Tutorial: Reconcile Charges and the Ledger
Working the four reconciliation tabs — orphaned charges, paid-but-unrecorded, ledger-without-charge, and amount mismatches.
Last updated Sat Sep 05
Reconciliation compares two things that should always agree — the charges raised against students, and the ledger of money actually received — and shows you every place they don't.
Run it periodically, and always before closing a term's books.
You need: access to Accounting → Reconciliation.
The four tabs
Each tab is a different kind of disagreement, and each has a different fix. The count in the tab label is your worklist.
Orphaned charges
A charge that no longer has a valid fee behind it — usually because a fee schedule was deleted or retired while charges were already raised against it. Each row shows the student, class, fee, amount and the reason it is orphaned.
Two actions:
- Keep — the charge is legitimate; leave it standing.
- Void — the charge should never have existed. Voiding asks for confirmation and takes the charge out of the student's outstanding balance.
When it is empty you get No orphaned charges awaiting review.
Paid, no ledger
A charge marked settled with no matching ledger entry. The money was recorded against the student but never landed in the day's takings — typically a payment recorded on a day that was later adjusted. Trace these against the receipt number before touching anything.
Ledger, not paid
The mirror image: money in the ledger that isn't attached to a settled charge. Usually a payment applied to the wrong student, or one entered without selecting a charge.
Amount mismatches
The charge and the ledger entry both exist but disagree on the amount. Most often a discount applied after the payment was taken, or a partial payment recorded as full.
Working it
- Start with Orphaned charges — clearing them often removes rows from the other tabs.
- Work each remaining tab until the counts are zero, or until every row left is one you have explicitly decided to Keep.
- Only then close the period.
When everything agrees you will see Every ledger payment maps to a settled fee.
Prevention
Most rows here trace back to one of three habits:
- Deleting fee schedules instead of switching them Active off — see Set Up Fees.
- Adjusting amounts at the counter instead of granting a proper discount.
- Reopening a closed day without re-checking the totals — see Close the Day.
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