one area where I do find it useful to see a running total in a table.

@access2010 . It all goes back to the size of your charity, the records you need to keep, and the accounts you need to produce. In general terms I would strongly be advising you against trying to do automatic bank recs, unless you really had to. I genuinely just don't see the need or the value. I think it really starts from considering your cash book though, and how large/complex a document that is.

 

[DickyP]

You could do the CB in an access table, but it's extra work. If @DickyP isn't keen on seeing a CB spreadsheet I imagine he would be even less keen on doing it in a database. I've never seen the need personally. This is one area where I do find it useful to see a running total in a table.

As I've agreed all along this is not a task for an Access process - my initial input came from gemma's initial assertion- "A bank rec is the last thing I would bother about" - that any such reconciliation wasn't worthwhile.