How do I reconcile a bank account in Inkle Books?

• Go to Accounting, open Reconciliations, and find the account. 
• Set a start date, then click Reconcile and choose Smart reconcile. 
• Enter the period, type in the statement ending balance, attach the statement, and click Run AI reconciliation. 
• Inkle AI matches your books against the statement and shows you the result on the page. This used to run through the AI chat. 
• This now happens inside the Reconciliations page.

Where to find it: Inkle Books → Accounting → Reconciliations

What reconciliation is

Reconciling means checking your books against the bank's own record and confirming the two agree. The statement ending balance is the anchor. If your ledger produces the same closing balance as the statement for the same period, the account is reconciled. If it does not, the gap is caused by something specific: a transaction in the bank that never reached your books, a duplicate, a wrong amount, or an item that has not cleared yet.

This is what makes the rest of your financials trustworthy. A P&L built on an unreconciled bank account is a guess, because nothing has confirmed that the transactions in it are complete.

How the Reconciliations page is laid out

Accounts are grouped by institution, with the number of active accounts beside each one. Click an institution to expand or collapse its accounts.

Each account row shows:

Account is the account name, the last four digits, and whether it was manually added or synced.

Last reconciled till is the date your books were last confirmed against a statement. An account you have never reconciled shows Not started.

Last reconciled balance is the ending balance from that last reconciliation.

Action is the button that starts the work. What it says depends on whether a start date exists.

Setting a start date

A new account shows Set start date in the Action column. Click it and pick the date your reconciliation history should begin.

The start date is the point from which you want the account checked. Usually this is the beginning of the first period you hold a statement for, or the date the account was opened. Everything before it is treated as out of scope.

Once the start date is saved, the button changes to Reconcile with a dropdown holding two options: Smart reconcile and Reconcile manually.

Smart reconcile

1. Open Inkle Books and go to Accounting in the left sidebar.
2. Select Reconciliations.
3. Expand the institution and find the account.
4. Set the start date on the account you want to reconcile. The ‘Set start date’ button changes to ‘Reconcile’.
5. Click the dropdown on the Reconcile button and choose Smart reconcile.
6. In the Reconcile window, set the reconciliation period. The start date carries over from the one you set, and you choose the end date.
7. Enter the Statement ending balance, the closing balance printed on the statement for that period.
8. Attach the account statement.
9. Click Run AI reconciliation.

Inkle AI then reads the statement, matches it against the transactions in your books for that period, and shows you the result on the page. All three fields are required, so the run will not start without a period, a balance, and a statement.

Reconcile manually

The second option in the dropdown is Reconcile manually, for when you would rather match items yourself.

If the balances do not agree

A difference between your books and the statement usually comes from one of four things.

Transactions missing from your books, which is common on manually added accounts where nothing syncs automatically.

Duplicates, often from the same account being added twice or a period being imported twice.

Uncleared items, where a payment is recorded in your books on the date you made it and hits the bank a few days later. These resolve themselves in the next period.

A wrong ending balance, usually the available balance rather than the statement closing balance, or a balance taken from a different date than the period end.

FAQ

Do I need a start date before I can reconcile?

Yes. The Action button shows Set start date until one exists, and the reconciliation period begins from it.

Is this the same thing the AI chat used to do?

It replaces it. Smart reconcile runs the reconciliation on the Reconciliations page, so you no longer have to move the work into a chat.

Can I reconcile a manually added account?

Yes. Accounts marked Manually added reconcile the same way, and they are the ones where reconciling matters most, since nothing is syncing to catch missing transactions for you.

What period should I reconcile?

Whatever period your statement covers, normally one month at a time. Matching the reconciliation period to the statement period is what lets the ending balance work as a check.