openerp-community team mailing list archive

[Phil Frost <indigo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 01/18/2013 10:36 PM, Fabrice Henrion wrote:
> In my opinion, we need to solve the following issues to have a working bank
> statement reconciliation flow:
> - introduce the concept of deposit ticket (with account_deposit).
> - have only one view for the bank statements reconciliation that allows to
> import open customer invoices, posted payments, or posted deposit tickets.
> This view will allow to compare the starting and ending balances.
> - probably improve the matching algorithm between the csv downloaded from
> the bank website and the records in OpenERP (based on amounts comparison and
> string distance).
> - reuse the conflict management mechanisms of the interactive reconciliation
> of the banking-addons (fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ5YYBJOeHM  ).
> - change the terms to make them more meaningful according to en_US
> practices.

Why so complicated? The "things" that are reconciled against a bank 
statement aren't invoices, deposit tickets, etc. They are simply the 
debits and credits to the account, and OpenERP already has those.

One simply needs a dialog where one selects an account and enters a 
statement date and closing balance. The opening balance must be the sum 
of all credits and debits that have been previously reconciled through 
this mechanism. The user is then presented with a list of unreconciled 
debits and credits, and checks them off until adding or subtracting them 
to the sum makes the new balance equal to the closing balance, and the 
total debits and total credits equal to those two numbers on the 
statement. The reconciliation is then confirmed, and now all of these 
debits and credits that were checked are marked as reconciled. Some 
automated matching algorithm is useful, but by no means necessary. A 
great many (most, perhaps) companies reconcile from paper statements, 
around here.

The important point here is that there is _no other way_ than a bank 
statement reconciliation to set this flag on a credit or debit. Also, 
_accounts_ are reconciled, not journals, and _any_ account may be 
reconciled. It makes the most sense for credit cards and checking 
accounts, but there are times it is useful for even income and expense 
accounts.

It's typical for this statement reconciliation dialog to offer, in a 
small number of clicks, to create a new accounting record for amounts 
discovered on the statement that were not present in the company's 
records. So if I discover a deposit of $10, I can apply it to an 
invoice, or credit an interest income account. This seems to me to be a 
superset of the functionality offered by "Bank Statements" in 7.0.

Lastly, this doesn't replace the already present reconciliation of 
payments and invoices. There seems to be an understanding on this list 
that "reconciliation" means only that. I don't know if it's OpenERP 
terminology, or differing accounting jargon in other countries, or a 
translation of non-english terms that is causing the confusion here, but 
"to reconcile" has a broad meaning that doesn't apply to just one thing:

rec·on·cile
Verb
1. Restore friendly relations between: "she wanted to be reconciled with 
her father".
2. Cause to coexist in harmony; make or show to be compatible.

An accountant in the US will probably think of reconciling accounts to 
statements first, but would also understand reconciling payments to 
invoices. The two are not mutually exclusive: they are reconciling two 
entirely different things. I don't find the existing terminology 
confusing, but this missing functionality is a pretty big deal.