During a recent Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central bank reconciliation, the Test Report displayed this warning:
“Statement Ending Balance is not equal to Total Balance.“
At first glance, the warning seems straightforward. The problem is that the report does not give you everything you need to understand it.
The Test Report displays the Statement Ending Balance on the left and repeats that amount as Statement Balance on the right. However, it does not display the Total Balance field or value referenced in the warning.
Therefore, the warning cannot be interpreted from the printed report alone.
The Test Report references Total Balance in the warning but does not display that field or its value.
Finding amounts compared on bank reconciliation warning
Return to the Bank Account Reconciliation page and compare these two fields:
- Statement Ending Balance
- Total Balance
In the reconciliation I reviewed, the page showed:
- Statement Ending Balance: $322,301.81
- Total Balance: $322,336.81
- Difference: $35.00
Once we returned to the reconciliation page, we could finally see the amount behind the warning.
The amounts referenced by the warning must be compared on the Bank Account Reconciliation page.
What does Statement Ending Balance mean?
Statement Ending Balance is the ending bank balance entered by the user for the reconciliation.
Depending on the bank and import process, this amount may come from a formal bank statement, an online bank balance, or the final running-balance amount in the bank activity import file.
It represents what the bank says the account balance was as of the reconciliation date.
What does Total Balance mean?
The Business Central tooltip for Total Balance says:
“Specifies the accumulated balance of the bank reconciliation, which consists of the Balance Last Statement field, plus the balance in the Statement Amount field.”
That wording is not as clear as it could be.
“The balance in the Statement Amount field” means the net total of the Statement Amount field across all Bank Statement Lines included in the reconciliation.
A clearer definition would be:
Total Balance is the accumulated balance for the current bank reconciliation, calculated as the Balance Last Statement plus the sum of the Statement Amount field on all Bank Statement Lines included in the reconciliation.
In simpler terms:
Total Balance = Balance Last Statement + the net total of all imported Bank Statement Lines
For this reconciliation:
- Balance Last Statement: $368,124.37
- Net total of the Bank Statement Lines: -$45,787.56
- Total Balance: $322,336.81
- Statement Ending Balance: $322,301.81
- Difference: $35.00
The imported Bank Statement Lines did not account for the full change between the previous posted ending balance and the new ending balance reported by the bank.
This warning is not related to matching
This distinction is important:
Matching does not change Statement Ending Balance or Total Balance.
The warning would have appeared before any Bank Statement Lines were matched to Bank Account Ledger Entries.
Matching addresses whether transactions imported from the bank correspond to transactions recorded in Business Central. This warning addresses whether the imported bank activity mathematically connects the previous statement balance to the current ending balance.
Do not spend time rematching transactions in an attempt to clear this warning. First determine why the bank-side balances do not agree.
What can cause the warning on the Bank Reconciliation Test Report?
Possible causes include:
- A bank transaction is missing because there is a gap between the previous reconciliation ending date and the new import starting date.
- A bank transaction is duplicated because the new import starting date overlaps the previous reconciliation ending date.
- The Statement Ending Balance was entered incorrectly.
- The bank added a transaction after the activity for the previous reconciliation had already been pulled but assigned it a transaction date on or before the previous reconciliation’s ending date.
The last situation caused the warning in this example.
The missing $35 bank fee
On the right side of the reconciliation detail, we found an open Bank Account Ledger Entry dated August 7 for a $35 stop-payment fee.
We then checked the posted Bank Statement Lines through August 7 and confirmed that the fee had not been included in that reconciliation.
The next step was to verify the transaction against the bank’s current activity. Once the bank activity showed the exact $35 fee dated Friday, August 7, the sequence became clear:
- The bank activity for the reconciliation through August 7 was pulled on Monday, August 10, in the morning.
- Sometime after the activity was pulled, the bank added the $35 fee but assigned the transaction an August 7 date.
- The next bank activity export correctly started after August 7. Because the newly added fee carried an August 7 transaction date, it was not included in that export either.
The transaction fell into a timing gap between two otherwise consecutive reconciliations.
How to correct a verified late-added transaction
Because the $35 transaction already existed as a Bank Account Ledger Entry in Business Central, another journal entry was not needed.
Posting another journal entry would duplicate the accounting entry.
The missing piece was the corresponding bank-side transaction. After verifying its date, amount, and description against the bank, the correction was:
- Add a Bank Statement Line to the current reconciliation for -$35.00.
- Use the exact transaction date and description shown by the bank.
- Match the new statement line to the existing open Bank Account Ledger Entry.
Technically, we could have retrieved the transaction from the bank and imported it, provided the additional import did not overwrite or duplicate the Bank Statement Lines already present. In this situation, manually entering the one verified transaction was simpler.
This is a controlled exception to my usual rule:
Do not manually add Bank Statement Lines merely to make a reconciliation agree.
We were not inventing a reconciling adjustment or forcing the numbers to match. We were entering a transaction that actually appeared in the bank’s activity and should have been included in the earlier import.
After adding the verified statement line:
- Total Balance became $322,301.81.
- Total Balance agreed with Statement Ending Balance.
- The warning disappeared.
- The existing $35 Bank Account Ledger Entry could be reconciled without posting another accounting entry.
Add two controls to the reconciliation process
This experience suggests two useful process changes.
1. Compare the balances before matching
Immediately after importing the bank activity—and before matching anything—compare:
- Statement Ending Balance
- Total Balance
If they do not agree, stop and investigate the bank activity first.
Look for:
- Missing dates between imports
- Overlapping dates and duplicate transactions
- An incorrect ending balance
- Transactions the bank added later with earlier effective dates
This completeness check should happen before the matching work begins.
2. Allow the bank time to finish posting
Consider waiting approximately two business days after the desired reconciliation cutoff before exporting the bank activity.
For example:
- Reconciliation cutoff: Friday
- Export bank activity: Tuesday
This gives the bank additional time to add fees, adjustments, or other transactions while still assigning them a date on or before Friday.
If Monday is a bank holiday, move the export to Wednesday.
Waiting will not eliminate every possible late-posting issue, but it reduces the likelihood that a transaction will be added after the activity has already been pulled for the period.
The Righter Way
When the Test Report says:
Statement Ending Balance is not equal to Total Balance
do not begin by changing matches or creating a journal entry.
Return to the Bank Account Reconciliation page and compare the two fields named in the warning.
Remember:
Statement Ending Balance is the bank-reported ending balance entered for the reconciliation.
Total Balance is the prior posted statement balance plus the net total of the current Bank Statement Lines.
If those amounts do not agree, the bank activity does not fully bridge the previous ending balance to the current one.
Find that disconnect first. Then correct only what the bank’s verified activity supports.
That is the righter way to keep the reconciliation—and the accounting behind it—intact.
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