Bank statements are often not produced at convenient times. Solution is to change the statement frequency and or move the statement run date.

1-CURRENT ACCOUNTS

Change the statement run date for all current accounts to calendar monthly. Most statements have subtotal of receipts and payments which can be used to help double check the entries when using spreadsheets by highlighting entries for that month and comparing against the sum total on the status bar at the bottom of the spreadsheet against the Total In & Total Out on the bank statement.

2-OTHER ACCOUNTS - SAVINGS & LOANS

A) All banks provide an annual tax summary of interest received on the first statement run after 5th April, whether it be an online or paper statement. If your statement frequency is annual with a billing date between Jan-Mar, you will have to wait between 9-12months for your annual tax summary.

B) Your loan statement is produced annually or bi-annual so you have to wait months to receive the statement you need for the year end.

SOLUTIONS:

• Change your statement frequency to quarterly; this can usually be done online as well as contacting the bank.
• If you prefer to retain annual statements, you can move the statement run date to just after the end of the tax year or your accounting year; this can usually be done by contacting the bank or seeing a personal banker.

TIP 1: Tranaction History printing can cause confusion.

• They don't show a total in & out.
• They don't show a brought forward balance so it is hard to spot if anything is missing.
• Once, it took me 3-4 hrs to reconcile a bank account because one page ended on 4th July and the next page started on 4th July, but there was a whole page missing containing just 4th July. If it had a brought forward balance, I would have spotted the missing page very quickly.
• Solution - download or print the PDF statements, dont print transaction history.

TIP 2: Most banks will allow both, PDF online statement and post paper statements free of charge, mine does; opt for both, this can usually be done within your online banking settings; you may have to access your banking through a web-browser and not the App on a phone or tablet. Online banking through your browser usually contains many more feature than the App, this is for your protection, should you lose your phone.