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Bank Account Structure Template

Two documents and four sheets that cross-tabulate every signer against every account, and check every automatic sweep against what the statements actually show.

Free download  ·  No account needed

Every bank account structure template lists signers one account at a time: who can sign on Operating, who can sign on Payroll, each its own short list. That is also exactly how a bank issues the underlying signature card, so it is the natural way to document it, and it is also why the two findings that actually matter never surface. A person's access only reads as a problem across their whole row, once every account they touch sits on one line instead of five separate lists that never get compared to each other.

Wickford Marine Supply's August review put four signers against five accounts in one matrix instead of five. A former CFO, departed four months earlier, was still a full signer on Payroll and Tax Reserve, 412,330.00 combined, because the removal letter named two accounts by number and the bank actioned exactly those two. The controller carried sensible per-account ACH limits everywhere except Tax Reserve, where an eight-year-old signature card had no limit at all, invisible from any single account's own list.

Sweep Rules caught a third drift. The automatic transfer to the reserve account now triggers at roughly 250,000.00, not the 100,000.00 written in Treasury Policy, changed by a phone call with the bank ten months earlier and never confirmed in writing. Pricing the gap at the rate difference between the two accounts on the average stranded balance put the cost at about 956.91 in missed interest over 90 days. Feed the register from statements alongside converted PDFs, and reconcile what lands in Operating with the bank reconciliation pack every month.

Four of the sheets, filled in for one quarterly review

Account Register with the cash flow map, Signatory Matrix, Sweep Rules, and Balance Trend.

Account Register

Wickford Marine Supply, close 31 August 2026. An illustrative company.

AcctNamePurposeBalance
1010OperatingFunds every other account512,880.00
1020PayrollFunded 2 days pre-run164,730.00
1030Merchant DepositCard settlement lands here first58,940.00
1040Sweep ReserveInterest-bearing, excess Operating1,150,000.00
1050Tax ReservePayroll and sales tax set-aside247,600.00
Total2,134,150.00
Card processor1030 Merchant1010 Operating
1040 Sweep
drifted, see Sweep Rules
1050 Tax Reserve
8% daily
1020 Payroll
biweekly, net

Five accounts, two banks. The map is built from this quarter's statements, not from whoever last remembers how money moves between them.

Signatory Matrix

Every signer, cross-tabulated across all five accounts at once.

SignerStatus10101020103010401050
R. Kessling, OwnerActiveFullFullFullFullFull
D. Marsh, ControllerActive25,000/day10,000/day5,000/dayView onlyNo limit
P. O'Connell, former CFODeparted 4 mo. agoRemovedFullRemovedRemovedFull
J. Alavi, AP ClerkActiveView onlyView only

Read down any single account's column and every card looks fine. Read across P. O'Connell's row and 412,330.00 across 1020 and 1050 is still exposed four months after departure, because the removal letter named 1010 and 1030 and the bank actioned exactly those two.

Sweep Rules

Stated policy against 90 days of actual statement behavior.

RouteStated ruleObservedStatus
1010→1040Sweep above 100,000.00Triggers above ~250,000.00Drifted
1010→10508% of daily salesMatches, every day checkedConfirmed
1010→1020Net payroll, 2 days pre-runMatches, every cycle checkedConfirmed
1030→1010Full balance, next business dayMatches, every day checkedConfirmed

The 1010→1040 trigger moved by a phone call with the bank ten months ago and was never written back into Treasury Policy. Average balance stranded between the two thresholds, at the rate gap between the two accounts, cost about 956.91 over the 90 days checked.

Balance Trend

Six months, ending balance per account.

AccountMarAprMayJunJulAug
1010 Operating486,200501,750495,300508,900517,600512,880
1020 Payroll158,900162,400160,100163,500161,800164,730
1030 Merchant61,20057,80059,90056,40060,10058,940
1040 Sweep1,020,0001,058,4001,082,9001,105,6001,128,3001,150,000
1050 Tax Reserve198,400208,900218,700229,300238,500247,600

Six months of ending balances, useful for spotting drift on sight before Sweep Rules has to confirm it against the statements directly.

What's in the pack

01

Account Register sheet

Every account, what it is actually for in one sentence, and its current balance, plus a simple cash flow map of how money moves between them.

02

Signatory Matrix sheet

Every signer cross-tabulated against every account at once, so a departed employee's forgotten access or a person's inconsistent limits show up as one row.

03

Sweep Rules sheet

What Treasury Policy says should move automatically between accounts, checked route by route against 90 days of actual statements.

04

Balance Trend sheet

Six months of ending balances per account, for catching drift on sight before it needs a direct check.

05

Treasury Policy

What each account is for, why a signer's authority never expires on its own, and the two questions every row of the matrix has to answer.

06

Signatory Review Note

A completed example: the departed-signer gap and the inconsistent-limit gap, both found the same quarter, and exactly what closed each one.

How to use it

  1. 1

    Open in River, or download it

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

  2. 2

    Send every account's statements

    The most recent statement for every account, ideally three months of history so a drifted sweep rule is visible, plus the signer list from each bank if you have it separately.

  3. 3

    Let the matrix cross-tabulate, not list

    Every signer gets one row across every account, so a departed employee's live access or a person's loosest limit surfaces on sight instead of hiding inside a clean per-account list.

  4. 4

    Check the sweep against the statements every quarter

    Each automatic transfer rule gets confirmed against what actually happened, not against what the policy says should happen, so a drift gets priced instead of assumed.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets, with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path for anyone who wants the agent to build the matrix directly from statements. The template library holds the rest of the packs.

Why does a per-account signer list miss the real problem?

Because it can only show that one account's card looks fine. The findings that matter are about a person, not an account: a departed signer still active somewhere, or a live employee whose limit on one account is looser than everywhere else. Neither is visible until every account is read across the same row.

Doesn't removing someone from payroll or the building end their bank access?

No. A bank's authorization resolution stays in effect until the bank receives written notice changing it, regardless of what happens inside the company. And an item is properly payable once it's authorized by the agreement on file with the bank, which is that resolution, not your org chart. Name every account on the departure letter and confirm each one with the bank.

What counts as an inconsistent limit?

The same person holding a stated dollar limit on some accounts and no limit at all, or a much looser one, on another. The real ceiling on that person's authority is whichever account is least restricted, not the average of all of them, so the loosest line is the one to fix.

What does Sweep Rules actually check?

Whether the last 90 days of statements match what your treasury policy says should happen, route by route. A sweep threshold changed by a phone call with a relationship manager looks identical to a healthy account until someone checks the actual trigger point against the statements directly.

What does Edit with AI actually do?

It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. The agent opens ready to read your statements and signer lists, and to cross-tabulate every signer against every account from the start. Nothing is written until you send something.

Who is this template for?

Owners and controllers who want to know, without pulling five separate signature cards, exactly who can move money today and whether that still matches who works there. Once the map is current, bank reconciliation is where the resulting balances get reconciled every month.

Cross-tabulate every signer, not one account at a time

Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build the map from your own statements.

Edit with AI