Your Bank Reconciliation Agent Chases Every Stale Outstanding Check
The AgentWorks Bank Reconciliation Agent takes the monthly bank rec off the bookkeepers who carry it for your client businesses, starting with the part everyone puts off: following up on the items that will not clear. It asks clients about stale outstanding checks, confirms deposits in transit, matches cleared transactions and produces a discrepancy report that names the exact transactions behind any difference, so your bookkeepers spend the close talking with clients instead of tracing line items.
What it takes off your plate
Ask any bookkeeper which task they dread each month and bank recs come first. Outstanding checks linger on the rec for months because nobody asks the client whether the vendor ever received them, whether they were voided or whether they need to be reissued. Deposits in transit get matched to the wrong period, so one month is overstated and the next is short.
When the rec does not tie, the difference turns into detective work: scrolling back through weeks of activity, comparing the bank statement to the ledger one line at a time, emailing the client about a split deposit and waiting. The close slips, financial statements go out late, and the bookkeeper who should be answering a client's question about cash flow is instead hunting for a transposed amount. Across a full client list, that is days of work every month that nobody sees.
What the Bank Reconciliation Agent does, step by step
The Bank Reconciliation Agent starts with the questions that keep a rec from closing.
- Asks the client about stale checks. For each outstanding check past the age your firm sets, the agent emails the client's contact with the payee, date and amount and asks whether it was received, voided or should be reissued. It follows up until it has an answer.
- Confirms deposits in transit. When a deposit recorded near month-end has not cleared, the agent asks the client when it was made and checks the next statement for it, so it lands in the right period.
- Tells the bookkeeper what is still open. The bookkeeper gets a short note per client: what cleared, what the client answered and what still needs a decision.
- Matches cleared transactions. In QuickBooks or Xero, the agent matches the bank feed and the statement to ledger entries, including split deposits and payments that post under different vendor names.
- Identifies timing issues. Deposits in transit and outstanding items are sorted by period, with anything posted to the wrong month flagged.
- Produces the discrepancy report. When the rec does not tie, the report lists the exact transactions causing the difference, with the statement line and the ledger entry side by side.
Voiding a check, writing off an old item or posting an adjusting entry stays with your bookkeeper and the client. The agent does the matching and the asking; people approve the entries.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. The Bank Reconciliation Agent writes its work where your team already looks.
In the CRM, each client business has a record of every question about a check or a deposit, every answer and every open item. When the client calls, whoever picks up sees the thread and continues from the last reply. Statements the client sends in land where the Document Agent keeps client files, not in someone's inbox.
In the ledger, the rec is saved with its matched items, the outstanding list with the client's answer beside each check, and the discrepancy report attached. The next morning a bookkeeper opens the client and sees a rec that ties or a short list of exactly what does not. Clean books through the year also make the Tax Document Collection Agent's job in busy season far lighter.
What your people do instead
Your bookkeepers stay with the client businesses they serve: walking an owner through the monthly financials, explaining why cash is tight when sales are up, answering the question that comes up on a call. They review a finished rec instead of building one.
Your managers deliver statements on schedule and spend review time on the items that need judgment. Client service and client satisfaction are the human job. The AgentWorks Bank Reconciliation Agent keeps the follow-ups, the matching and the discrepancy reports moving around them.
Find out where to start
Bank reconciliation is one workflow; your firm may have a louder one, like payables or tax intake. The free Industry Assessment for accounting firms shows which workflow an agent should take first, and the accounting industry page walks through the agents built for CPA and bookkeeping practices.
See where the Bank Reconciliation Agent would start in your accounting business.
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