An important internal control for cash is the reconciliation of the cash general ledger account to the bank statement on a regular basis.

In this lab, you will prepare the bank reconciliation. The outline is given to you in the Excel spreadsheet. You will have to fill in the missing numbers.

Step $1$: We need to analyze items that are in the G$/$L transactions list but are not in the Bank Statement transaction list. What could these items be$?$

Step $2$: $($Vice$-$versa, too$)$ We need to also analyze items that are in the Bank Statement but not in the G$/$L transactions. What could those items be$?$

Hint: There are many ways to do this including COUNTIF and MATCH. Try using one or both. You can do them in columns C and G$.$

Answer the following questions:

$1.$ Does $$Interest Earned$$ in the Bank Statement column need to be reconciled? Why?

$2.$ What kind of reconciling item is the amount in B$18?$ Why?

$3.$ What kind of reconciling item is the amount in F$34?$ Why?

$4.$ Why do a bank reconciliation at all?

$5.$ What is the reconciling balance?