Fix Duplicate Bank Entries in Sage 50 Account Reconciliation

Bank account reconciliation in Sage 50 is a crucial process to make sure that your company’s books are in line with the balance of your real bank account. Nonetheless, in some cases, when you are trying to reconcile your bank accounts, you might have duplicate bank records, and you are unable to balance your accounts. Such duplicates may confuse, provide incorrect balances, and even prevent you from reconciling.

This article explains the reasons behind duplicate bank transactions, the methods for identifying them, and how to safely and effectively eliminate duplicate bank transactions during account reconciliation in Sage 50. You are also going to know how to avoid the occurrence of the issue in the future.

Understanding Bank Reconciliation in Sage 50

The bank reconciliation of Sage 50 assists you in confirming that the transactions recorded in your company correspond with your bank statement. This is done in order to have correct and complete financial records.

Having all the matches, your balance in the Sage 50 account is the same as that of your bank statement. But when there are duplicate transactions, this may upset your reconciliation. As an example, when you add a deposit and make a mistake by adding it twice to the account, or when you import a bank feed, you will see two identical transactions. These replicas might result in a mismatched final balance or unbalanced transactions, so they can not be reconciled.

Read Also: Duplicate records often occur after a Sage 50 reconciliation discrepancy. Here’s how to resolve it.

Common Causes of Duplicate Bank Records in Sage 50 Reconciliation

It is necessary to know how duplicates have been created before they are eliminated. The following are some of the most frequent reasons for Duplicate bank records in Sage 50.

Manual Data Entry Mistakes

In some cases, transactions that have been imported into a bank feed are entered manually by the user. You can have a case where you key in a payment, and then Sage re-imports it on your bank feed, resulting in a duplicate.

Importing Bank Feeds More Than Once

Sage 50 may add a duplicate of a bank feed in case your connection fails or you restart an import. This has the potential to add the same transactions twice or more, and this duplicates them in your reconciliation window.

Posting Journal Entries Incorrectly

When you enter the bank transactions in journal entries rather than using the bank receipts or payments, the chances of having duplicates that are reflected in a reconciliation process are high.

Data Corruption or Sync Issues

In extreme situations, corruption or sync issues in multi-user environments may lead to the same transaction being recorded twice, particularly on a restored backup.

Duplicate Opening Balances

In case you inadvertently import or key in opening balances twice or more, doubles would be reflected at the beginning of your bank reconciliation.

The problem can be fixed by understanding what the problem is and then selecting the right solution.

How to Identify Duplicate Bank Transactions in Sage 50 Account

Before the deletion of any item, ensure that you confirm what transactions are duplicates. Deleting‌ a wrong entry is one of the ways through which you can affect your books. Here is the process of detecting duplicate bank records in Sage 50:

Step 1: Open the Bank Account Module

• Go to Bank Accounts in Sage 50.
• Select the account that you want to reconcile.

Step 2: Review the Bank Activity

• Click on Activity to check out all transactions
• Find the duplicates by deciding to sort the data either by Date, Amount, or Reference.

Look for:

• The same transaction date
• The same amount (whether debit or credit)
• The same reference number
• The identical mode of transaction (e.g., payment, receipt)
• When two or more transactions appear to be the same, then chances are that the transactions are duplicates.

Step 3: Compare with Your Bank Statement

Match these transactions with your actual bank statement. When you see only one account of a transaction on your statement, you are certain that you have a duplicate.

Step 4: Check the Reconciliation Window

During the process of reconciling, finding two identical transactions with one cleared and the other one uncleared is also an indication that there are two sets of bank records.

Steps to Remove Duplicate Bank Records in Sage 50

After determining duplicates, select either one of the approaches below to eliminate duplicates without causing any harm. The appropriate way will be determined based on the way the duplicates were made.

Method 1: Delete Manually Entered Duplicate Transactions

In case you keyed in a transaction twice, it is possible to delete the one that is in duplicate. Follow the steps below:

• Go to Bank Accounts.
• Pick the account that you want to work with.
• Click the Activity tab.
• Find the duplicate entry.
• Click on the transaction on the right and delete it.

Important: In case the transaction has already been reconciled, you will not be able to delete it directly. The first step will be to refresh the balance (see Method 3).

Note: It is advisable to always make a backup of any transaction that is deleted.

Method 2: Delete Duplicate Imported Transactions from Bank Feeds

In case the duplicates were due to a bank feed, do this:

• Go to Bank Feeds.
• Check the list of imported transactions.
• Identify the duplicate records that correspond to the existing ones.
• Duplicates can be matched or removed, and after that, they are posted.
• In case the transactions have already been registered:
  • Open Bank Activity and remove the duplicates in there.

To prevent this in the future:

• Marked transactions were either reviewed or matched.
• Check the Last Download Date to ensure that Sage only downloads new transactions.

Method 3: Unreconcile and Delete Duplicate Bank Records

When you have a duplicate transaction that has already been reconciled, you will have to un-reconcile the record first, then delete it. Follow the steps below:

• Go to Bank Accounts.
• Pick your account and click on Reconcile.
• Select previous Reconciliations.
• Indicate the reconciliation that carries the duplicate.
• Click Undo Last Reconciliation or Reverse Reconciliation based on your version of Sage 50.
• The transactions would reappear in the unreconciled list once they are undone.
• Now, you are able to delete the duplicate record and re-reconcile appropriately.

Method 4: Use the Transaction List Report to Find Duplicates

Reports can be used to find duplicates much quickly in case of a large number of transactions. Follow the steps below:

• Click on Reports > bank reports > transaction list.
• Export the report to Excel.
• Filter in Excel or conditional formatting to identify the duplication of amounts, dates, and references.
• Then, go back to Sage 50 and delete those duplicates manually.
• This particularly benefits companies that have huge volumes of transactions.

Method 5: Use File Maintenance Tools for Batch Deletion

In case several duplicate transactions have not been reconciled, you can get rid of them at once through maintenance tools. Follow the steps below:

• Click on file, then maintenance, then file maintenance.
• By clicking Check Data, the system will perform a corruption search.
• In case the data is clean, then deletion can be done by adding the Delete Old Transactions tool.

Warning: This approach is irreversible. It is always advisable to make a complete copy of a file before using any maintenance tool.

Method 6: Remove Duplicates Created by Journal Entries

In case duplicate transactions have been prepared by making journal entries:

• Determine the number of journals that resulted in duplicates.
• Pick General Ledger and then Journal ‌Entries.
• Search and delete or undo the duplicate entries.

Example: In the case of duplication of a debit of 1,000 dollars, make a credit entry of 1,000 dollars in the same account to counter the debit.

Reconcile Again After Removing Duplicate Bank Records

After deleting all the duplicate bank records, you will be required to do another reconciliation. Follow the steps below:

• Open your Bank Account.
• Click Reconcile.
• Input the date of the statement and the balance beginning.
• Check the valid transactions and only select the ones that are appropriate to your bank statement.
• Make sure that the difference at the bottom is zero.
• And yet your reconciliation is not in balance: reconsider:
  • Missing transactions
  • Improperly recorded bank charges and interest.
  • Wrong dates and wrong amounts of transactions.
• After clearing your reconciliation difference, save and finalize the process.

How to Prevent Duplicate Bank Records in the Future

Removing copies is a tedious process. Preventing them is a lot easier than curing them. Here’s how:

1. Avoid Double Imports

Import bank feeds only for a single time. In case of the failure of an import, review your activity list and then reattempt.

2. Use Unique References

Provide a reference or description to every transaction. In that manner, copies can be recognized more easily in the future.

3. Align Transactions Appropriately

In case of bank feed imports, it is always a good practice to match transactions to current entries before posting the transaction. And then Sage 50 will be able to identify that they are the same ones and will not create duplication.

4. Reconcile Regularly

Also, it is wise to reconcile your accounts regularly (say weekly or monthly) to ensure that any duplication is caught early before it gets out of hand.

5. Manage User Permissions

Where‍‌ multi-user access is allowed, restrict the right of importing bank feeds or posting transactions to only those users who are authorized.

6. Back Up Frequently

Never make significant imports, reconciliations, or file maintenance without creating a complete backup. In case of a malfunction, you are able to recover your information in a short time.

Troubleshooting Tips if Duplicate Entries Persist

In case the duplicates persist after deletion, follow these troubleshooting measures.

Step 1: Check for Data Corruption

• Click on File, Maintenance, and Check Data.
• In the event that Sage detects data errors, record the message and click Repair where it has been allowed.
• Otherwise, seek the assistance of Sage technical support.

Step 2: Review the Audit Trail

• Click on the Transactions and in the Audit Trail, either sort by date or reference.
• It allows you to view the name of the creator or the importer of the duplicate transactions.
• It can be useful in the detection of process errors or in training requirements.

Step 3: Restore a Clean Backup

When you are not able to fix the problem or when your data is seriously corrupted, then it is possibly better to have a backup done before the appearance of the duplicates.

Step 4: Contact Sage Support or a Consultant

If you have any doubts or need to reconcile complex transactions, contact a Sage-certified consultant. They can correct the problems with sophisticated data tools without risk.

Key Takeaways

• Manual entry errors, or importing bank feeds twice or more times, are the common cause of duplicates.
• Do not always delete duplicates before being sure that they are duplicates.
• Always make changes to your company data in advance.
• Be sure to remove any duplicated data that has been reconciled.
• To avoid problems in the future, it is recommended to reconcile on a regular basis and use distinct transaction references.

Conclusion

It is important to remember to keep your Sage 50 bank records updated and accurate to ensure sound accounting and financial reporting. Duplicates may lead to confusion, wrong balances, and loss of time in the reconciliation process, but can be easily corrected once you know the reason. It is possible to keep your books clean and accurate by a combination of the steps in this guide, reviewing your information, deleting or reversing duplicates, re-reconciling, and having good data habits.

When you regularly check and make sure to import, you will safely eliminate the duplicate bank entries within account reconciliation in Sage 50 every time they come in, and continue running your business finances.

Frequently Asked Questions