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How does bank reconciliation work in ClearBooks?
Reconciliation follows the same steps as a paper statement reconciliation, against a bank or credit card account in ClearBooks:
- Start a session with the statement period and its opening and ending balances.
- Import the statement as a CSV from your bank. Each line is stored as a bank statement line for that session.
- Auto-match. ClearBooks pairs each statement line with a transaction in the books when the signed amount agrees to the cent and the dates are within seven days, closest date first. A withdrawal never pairs with a deposit, and re-running only claims lines that are still unmatched.
- Clear the rest by hand. Tick off the remaining transactions until the difference is zero.
- Finish. A reconciliation can only be finished when the difference is zero.
Every finished reconciliation has a report showing cleared deposits and credits, cleared withdrawals and debits, deposits in transit and outstanding withdrawals. Past reconciliations stay in the history, and a finished one can be undone if a correction is needed. Accounts that are not connected through a bank feed, such as a card, a Venmo balance or petty cash, can be created manually and reconciled the same way.
For connecting bank feeds in the first place, see bank connections.
How do period locks work?
Closing a period in ClearBooks stops anything from being posted, edited or deleted with a date inside it. There are two levels:
| Lock | Who can still post |
|---|---|
| Soft close | Only people you name on the Overrides tab, optionally until an expiry date. Every post they make is recorded as an exception. |
| Hard close | Nobody, including owners, the REST API and the AI agent. Overrides do not apply. |
The lock is enforced by database triggers on transactions, journal entries, invoices and bills, not just by the app's screens. So an import, an API call or an AI agent cannot slip a change into a closed month.
Reopening a period requires a written reason, and the person, the time and the reason are recorded on the period permanently. The Exceptions tab lists each post made into a soft-closed period, with who made it, the operation, the record, its effective date and the period it fell in.
Journal entries, general ledger and trial balance
ClearBooks is double-entry underneath, even though most activity arrives as bank transactions.
- Journal entries. Record general, adjusting, closing, reversing and opening balance entries. An entry cannot be posted unless debits equal credits. Posted entries can be reversed from the entry itself, and you can export them in QuickBooks IIF, Xero manual journal CSV or generic CSV format.
- Bank transactions are posted double-entry. Each categorized bank transaction is posted against its bank account's ledger account, so the trial balance balances without a separate journal for every expense. Transactions that are uncategorized, or that sit on a bank account with no ledger account mapped, go to clearly labeled suspense accounts instead of being dropped, and each suspense line tells you what to fix.
- General ledger. View every account or a single account over any date range, with running balances, and export to CSV or print. This is the report a tax preparer usually asks for first.
- Trial balance. Debits and credits per account as of any date, with a check that the totals agree and CSV export.
- Fixed assets. A fixed asset register calculates depreciation and posts monthly depreciation journal entries through the date you choose, skipping months already posted. The same register feeds the tax return.
What does the audit log record?
The audit log brings together three sources: system audit events, organization activity, and permission changes. Each row shows the time, the user, the action, the resource and record, and the IP address where available, with previous and new values for changes.
You can filter by date range, user, action, resource type and source, and export the entire log to CSV. There is no display cap: the export contains the whole history, not a printable slice. Together with the reasons recorded on reopened periods and the soft-close exceptions list, a reviewer can see what changed after the books were closed.
Closing the month with the AI agent
Each step above is also available to the in-app AI bookkeeper and to outside agents through the MCP server and REST API: list unreconciled transactions, start a reconciliation, auto-match, clear items, check the remaining difference, post a balanced journal entry, pull the trial balance, list suspense items, and close or reopen a period. Agents work under the same locks. A hard-closed period refuses their postings just as it refuses yours, and before posting an agent can check whether a date falls in a closed period.
Limits and who it is for
A few honest limits: bank statements are imported as CSV files, and auto-match pairs only exact amounts within a seven-day window, so a bank fee netted against a deposit has to be split or cleared by hand. There is no built-in month-end checklist or task assignment. ClearBooks records the locks, exceptions and history, and your close process decides the order.
It suits startups and small businesses that want reconciled, locked books before handing them to a CPA, and bookkeepers who need a record of who changed what after a period closed. Compare the approach with QuickBooks, Xero or Pilot.
Frequently asked questions
How does ClearBooks auto-match bank statement lines?
It pairs an imported statement line with a book transaction when the signed amount agrees to within one cent and the dates are no more than seven days apart, choosing the closest date first. Deposits never pair with withdrawals, and re-running only claims lines that are not already matched.
What is the difference between a soft close and a hard close?
A soft-closed period still accepts postings from specific people you grant an override to, and each of their posts is recorded as an exception. A hard-closed period accepts no postings from anyone, including owners, the API and the AI agent, until it is reopened with a recorded reason.
Can the API or an AI agent change a closed period?
No. Period locks are enforced by database triggers on transactions, journal entries, invoices and bills, so the REST API, the MCP server and the AI agent are blocked the same way as the app.
Can I export journal entries to QuickBooks or Xero?
Yes. Journal entries can be exported as a QuickBooks IIF file, a Xero manual journal CSV, or a generic CSV.
Why does my trial balance show zz- accounts?
Those are suspense accounts. They hold bank transactions that are uncategorized or that sit on a bank account with no ledger account mapped, so the trial balance still balances. Each suspense line names the data to fix.