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Monthly Bank Reconciliation Template

Two sided, so there is nowhere for a plug to hide, and every outstanding check arrives with its age and its deadlines.

Edit with AIDownload (.docx + .csv)

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What you get

Pack of 9 files: 4 documents, 5 spreadsheets

Monthly Bank Reconciliation Template
  • Reconciliation ProcedureDocument
  • The Three WindowsDocument
  • Disposition of a Stale CheckDocument
  • Review NoteDocument
  • Reconciliation by AccountSpreadsheet
  • Book Side EntriesSpreadsheet
  • Outstanding ItemsSpreadsheet
  • Cleared LogSpreadsheet
  • Aged DifferencesSpreadsheet
RiverMonthly Bank Reconciliation Template

Reconciliation by Account

[Entity] — cash at [__ ___ 20__]

Two calculations that have to arrive at the same number. There is no cell between them and nothing will add one.

AcctBank sideAmountBook sideAmount
—Statement closing balance—General ledger cash—
—Add deposits in transit—Book side entries—
—Less outstanding checks—  
—Bank errors claimed—  
—Adjusted bank—Adjusted book—

One question decides which side an item belongs on

Does it resolve on its own, on a date you can name?Bank side
Will it still be here next month without an entry?Book side
Do you not know what it is?Book side, at full amount, with an owner

The two sides meet or the account stays open. A gap is an item nobody has found yet, and finding it is the work.

Every bank reconciliation template you can download has a difference cell at the bottom and an explanation column beside it. That cell is why the form always balances. Anything that will not fit goes in it with a sentence attached, the sentence gets copied forward next month, and two years later the sentence is the only surviving record of a receipt the processor reversed in March. The form did its job perfectly. It agreed with itself.

This pack has two columns and no third place. The bank column takes only what resolves on its own, on a date you can name. The book column takes only what needs an entry, and every row carries an amount, a debit and a credit. Larkspur Provisions closes May across five accounts with seven book side entries netting 2,219.50 and a 24,660.00 bank error, and the two columns meet at 1,892,597.85. Feed it from converted statement PDFs or a normalized trial balance.

An outstanding check is a dated instrument, not a subtraction. UCC 4-404 frees a bank from any obligation to pay one presented after six months and leaves it free to charge the account anyway, which is how a check voided in February gets paid in May. UCC 4-406 shuts the forgery window one year after the statement is available, without regard to care on either side. And the money never becomes income: Delaware presumes most property abandoned at five years, so the disposition is a report date. Run it beside the transaction categorization pack.

Four of the sheets, filled in for one month end

Reconciliation by Account, Book Side Entries, Outstanding Items and Aged Differences.

Monthly Bank Reconciliation Template
RiverReconciliation

Reconciliation by Account

Larkspur Provisions Co, 31 May 2026. An illustrative company.

AcctAccountStatement+ In transit− OutstandingBank errorsAdjusted bankGLBook entriesAdjusted book
1010Operating742,318.5538,940.00(197,088.88)24,660.00608,829.67613,624.67(4,795.00)608,829.67
1020Payroll61,204.900.00(18,730.44)0.0042,474.4642,474.460.0042,474.46
1030Merchant deposit128,455.0221,388.700.000.00149,843.72151,272.12(1,428.40)149,843.72
1040Sweep1,010,000.000.000.000.001,010,000.001,008,246.101,753.901,010,000.00
1050Customer deposits84,600.000.00(3,150.00)0.0081,450.0079,200.002,250.0081,450.00
TOTAL 2,026,578.4760,328.70(218,969.32)24,660.001,892,597.851,894,817.35(2,219.50)1,892,597.85

The 24,660.00 in Bank Errors is a claim filed against the bank on a check altered from 2,740.00 to 27,400.00, not a note. It leaves the sheet when the bank credits it, and until then it is on the bank side because it resolves on a date somebody can chase.

RiverBook Side Entries

Book Side Entries

Not an explanation column. Seven rows that post as they stand.

#AccountAmountDebitCreditWhy the ledger does not have itAgain?
11010 Operating(415.00)Bank service chargesCashAccount analysis fee, debited and never codedYes
21010 Operating(230.00)Returned item and feeCashCustomer ACH returned 19 May, 200.00 reversed plus a 30.00 feeNo
31010 Operating(4,150.00)Accounts payableCashCheck 19985 was voided in the ledger on 6 February at six months. The bank paid it on 12 MayNo
41030 Merchant(1,240.00)Chargeback lossesCashMarch chargeback. The ledger kept the receipt and carried it as a deposit in transit for three periodsNo
51030 Merchant(188.40)Bank service chargesCashProcessor analysis fee, debited and never codedYes
61040 Sweep1,753.90CashInterest incomeInterest credited on the sweep balance and never recordedYes
71050 Deposits2,250.00CashCustomer deposits liabilityCustomer wire on 14 April, still unrecorded in its second periodNo
NET (2,219.50)  Three of the seven are marked Again, so they become standing entries in June 

Entry 7 was drafted in April and never posted, because no owner was named on it. That is why account 1050 reads Reconciled pending review rather than Reconciled.

RiverOutstanding Items

Outstanding Items

Dated from issue, never from the day somebody noticed. Seventeen rows in the pack, seven shown.

RefPayeeAmountDaysPresentment windowReport toBasisDisposition
20421Coastline Freight LLC88,415.604Open to 2026-11-27WAWA scheduleHold
20399Vantage Packaging Inc52,900.0031Open to 2026-10-30CACA scheduleHold
20144Halberd Equipment Service9,875.00184Closed 2026-05-28OROR scheduleHold and contact. Two emails unanswered
19822M. Ferreira reimbursement1,486.75362Closed 2025-12-03OROR scheduleStop placed, reissue authorised
19640Sable Ridge Consulting2,900.00474Closed 2025-08-11DE12 Del. C. 1133(17)Held for the 2030-02-11 report. Not voided
8390Final pay, departed employee610.00366Closed 2025-11-30OROR scheduleDue diligence letter queued
DEP-0314Card batch1,240.0078Not applicable——Removed from the bank side. Now entry 4

Sable Ridge is the only row carrying a computed report date, because it is the only payee with no address anywhere in the vendor master. With no last known address the holder's own state of incorporation takes it, so Delaware's five year schedule applies. Every other row names the state whose table has to be opened.

RiverAged Differences

Aged Differences

Anything carried across more than one period, with the month it should have moved.

ItemFirst seenPeriodsArrived onNow onAmountShould have moved in
Deposit in transit DEP-03142026-033BankBook1,240.002026-04
Check 19985 Marrow Bay Refrigeration2025-0810BankBook4,150.002026-02
Customer wire 14 April2026-042BookBook2,250.002026-04
Check 20144 Halberd Equipment Service2025-117BankBank9,875.00Correctly still timing
Check 19822 M. Ferreira2025-0612BankBank1,486.75Correctly still timing
Check 19640 Sable Ridge Consulting2025-0216BankBank2,900.00Correctly still timing
Payroll check 83902025-0513BankBank610.00Correctly still timing
TOTAL——  22,511.75Two came off the bank side this month, one a month late and one three

Check 19985 is the row that pays for the whole sheet. It was voided at the six month mark because nobody expected it back, the bank paid it 266 days after its date, and the ledger had been overstating cash by 4,150.00 for three months.

Edit with AI

What's in the pack

01

Reconciliation by Account sheet

One row per account with the bank side and the book side calculated separately and landing on the same figure. There is no difference column, so an amount nobody understands cannot be parked.

02

Book Side Entries sheet

Every item the ledger has never heard about, as a postable row: amount, debit, credit, the statement line it came from, and whether it will be back next month.

03

Outstanding Items sheet

Every uncleared check and deposit with its issue date, its age in days, where it sits against the six month presentment window, the state whose dormancy schedule governs it, and a named disposition.

04

Cleared Log sheet

What cleared and how fast, plus the amount issued beside the amount paid, the date the statement was made available and the date somebody examined it. That gap is the UCC 4-406 exposure you control.

05

Aged Differences sheet

Anything carried across more than one period, with the side it arrived on, the side it is on now, and the month it should have been promoted rather than the month it was.

06

Reconciliation Procedure

The two sided method, the one question that decides which side an item belongs on, and the rule that a bank side item open past two statement cycles is presumed mislabelled.

07

The Three Windows

Six months, one year and the dormancy period, worked out in full with the dates they produce, so the reconciliation stops being a formality and starts being the control that finds an altered check.

08

Disposition of a Stale Check

The four honest endings for a check that has stopped moving, and why voiding it to other income is not one of them. Each one carries the test that tells you which case you are in.

09

Review Note

Six checks a reviewer runs and two questions they leave behind, ordered so review starts at the entry list and the aged items and reaches the balances last.

10

Space rule

Every item lands on one side and neither side has a plug. It governs every prompt here, and it is why nothing in this space will close a gap by writing the gap down.

How to use it

  1. 1

    Open in River, or download it

    Open the pack in River and let the agent build it from your own statements, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly with no account.

  2. 2

    Send the statements and the ledger cash detail

    Every account you reconcile, for the same period, plus last month's reconciliations if you have them. PDFs, exports and phone photographs of a statement all work, and a partial set is a normal start.

  3. 3

    Let each side take only its own items

    Bank side for anything that resolves on a nameable date, book side for anything needing an entry. Where the two do not meet, the account stays open and the gap gets found, not written down.

  4. 4

    Date every open item, then promote what is not timing

    Age each outstanding check from issue, check it against the presentment window and the governing state, and move anything the account's own clearing history says was never going to clear.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Completely. Take the Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup, no card and no trial. Edit with AI is an optional second path for anyone who would rather the agent reconcile their own accounts than fill the grid by hand. More packs sit in the template library.

Why is there no difference cell?

Because a form with one always balances. Everything that resists explanation lands there, gets a sentence, and comes back next month wearing the same sentence. Two independent calculations that must agree leave nowhere for that to happen, so an unresolved amount stays visible as an open account instead.

Can I just void an outstanding check that is years old?

That records revenue nobody earned and cancels a debt that still exists. Delaware presumes most property abandoned five years after the obligation to pay arises, wages included, so an uncashed check becomes reportable to a state rather than income to you. The pack offers four other endings.

How does this differ from the close checklist?

The monthly close pack runs the cycle: what happened, in what order, and when the period locked. This does one task inside it properly. Once cash is reconciled, evidencing the rest of the balance sheet is the substantiation pack.

Does it handle card and processor accounts?

Yes, and those are where the mislabelled items live. A payout is net of fees, refunds and chargebacks while the ledger booked the gross, so the residue looks exactly like a deposit in transit. Decompose the payouts first with settlement reconciliation.

What format are the downloaded files?

Four .docx documents covering the procedure, the three windows, the dispositions and the review note, plus five .csv sheets, all in a single zip. Everything opens natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets with no conversion step.

What does Edit with AI actually do?

It spins up a free River account with this pack installed as a private workspace, already primed to read your statements, split every reconciling item onto the correct side, and date the open ones. Send nothing and it writes nothing. Card statements route through the receipt matcher.

Sources

  1. Cornell Law School§ 4-404. BANK NOT OBLIGED TO PAY CHECK MORE THAN SIX MONTHS OLD (opens in a new tab)
  2. Cornell Law School§ 4-406. CUSTOMER's DUTY TO DISCOVER AND REPORT UNAUTHORIZED SIGNATURE OR ALTERATION (opens in a new tab)
  3. Delaware CodeTitle 12, Chapter 11, Subchapter II. Unclaimed Property (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

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Reconcile it, do not balance it

Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent reconcile your own accounts.

Edit with AI