How To Reconcile Bank Accounts in Sunrise

We’re pleased to present this tutorial for Sunrise Accounting, one of our best small business accounting software and top-recommended free accounting software. In this fourth lesson of our free Sunrise courses, we’re going to cover how to reconcile bank accounts in Sunrise, classify imported transactions, and delete or archive your bank account.

You’ll receive the most benefit from this guide by following along in your own Sunrise account. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up for its free plan or get the free 14-day trial of Sunrise Plus.

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Step 1: View Imported Transactions

Once you have set up your bank feed, as shown in tutorial 1, Sunrise will import your transactions automatically on a regular basis. You can review these transactions and classify them to ensure accurate reporting.

To navigate to the Imported Transactions page:

• Step 1: On the left menu bar, click on the name of the bank account.
• Step 2: You’ll see three tabs: All, Matched, and Unmatched. Click on All to view all imported transactions.

How To Categorize Expenses Manually

• Step 1: Use the left menu to access your bank account feed.
• Step 2: Click on the Unmatched tab. This will bring up all of your unmatched income and expenses.
• Step 3: Unmatched expenses can be matched by clicking Match under the Account column and choosing Record Expense.
• Step 4: Enter the Vendor, Expense Account, and add a Description that corresponds to the specific expense.
• Step 5: Click Add Receipt if you want to attach an image of the receipt.

Sunrise’s expense account categories are the most common for businesses, including Supplies, Salary & Wages, and Utilities. If the drop-down menu of expense categories doesn’t include the one you’re looking for, you can use the Add new account option at the bottom to set one up.

Auto-categorizing Expenses

While manually categorizing expenses is available to both free Sunrise and Sunrise Plus users, Sunrise Plus users also have access to auto-categorization of expenses, which prefills the transaction categories. Auto-categorization provides a simple interface and applies a learning algorithm using keywords to put common expenses into many default categories.

The more you use Sunrise to manually categorize your expenses, the more it’ll learn from your selections and eventually handle it for you. After you categorize a similar expense two or three times, Sunrise will learn and auto-categorize similar expenses moving forward. For auto-categorization to work, you must link a bank account or credit card that itemizes these expenses.

Whenever an expense is auto-categorized, the left-hand color bar will appear as a yellow-red gradient to the left of the date, as shown in the example below. If you agree with the category, click on the green Match to XXXX button on that line item to approve it.

If you disagree with the auto-categorization, you can click the blue Edit link under the transaction date, which will bring up the drop-down menu so that you can change the Vendor, Expense Account, or Description. You can also click Cancel to remove the matching and start over. Editing or canceling the auto-categorization feature is useful in teaching the algorithm to improve the accuracy of matching similar expenses in the future.

Other Options

Other options include Create Transfer, which allows you to record a transfer between accounts or to mark a transaction as a Personal Expense. Click on either option, and you’ll be asked to complete the Account and Description.

Step 2: Match & Categorize Transactions

Sunrise allows you to match transactions that you have created manually in Sunrise with the imported transactions from the bank feed. This includes both deposits and expenses.

Deposits in the bank feed can be matched to either deposits recorded in Sunrise or open invoices where the customer payment hasn’t yet been recorded. Similarly, withdrawals in the bank feed can be matched to either payments recorded in Sunrise or bills in Sunrise where the payment to the vendor hasn’t yet been recorded.

• Step 1: On the Unmatched Transactions tab, find the transaction from the bank feed that you want to match to a Sunrise transaction.
• Step 2: Search for the matching Sunrise transaction in the Created Entries section on the right side of the screen.
• Step 3: Hover your mouse over the Sunrise transaction and drag it to the corresponding bank feed transaction. If the amounts match, you’ll be prompted to click Match To Account XXXX.

Step 3: Reconcile Transactions

Once you have synced your bank accounts and recorded your expenses for the period you’re reviewing or the period that your bank statement covers, you’re ready for bank reconciliation in Sunrise. Because reporting within Sunrise is limited, it must be noted that it isn’t possible to print a bank reconciliation or similar summary.

Reconcile Account With a Bank Feed

The first step in reconciling your account with a bank feed is to navigate to your bank account. You can do this by following these steps:

• Step 1: On the left menu bar, click on Banking.
• Step 2: Select your account name (Checking, for example).
• Step 3: On this screen, you’ll see three tabs: All, Matched, and Unmatched. Click on Unmatched to begin reconciling.

• Step 4: To reconcile an account with a bank feed, click on the More drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
• Step 5: Select Reconcile Account.
• Step 6: Enter the time period and ending balances. As shown in the example below, note that Sunrise doesn’t let you proceed to the next step unless these amounts are accurate. The beginning date must be after the previous reconciliation date.
• Step 7: Click Reconcile Period.

If your beginning and ending balances match your Sunrise account, the reconciliation is complete. If not, you’ll be asked to review the Bank Feed Correction tool to find the error. Unfortunately, the reconciliation tool doesn’t provide any help outside the Bank Feed Correction.

Reconcile Account Without a Bank Feed

If you suspect that there might be a discrepancy with your bank account, you can upload your bank statement manually as a CSV file. This is useful for identifying errors, duplicates, and missing transactions. Once you upload the statement, you’ll be able to confirm the transactions that have been added and deleted from your bank feed. You can find this section under Bank Feed Corrections.

• Step 1: On your bank account page, click on the More button in the upper right corner.
• Step 2: Select Bank Feed Corrections.
• Step 3: You’ll be directed to upload your bank statement. Follow the instructions to browse or drop a file or browse the Document Center.

Step 4: Delete or Archive Your Bank Account

You may decide that you want to delete your bank account or archive it if it’s no longer in use but you still want access to it. The process for each is different, but generally, it’s best to delete an account if you don’t have any transactions in it. If you have a history of transactions or your account is linked to your bank, it’s best to archive the account. We explain both options below.

Delete Bank Account

• Step 1: Navigate to your Chart of Accounts by clicking it under My Business in the left menu bar.
• Step 2: Find the account that you want to delete in the chart of accounts list.
• Step 3: Hover your mouse to the right of the account. You’ll see a trash can icon; click on it.
• Step 4: Click the red Yes, delete button to confirm.

Archive Bank Account

Once you archive an account, you’ll still be able to access it, but it’ll no longer clutter the Bank Account Overview page.

• Step 1: Open the page for the bank account that you want to archive.
• Step 2: Click the More button in the upper right corner.
• Step 3: Select Edit Account.
• Step 4: Click on the Account tab.
• Step 5: Under Archive Account, tick the Archive checkbox.
• Step 6: Click Save to confirm.

Bottom Line

You have now learned how to reconcile bank accounts in Sunrise Accounting. The next and final tutorial in our Sunrise course is How to Print Reports, and it’ll look at how to navigate to reports, what reports are available, and how to set basic options.