Month end with Lead Bank means one question: do the books reproduce the bank's record to the cent? Here is the reconciliation workflow that answers it, and the short list of reasons it sometimes answers no.
A Lead Bank deposit statement typically lists activity in date order with a running balance, opening at the prior period's closing balance. From its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, Lead Bank issues statements per account and per period through online banking.
Think of the statement as self-auditing. It opens at one balance, lists everything that moved, and closes at another — and if the list is complete and correctly read, the numbers cannot help but agree. Reconciliation is checking that they do, before the data is trusted downstream. Done at conversion time, the check has a practical shape: the file either reproduces the statement's balances or it is flagged with the exact rows where the walk breaks. The methodology page documents the method.
These are the general steps most banks follow for statement downloads; exact menu labels vary by bank and change over time.
A Lead Bank statement repays thirty seconds of orientation before any numbers move. Locate the balance pair the month is anchored to — opening and closing on deposit accounts, Previous and New on cards — and scan the transaction list for the period's biggest items, since a reconciliation difference is most often one of them. Note any section subtotals the layout prints; each one is a free checkpoint the converter's running-balance walk also uses. Pull the PDF from Statements and Documents in Lead Bank online banking (website and app) so you are always working from the issued document, not a re-export.
Most relationships reconcile as a set, not as islands: payments leave the deposit account and land on the card statement, transfers move between accounts, and each leg appears on two statements. Reconcile the deposit account first, then the card, and expect the cross-account transactions to explain each other's odd rows. A difference that survives both reconciliations, in equal and opposite amounts, is almost always a transfer recorded on one side only.
Work the flagged rows first — the check marks exactly where the arithmetic breaks. The causes section on this page lists the usual suspects in order of likelihood.
A cheque written but not yet cleared, or a deposit recorded but not yet at the bank, makes honest books differ from the statement by exactly those items. They are listed, carried forward, and expected to clear next month — they are not errors.
The statement PDF, the converted file, and the reconciliation result for that month, filed together. That trio lets anyone re-perform the month later without asking you anything.
Yes, with lower stakes and the same shape: opening balance, interest and any transfers, closing balance. Savings accounts statement monthly at most banks; CDs often statement quarterly or at term events. Prove each document that exists, and let the chain check span the quiet periods.
When an account changes product, banks sometimes issue a short final statement for the old product and a first statement for the new one. Convert and prove both; the old one's closing balance should equal the new one's opening balance, and that handover is the seam to verify before anything else.
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Your first conversion is free — no card, no sign-up — and every result is checked against the statement itself before you download it.