Intro to Reconciling Control Accounts

0:02

All right, welcome everybody.

0:04

And as everybody's getting loaded in here, we'll just kind of give a brief introduction here.

0:10

We've got a webinar today.

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Today's webinar is Account Reconciliation.

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It's about closing the loop on financial accuracy in system five.

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And today we have somebody that is his first time doing a webinar, but he was running the workshop last month.

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So I'm just gonna go ahead and introduce Alan from our professional services department.

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Alan, you go ahead and take it away, man.

0:37

Okay, thank you, Kyle.

0:38

Welcome everyone and thank you for joining our 2026 webinar series.

0:43

I'm, as Kyle mentioned, I'm Alan Irani, implementation specialist with professional services at Windward Software.

0:50

Today's topic is account reconciliation where we close the loop on financial accuracy in system five.

1:00

So let's take a moment to appreciate the journey that brought us here.

1:03

Over the past six months, we've worked through customer fulfillment, cost accuracy, barcoding, stock accuracy, and inventory counting, as well as systems integrity.

1:14

Today, in August, we arrive at account reconciliation.

1:18

Each of these topics was a deliberate building block.

1:22

Fulfillment and barcoding keeps transactions accurate to the point of entry, at the point of entry.

1:29

Stock accuracy and inventory counting keeps qualities honest.

1:33

Cost accuracy keeps valuation right and for systems integrity keeps the data trustworthy.

1:42

Reconciliation sits on top of all of it because it can only be as clean as the layers beneath it.

1:49

If your operations are clean and your costs are right, reconciliation becomes a checkpoint, not a crisis.

1:56

Teams that struggle at close usually don't have a reconciliation problem, they have an upstream data problem that reconciliation simply exposes.

2:09

Just a side note, if attendees missed earlier sessions, be assured that there are recordings available.

2:18

So with that foundation in place, let's talk about why reconciliation is the final test.

2:29

Reconciliation is the final test because it's the moment your operational data meets your statements and disagreements become undeniable.

2:38

Every transaction in System 5, a sale, a receipt, a payment, post an entry to the general ledger.

2:45

Subledgers track the detail line by line, customer by customer, item by item.

2:52

The GL tracks the total. In a healthy system the detail always rolls up to equal the total.

2:59

When they don't match, something went wrong upstream.

3:04

A transaction posted to one side but not the other or posted to the wrong account or period.

3:10

The four accounts that we'll focus on today and we'll discuss are inventory, which is a stock value versus inventory ledger, accounts receivable, which is aged AR versus AR ledger, Accounts payable, which is aged AP versus AP ledger.

3:33

And final, the bank statements versus GL bank account.

3:39

These four are where discrepancies are most often surfaced.

3:44

Left unreconciled, these gaps erode confidence in your financial statements with shareholders, lenders, and your own leadership team.

3:53

A lender pulling your balance sheet for a credit review or an owner trying to value the businesses relying on numbers that reconciliation is meant to guarantee.

4:11

We start with inventory.

4:13

Inventory is typically the largest asset on the balance sheet.

4:17

So its value has to match what system five says you actually hold.

4:23

Because it's the biggest number, it's also where a variance does the most damage to the picture of the business strength.

4:30

Here, we're talking about reconciling the inventory control account in the GL against the stock value report in system 5.

4:43

The stock value report gives line-by-line item valuation at current cost and those rolled up totals must equal the inventory GL account.

4:53

Some of the most common causes of a variance, the inventory adjustment posted without a corresponding GL entry, The cost change is applied after a receipt was already posted.

5:07

A PO received but the AP bill not yet matched leaving costs sitting in suspense.

5:14

And items written off operationally but not reflected in accounting.

5:23

The system five reconciliation report gives a line by line comparison so you can pinpoint exactly where the gap lives so you aren't hunting blind.

5:37

Next we have accounts receivable.

5:40

Accounts receivable is every dollar owed to you, and it must agree in both the AR subledger and the general ledger.

5:48

Position it as the mirror image of AP that follows, money coming in versus money going out.

5:55

What we're talking about is reconciling the accounts receivable control account in the GL against the aged AR report, which breaks the balance down, customer by customer, into aging buckets.

6:09

For example, current 30, 60, and 90 plus days.

6:15

The GL holds the summarized total from invoicing, payments, and adjustments.

6:21

The HAR holds the line-level invoice detail that supports it.

6:27

The reconciliation goal is simple.

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the HAR total must equal the AR-GL account balance.

6:36

And then you have some common discrepancies that you might see.

6:40

Payments applied to the wrong customer invoice, credits or write-offs posted straight to the GL without going through AR, transaction posted in one period but aged in another, and an unapplied cash sitting in a suspense account.

7:02

Note that these not only break the reconciliation, but also distort the aging, which is what drives collections.

7:10

A clean-aged AR reconciliation gives your accountant confidence that every customer balance is real and collectible, and it's the foundation for accurate collection efforts, correct customer statements, and reliable revenue recognition at period end.

7:29

Inaccurate AR means chasing the wrong balances, sending wrong statements, and reporting revenue you can't stand behind.

7:48

And then finally, the bank.

7:50

Bank reconciliation is the ground truth, real money in a real account that must agree with your books.

7:57

What are we reconciling?

7:59

The bank account and the general ledger, which reflects everything entered in system five payments, deposits, and adjustments against your actual bank statement balance, the authoritative external record of cleared account transactions from your financial institution.

8:21

Some causes of mismatch fall into two groups, things that the bank knows but the system doesn't yet, like bank charges, interest, NSFs, and returned payments processed by the without a matching system entry and the other one is timing differences where the system is ahead of the bank.

8:43

Outstanding checks issued but not yet cleared and deposits in transit recorded in system five but not yet posted by the bank with any duplicate or erroneous entries.

9:01

Most bank differences are timing not error which is the reassuring point to make.

9:05

An unreconciled bank account is the most visible sign of an accounting weakness and the first thing an auditor or lender examines.

9:19

System 5 reconciliation tools let you match transactions, identify outstanding items and produce a reconciliation report that satisfies both internal and external reviewers.

9:35

So now with all four accounts covered, let's step back and look at what reconciling all them actually confirms.

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This is where you take a step back and connect the dots.

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When all four accounts reconcile, you have something rare and valuable.

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A financial close you can stand behind.

10:01

Inventory and bank confirm your asset values are real.

10:06

Accounts receivable confirms your revenue obligations are accurate.

10:10

And accounts payable confirms your liability obligations are complete.

10:19

Together, they mean each side of the balance sheet, assets, and the claims against them has been independently verified.

10:31

Each reconciliation confirms that day-to-day operational data has flowed correctly into the financial statements.

10:39

It's not busy work.

10:40

It's the evidence that the operational discipline from the earlier sessions actually produced trustworthy numbers.

10:52

When the subledger is matched to the ledger, the numbers tell the truth.

10:56

But reconciliation isn't always clean, so next we'll cover how to recognize when it's breaking down.

11:13

The warning signs, recognizing trouble early, knowing what to look for is half the battle.

11:20

How you actually know this reconciliation problem before it becomes a year-round fire drill.

11:26

One, inventory.

11:27

The stock value report doesn't match the inventory GL account at month end.

11:33

To accounts receivable, the aged AR total differs from the AR control account.

11:41

And customer statements start generating complaints.

11:44

Note that customer complaints are often the earliest human signal.

11:52

Accounts payable, the aged AP total is off and vendors dispute outstanding balances.

11:59

And the fourth is the bank.

12:00

the GL bank balance differs from the statements by more than the known outstanding transactions.

12:10

Each warning sign points to a specific workflow breakdown and system five has the tools to trace everyone back to the source transaction.

12:20

So warning sign is a starting point, not a dead end.

12:27

Knowing the signs is one thing, getting hands-on practice, fixing them is what the workshop is for, which brings us to what today covers versus to what the workshop delivers.

12:42

So in today's session, it gives you the map, the workshop actually puts you in the driver's seat.

12:50

In today's free webinar, it's a knowledge foundation at no cost and no registration, understanding what each control account reconciliation is and why it matters, identifying the most common causes of discrepancies in each account, knowing which system five reports to run for each reconciliation as well.

13:13

And four, recognizing the warning signs that reconciliation issues exist.

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The paid hands-on workshop on August 20th.

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It's a live guided practice in system five, a step-by-step demonstration of each reconciliation, finding and resolving real discrepancies using the tools.

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It's the best practices, configuration tips to reduce reconciliation efforts month over month.

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And you also get a full session recording plus supporting reference manuals for your team.

13:55

Today answers what and why. The workshop answers how in my system.

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That's a natural next question for anyone who found today's useful.

14:04

So I encourage you to register at winwoodthoughtfor.com slash workshop.

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And while you decide, there are free resources you can use right now.

14:24

So the three resources that we have, one of them is the Windward Self-Help.

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This is a user guide documentation walking through system five features and workflows, and that can be found on the internet at selfhelp.windwardoncloud.

14:40

The next one is the Windward Knowledge Base, and that's a searchable library of topic-based articles and how-to guidance on reconciliation and beyond.

14:51

And the third is the Windward Learning Academy and those are videos, self-paced video training with structured courses and supporting documents.

15:14

You can start exploring the reconciliation reports in your own system before August 20th.

15:20

Even 10 minutes running a stock value or aged AR report against the GO will make the workshop far more valuable because you'll arrive at questions from your own data, which is great because if you have got examples of your own and you'd like to discuss them, you can bring them up at the actual live workshop.

15:47

So the next step would be to join the workshop.

15:51

How do I actually, it answers the questions, how do I actually do this in my system?

15:58

The question is actually what the workshop exists to resolve.

16:01

an end-to-end live demonstration of all four reconciliations in System 5, practical techniques for finding and resolving discrepancies, configuring and workflow tips from System 5 experts, and a full recording plus reference handouts for all your team.

16:23

It's a virtual workshop on August 20th, 2026, starting at 9 a.m. Pacific.

16:29

And there are two ways to sign up.

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The first one is to either register yourself, self-serve, www.winwoodsoftware.com slash workshop, or you can contact your account manager if you want to be invoiced directly slash if you need a PO.

16:49

What we covered today was what's possible with clean reconciled books.

16:53

The workshop is where you actually, where it shows you how to actually get there.

17:06

And Kyle, are you still there?

17:10

Yeah, of course.

17:11

So we do have a few questions that got populated in here.

17:14

Of course, we want everybody to go ahead and take advantage of the workshop.

17:21

I think what Alan didn't say was how much the workshop is.

17:25

Workshop is just $79.

17:29

Their normal price on is 99 bucks, but we've got a deal going on right now where all the workshops are 20% off.

17:38

So $79, definitely worthwhile.

17:43

Get about, it just depends upon how everybody interacts.

17:46

We've got two hours reserved for the workshops.

17:50

And then one of the questions actually was about how much of the workshop will be spent on inventory reconciliation.

17:57

So I think you kind of covered that, right, Alan?

18:02

Like it's split into four topics and gonna be about 25% on each topic.

18:10

So it seems that that makes the most sense that Inventory Reconciliation will be about a quarter of the content there.

18:18

Charlene will be the presenter for the workshop.

18:21

Isn't that right, Alan?

18:23

Charlene Gillespie, Director of Professional Services.

18:27

Yeah, so I hope that answered that question out there.

18:31

And if anybody else has anything else to ask about the workshop or about the introduction to the workshop here.

18:41

We'll go ahead and take those.

18:49

Yep. Taylor was asking if we could send out the recording.

18:53

This recording automatically sends to everybody that's registered and attended, and we will actually be posting, actually by tomorrow, will be posting the webinar recording on windwardsoftware.com slash webinar.

19:14

So we do have our recordings of all the webinars sitting there for anybody if you needed to go back in time and check one out there's the webinar archives there. Thanks for the question there.

19:30

Alright we'll give it another minute or so to see if anybody else has any questions.

19:42

Alright nothing else coming in So thank you, Alan.

19:45

Thank you everybody for attending and we will see you on the next one.

19:49

Hopefully we'll see you at the workshop.

19:51

Thank you everyone.

19:54

Bye now.

19:56

Bye.