Reconciliation
How to do a bank reconciliation in Nigeria, step by step
To do a bank reconciliation, check the statement is complete, bring forward last month's open items, match receipts and payments, list what is only in the bank and only in the books, post the adjustments, and prove the difference is nil. Then someone other than the preparer reviews and signs.
It also takes time: APQC benchmarks reported by CFO.com (6 May 2026, republished on Yahoo Finance) put the median at 4 hours per bank account.
What you need
- The bank statement for every day of the month.
- The cash book (bank ledger account) for the same period.
- Last month's signed reconciliation and its open items.
- The cheque register, if you still issue cheques.
Step by step
- Check the statement is complete. The opening balance should equal last month's closing balance, and opening plus credits minus debits should equal the closing balance. If not, get a proper copy before going further.
- Bring forward last month's open items. Tick off those that have now cleared. Carry the rest forward with their original dates.
- Match receipts. Match each credit by reference, amount and date. For NIP transfers, use the session ID: it is unique to each transfer, while narrations are often cut short. Watch for one payment covering several invoices.
- Match payments. Cheques by number, transfers by session ID or reference. Matching by amount alone is risky when you pay several suppliers the same sum.
- List bank-only items. Bank charges, stamp duty, SMS alerts, maintenance fees, interest, direct debits, reversals and unidentified credits.
- List book-only items. Unpresented cheques, deposits not yet credited, and transfers between your own accounts that crossed month-end.
- Post the adjustments. Book charges, interest and genuine receipts. Put unidentified credits in suspense with an owner, never in income.
- Prepare the reconciliation statement and prove the difference is nil.
- Review and sign off, then lock the period.
Nigerian items that cause most differences
- Stamp duty. From 1 January 2026, the ₦50 EMTL was replaced by a ₦50 stamp duty paid by the sender on transfers of ₦10,000 and above, according to Nairametrics and PwC Tax Summaries (checked November 2026). Confirm the rules that apply to you with your tax adviser. More in bank charges, stamp duty and the transfer levy.
- NIP transfers. Narrations differ between banks; the session ID is the dependable key.
- Reversals. A failed transfer shows as a debit and a matching credit, sometimes days apart. Match them as a pair.
- Uncleared cheques. They stay on the reconciliation until presented. Old ones need a decision: confirm with the payee, cancel or reissue.
A worked reconciliation statement
Example figures: a distribution company, operating current account, 31 October 2026.
From the bank statement
| ₦ | |
|---|---|
| Balance per bank statement | 8,452,300 |
| Add: deposit in transit (lodged 31 October, credited 1 November) | 640,000 |
| Less: unpresented cheque 004512 | (250,000) |
| Less: unpresented cheque 004519 | (135,000) |
| Adjusted bank balance | 8,707,300 |
From the cash book
| ₦ | |
|---|---|
| Balance per cash book before adjustments | 8,840,750 |
| Less: stamp duty, 38 transfers at ₦50 | (1,900) |
| Less: transfer fees not booked | (5,400) |
| Less: SMS alert charges | (2,400) |
| Less: account maintenance fee | (3,750) |
| Less: customer cheque returned unpaid | (150,000) |
| Add: customer transfer received, not yet booked (to suspense) | 30,000 |
| Adjusted cash book balance | 8,707,300 |
Difference: nil. The ₦13,450 of charges goes in one journal. The returned cheque goes back to the customer's account. The ₦30,000 sits in suspense until someone confirms who paid.
Common mistakes
- Plugging the difference to "sundry" or "bank charges". It hides errors and, sometimes, fraud.
- Matching by amount only. Two ₦50,000 payments to different suppliers are not interchangeable.
- Reconciling the balance, not the transactions. Two errors can cancel out.
- The preparer approving their own work.
What the reviewer checks
- The statement passed the completeness check in step 1.
- Every reconciling item has a date, amount, reason and owner.
- Items older than your limit (for example 30 or 60 days) have been escalated.
- Adjustments have actually been posted in the ledger.
- The preparer and reviewer are different people, and both have signed and dated it.
How Brillrec helps
Brillrec is the finance operations platform for Nigerian businesses, with three products: Reconciliation, Internal Control Automation and Financial Close Management.
- Statements in the bank's own layout. Reconciliation reads PDF, Excel and CSV statements from any Nigerian bank, including password-protected PDFs, and remembers the layout. The running balance is checked line by line and the opening balance against last period's closing, which is step 1 done for you. On Essential and above, bank feeds come through Mono and statements can be emailed in.
- Statement late, or lines added later. If the cash book is ready but the statement isn't, save the reconciliation and finish it when the statement arrives. Backdated lines come in from an updated export or a reload from the connection; only new lines are added, after a preview.
- Your cycle. Each account can be reconciled daily (Essential and above), weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- Matching. Exact matches are always automatic. Brillrec matches by reference, NIP session ID, amount and date, handles split and grouped payments, applies your own rules and learns from what your team confirms. You choose how cautious it is: Cautious, Balanced or Hands-off.
- Charges in one step. Bank charges, stamp duty, EMTL and NIP charges are found, explained and sent to the journal export.
- Open items that chase themselves. They carry forward with their history. Each gets an owner and a due date by kind (7 days for a missing settlement, 30 for an uncleared deposit, 180 for an unpresented cheque, 60 otherwise); owners get a weekly overdue email, and anything still open past its date is escalated once to the reviewer.
- Sign-off. Preparer, optional approver, then reviewer. Sign-off can require a reviewer who is not the preparer, and segregation of duties is checked. Sign-off locks the reconciliation; reopening needs a reason and is logged. The PDF sign-off pack holds the statement, explanations and source files.
- Your ledger. QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, Sage Accounting, Xero and Business Central connect directly, Odoo connects read-only, and Excel and CSV exports are read too. See integrations.
- AI help, if you want it. With AI on, Brillrec can investigate one open line (its code finds the candidates, the AI summarises them) and draft the commentary and sign-off memo for a person to edit. AI is optional: an admin can switch it off, it never signs off or approves, and every use is logged.
- Close and controls. The signed reconciliation completes its Financial Close Management task and shows its control as operating in Internal Control Automation.
Reported by clients: 99% of clients' bank and ledger lines matched automatically in a month, and 70% less month-end close time. Results depend on your records and how your team works. See client results.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a business reconcile its bank account?
At least monthly. Businesses taking many transfers or card payments benefit from reconciling daily.
How do I treat uncleared cheques?
Deduct them from the bank statement balance until they are presented. Review old ones and decide whether to cancel, reissue or confirm them with the payee.
Who should sign off a bank reconciliation?
Someone other than the preparer, usually the financial controller, after the checks above.
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