Month End Bank Reconciliation Checklist for UK Small Firms

This is the checklist we'd hand a new bookkeeper on their first month-end: what to get ready, what to check on every bank, card and payment account, and how to sign the month off so it stays closed. Copy it into your notes, print it, or pin it to the office wall. Work through it in order and your month end bank reconciliation should take an hour or less for most small businesses.

How to use this checklist

Ellie co-owns a small bakery in Bath with her brother. They have four accounts that touch money: the business current account, a savings account for the rainy-day fund they're building, a business credit card, and the balance held by their card terminal provider before it pays out.

On Monday 5 Oct 2026, she sits down to close Sep 2026. We'll use her month as the example as we go.

The checklist has four parts:

1. Before you start: paperwork and access
2. For every account: the reconciliation itself
3. Across all accounts: the cross-checks people forget
4. Sign-off: recording, locking and follow-ups

Tick each box as you go. If you can't tick one, write down why. That note is often more useful than the tick.

Part 1: Before you start

• [ ] All transactions for the month are in the books. Bank feed is up to date, or CSV imported to the last day of the month.
• [ ] New transactions are reviewed and categorised. Nothing still sitting uncategorised in the review list.
• [ ] Statements downloaded for every account, covering the full month (or the full statement period for credit cards).
• [ ] Last month's reconciliation report to hand for each account, with its closing balance and outstanding items.
• [ ] Sales invoices and supplier bills for the month entered, so customer and supplier payments have something to match to.
• [ ] A quiet hour booked. Honestly, this matters. Reconciling between customers is how mistakes happen.

Ellie's feed is up to date, but she spots 14 transactions from the last weekend of Sep 2026 still uncategorised. She clears those first.

Part 2: For every account

Run this block once per account. Ellie runs it four times.

• [ ] Opening balance agrees with last month's reconciled closing balance.
• [ ] Every statement line matched to a transaction in the books, or added to the books if it was missing.
• [ ] Bank-only items recorded: fees, interest, direct debits, card charges, transfers you didn't enter.
• [ ] Outstanding items listed: unpresented cheques, deposits in transit, card settlements due.
• [ ] Last month's outstanding items checked: did they clear this month? Anything older than 60 days flagged.
• [ ] Adjusted bank balance equals adjusted book balance, to the penny.
• [ ] Any difference investigated, or parked in a named suspense account with a note.
• [ ] Reconciliation report saved for the account.

Account-specific extras

Some accounts need an extra check or two:

Ellie's credit card statement runs to 22 Sep 2026, so she reconciles it to that date and then checks the eight card transactions between 23 Sep 2026 and 30 Sep 2026 are in the books for the month end.

Part 3: Across all accounts

These are the checks that only make sense when you look at all the accounts together. They're also the ones most often skipped.

• [ ] Transfers between your own accounts match on both sides. £500.00 out of the current account to savings should be £500.00 into savings, on the same or next working day.
• [ ] No transfer is categorised as income or an expense. Moving money between your own accounts doesn't change profit.
• [ ] Suspense account reviewed. Ideally zero. If not, every item has a note and a plan.
• [ ] No duplicates from having both a feed and a CSV import for the same dates.
• [ ] Nothing posted to a locked or closed period since last month's sign-off.
• [ ] Owner or director payments categorised correctly, not hidden in general expenses.

Ellie finds one problem here. A £500.00 transfer to savings on 30 Sep 2026 shows up in savings on 1 Oct 2026. That's fine, it's timing, and it goes on the savings account's outstanding list. But she also notices she'd categorised it as "Sundry expenses" in the current account. She fixes it to a transfer.

Part 4: Sign-off

• [ ] Each account's reconciliation report saved (PDF is easiest to keep).
• [ ] Sign-off recorded: who reconciled, who reviewed, the date.
• [ ] Period locked so nobody edits a reconciled month by accident.
• [ ] Follow-ups listed with an owner and a date: cheques to chase, unknowns to ask about, customers who paid without a reference.
• [ ] A quick look at the reports. Does the P&L look like the month you remember? Does cash on the balance sheet match the four reconciled balances?

That last one is a good sanity check. If the bakery's P&L shows sales way above a normal Sep 2026, it's worth asking why before you lock anything.

Ellie's sign-off record

A simple sign-off table, kept with the reports, gives you (and your accountant) an instant view of where each account stands.

Notice the £500.00 transfer only shows as outstanding on the savings line. The current account statement already shows the money leaving on 30 Sep 2026, so there's nothing outstanding there. The savings statement doesn't show it arriving until 1 Oct 2026, so on that line it's an item in transit. Next month, it drops off.

A realistic time budget

For a business Ellie's size (around 300 transactions a month across four accounts), with a bank feed doing most of the data entry:

If it's regularly taking twice that, something upstream needs fixing. Usually it's too many uncategorised transactions piling up during the month, which a short weekly review solves.

How HelloBooks helps

Most of Part 1 is easier when transactions arrive on their own. In HelloBooks, you connect your bank through Open Banking (most UK banks and cards work) or import a CSV statement, and new transactions land in a review list where you confirm or change the category.

For Part 2, the reconcile screen lines each statement up against your ledger, with an AI match suggestion on every line showing a confidence score and the reason for the match. You work through the exceptions and unmatch anything wrong in one click. Credit-card accounts reconcile the same way.

For Part 4, each account produces a reconciliation report (opening balance, cleared items, outstanding items, closing balance), exported as PDF or CSV. Once signed off, the period can be locked, and any reopening is logged. You can invite your bookkeeper or accountant into the same books to review. The bookkeeping features page covers the rest, and food businesses might like the page for restaurants and cafés.

FAQs

How soon after month end should I reconcile?

Within the first week. Statements are available, memories are fresh, and you'll have reliable numbers early in the new month.

Who should review the reconciliation?

Ideally someone other than the person who did it. In a one-person business, a quick review by your bookkeeper or accountant every few months is a sensible substitute.

Do I need to reconcile accounts with no transactions?

Yes, but it takes a minute. Confirm the balance hasn't changed and record that you checked.

What if I can't finish all accounts in one go?

Do the main current account first. It carries most of the risk. Finish the others within the week.

Should I lock the period even if I might need to change something?

Yes. Locking doesn't stop changes forever. It makes them deliberate. If you need to reopen, you can, and the change is recorded.

Print it, tick it, file it. After three months, you'll barely need the list.

Start free, no card needed. Try HelloBooks Free