Understanding the Reconciliation of Corresponding Accounts

Corresponding accounts, also called contra accounts, are accounts that are used to balance journal entries in the general ledger. The contra account is usually a different account than the account that includes the primary journal entry. However, you can use the same account as you use for the primary entry if you use a positive entry for one journal entry and a negative entry for the corresponding journal entry.

Run the Reconciliation of Corresponding Accounts program to generate a report that produces a summarized or detailed list of amounts in an object account and its contra account. You can use this report to identify discrepancies in the balances of the accounts.

The report that is generated by the Reconciliation of Corresponding Accounts program includes a section that shows the positive amounts and a section that shows the negative amounts. The Turnover 1 field in the report shows the total of the specified object account. The Turnover 2 field in the report shows the total of the contra account. You can compare these amounts to determine whether the accounts balance.

You set processing options to specify the company, account, ledger type, and beginning and end dates for the records that the system reads.