A recent audit of the Dakota College at Bottineau has found that monthly bank reconciliations are not being completed correctly and timely. Cash balances in the accounting records should match the cash balances reported by the bank. The reason why this is important is that it reduces the risk of financial errors and fraud, or incorrect decision-making from those inaccurate cash balances.
The amount of unsupported reconciling items identified by the team ranged from $74,796 to $362,865 in a sample of four months of the 24-month audit period. Unsupported reconciling items are transactions or balances that lack proper documentation. Without adequate support, these items could be plug figures, increasing the risk that the difference between bank balances and book balances is larger than reported on the reconciliations.
The unreconciled difference, which is a gap between the financial ledger and bank balances after all reconciling items are accounted for was between negative $357,367 and positive $815,897. The audit period looked at July 1, 2022, until June 30, 2024. It is recommended that the College perform monthly bank reconciliations to a zero-dollar difference for all accounts moving forward.
To read the full report, visit: https://bit.ly/DCBottineau