These controls let you select any statement for display. You can override the opening balance and whether or not it is in credit or in overdraft.
If this is a Bank account, the opening balance will have been calculated as a debit unless the account is overdrawn, in which case the balance will be a credit.
If this is a Charge account, the opening balance will have been calculated as a credit since you normally owe money to the Charge company, rather than them owing you money.
Each subsequent line of the display shows an item in this Bank/Charge account that you have previously ticked off against this statement.
The last line of the display shows the calculated closing balance of the statement.
All the items ticked off against this statement number are displayed in date sequence and line has the following fields:
Statement Number. All the lines of the display will have the number of the selected statement in this column.
Reference. Any two characters that you may want to use to denote a particular type or source of item, eg a cheque number, or AM to denote an American Express charge.
Description. To tell you what this accounting item is.
Debit. A value in this column tells you that this item is money received if this is a Bank account, or a payment to a Charge company.
Credit. A value in this column tells you that this item is a payment out of a Bank account, or an amount charged on a Charge account.
Balance. Starting with the closing balance of the previous statement reconciled, all the reconciled debits are added and credits are subtracted giving a running subtotal after every item in the account. If CR appears immediately after a value in this column, it shows that the balance of the account at this point was in credit. If this is a Bank account, a CR balance means that you are overdrawn!
The purpose of this display is to make sure that there are no discrepancies between the items shown here and those on the statement received from the Bank or Charge company.
If this is different from the balance on the statement received from your Bank, you will have to check this and other statements to find where there is an error.
If you enter the opening balance of the statement you have requested, then the closing balance shown by the system should be the same as the statement. If it is not then there is an error to be corrected.
If you check all statements and still find that the calculated opening balances are different from those on the statements, you will probably find that the B/Fwd balance for this account in Last Year's accounts is incorrect.