GL reconciliation for dental practices and groups
GL reconciliation, short for general ledger reconciliation, is checking each account in the accounting books against the records behind it. For a dental practice’s payments, it means proving the books agree with the bank and with the payments posted in the practice management system: every insurance and patient deposit is booked once, at the amount the bank shows, by location, with card fees and recoupments on their own lines.
Also calledGeneral ledger reconciliationGL recReconciling the books
By Dr. Maya Arnaout, DDS, VP of RevenuePublished 5 min read
What is the general ledger in a dental practice?
The general ledger is the practice’s set of accounting books: every account, such as the bank account, revenue and card fees, and every entry made to it. It lives in an accounting system such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage Intacct or Xero, kept by a bookkeeper or accountant, apart from the practice management system where payments are posted to patients.
GL reconciliation checks that the books tell the same story as the bank statement and the practice system for the same days.
What should the books show for each deposit?
One entry per bank deposit, at the amount the bank shows, booked to the location it belongs to. Fees and recoupments go on their own lines, so collections stay true to what the payer and the patient paid.
| Deposit | Book it as | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance EFT | One entry at the amount the bank shows, to the location it pays | A recoupment taken out of the deposit, on its own line |
| Insurance check | One entry per bank deposit, even when it holds several checks | A check posted in the PMS but never deposited |
| Virtual card | The full payment, with the card fee on its own line as an expense | Booking only the net, which hides the fee |
| Patient card payout | The full payments, with processing fees on their own line | One payout that covers many patients and days |
How do you reconcile the general ledger?
- Start from the bank: every credit that landed, with its date, amount, payer name and trace or check number.
- Match each deposit to what explains it: an EFT to its ERA by trace number, a check to its EOB, a card payout to the payments inside it.
- Confirm every claim and patient payment on that deposit was posted in the practice management system, to the right patient and location.
- Book one entry per deposit, with fees and recoupments on their own lines and revenue by location.
- Name every difference, with an owner and a date. Hold money nobody can identify as an unidentified credit until someone names the sender; never spread it across patients.
The QuickBooks guide walks through each step, with a checklist for the close.
How is GL reconciliation different from bank reconciliation?
Bank reconciliation checks that the bank account in the books agrees with the bank statement, and for a dental practice that every payment reached the bank and was posted. GL reconciliation is broader: checking each account in the books against the records behind it. For payments, that means the deposit, receivable (or revenue, on cash-basis books) and fee accounts agree with the bank and the practice system, by location. The two share the same matching work, and most practices need both.
When the payer’s remittance, the PMS posting, the bank deposit and the books entry all agree, that is four-way reconciliation.
What changes for a group with several locations?
Each location keeps its own bank accounts and its own place in the books, so every deposit has to be booked to the location it belongs to. A deposit that lands in another location’s account is flagged and moved, not left to net out. Groups with separate legal entities also book what one entity owes another: see due to and due from.
How ScoutIQ handles it
ScoutIQ matches each deposit and books the entry, with card and virtual card fees and recoupments, in QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, NetSuite or Sage Intacct, each to its own location, so the general ledger agrees with the bank. With Xero, ScoutIQ reads the books and reconciles against them, and never books entries there. Only exact and strong matches count as reconciled; anything looser goes to a person.
Insurance Billing Automation
ERAs and EOBs read; EFT, check and card payments reconciled.
See Insurance Billing Automation