Why Does My Bookkeeper Always Need My Bank Statements?

Bookkeeper, Xero

Why Does My Bookkeeper Always Need My Bank Statements?

17/01/2019

When our clients get to experience the benefits of using XERO as their bookkeeping system, they are often amazed at the power of integration with their bank accounts that XERO can bring.

In particular, when we set up the bank feed for them we get extremely positive feedback. And yet, at the next reporting period we get the question “Why do I have to send you copies of my bank statements when XERO gets all the bank feeds?”.

Well, the simple answer is that it is ‘insurance’ against the instances where XERO can get it wrong, despite integrations. If your bookkeeper doesn’t ask you for bank statements to double check against the bank feed, you may be at risk of posting the wrong accounting figures.

Here are a few reasons why your bookkeeper should be asking you for your bank statements, and what can go wrong if they don’t have them:

Human Error

When multiple users have access to your file, a proper bank statement is one of the methods we use to check that bank feed data has not been tampered with or changed, payments have been posted to the right account and date (a leap year can cause problems), and there’s no double up of transactions due to timing of any manual data import

Bank Feeds

Although rare, transmission errors from bank to XERO do occur from time to time and bank statements are the only recourse to fix things up again. Further, bank feeds are not 100% accurate as they may stop working for short periods of time (for example, when you change your online banking password), and they may add duplicates or omit transactions. When bank feeds stop working, bookkeepers may also ask for transaction downloads.

ATO Regulations

Bank statements, deposit books, cheque books and bank reconciliation documentation are among the most important documents the ATO requires you to keep for a minimum of 5 years. Bookkeepers are required to check copies of your bank statements when preparing your BAS and a good bookkeeper makes sure that you have these documents on hand and puts them all in one place.