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Reconciliation Hub
The Reconciliation Hub is the accountant's account-by-account view of whether a client's balance sheet is supported for a period. It brings the ledger, supporting evidence, reconciling items, review status, and close impact into one place.
Availability
Account reconciliation is enabled by workspace and client configuration. If the page says it is not enabled, nothing is wrong with the client. Ask your Kraal administrator or support contact about availability.
Use it to answer four questions:
- Which material accounts are covered?
- Does the supporting balance explain the ledger balance?
- What evidence, exception, or signoff is still outstanding?
- What is the next action, and who owns it?
Open the Hub
Open Accounting → Reconciliation Hub, then select the client, entity, and period end in the accounting header.
The scope chips under the title repeat the client, entity, and period. Check them before reviewing or signing anything, especially when you work several clients in separate tabs.
If you can view the page but cannot take a preparation or review action, your role does not include that action for the selected client. Ask a firm administrator if your assignment is incorrect.
Reconciliation Hub versus Bank Reconciliation
The two views work together, but they answer different questions:
- Bank Reconciliation is the transaction-level worksheet for tying a bank statement to the cash ledger and clearing individual bank transactions.
- Reconciliation Hub is the period-level coverage view across the material accounts, control accounts, manual certifications, and supported schedules configured for the client. It carries evidence, exceptions, signoffs, and the close gate. A subject whose method is not available stays visibly pending or unresolved rather than being treated as complete.
A cash subject may link from the Hub into its Bank Reconciliation worksheet. Finish the transaction work there, then return to the Hub and refresh the run.
Read the monthly workload summary
When monthly coordination is configured, the strip above the coverage panel groups cycles as Not started, Running, Waiting on client, Waiting on firm, Overdue, Blocked, Complete, or Error.
Use it to decide where the team should work next. It is a workload summary, not a reconciliation conclusion: open each relevant subject before relying on its evidence, review status, or close gate.
Start with balance-sheet coverage
The Balance-sheet coverage panel checks that every material subject is one of the following:
- covered by a current reconciliation;
- supported by a current manual certification; or
- explicitly shown as unresolved.
Pay attention to these labels:
| Label | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Unbound · material | A material account has no reconciliation method yet. | Ask the person responsible for client setup to configure or confirm the subject. |
| Automated · missing run | The account is configured, but no current-period run exists. | Start the run. |
| Stale | The source or ledger changed after the current run. | Rerun before signing. |
| Manual certification · current | A person documented the method, evidence, and conclusion for a subject that is not automated. | Review the certification like any other workpaper. |
| Binding suggested / needs review | Kraal found a likely reconciliation method, but a person has not confirmed it. | Review the subject and confirm only when the mapping is correct. |
| Profile unavailable / unsupported | Kraal cannot complete or verify the configured method in this workflow. | Keep the limitation visible and use only the firm's approved alternative treatment. |
If the panel says balances are unavailable or withheld, treat that as unknown coverage—not a zero balance and not an all-clear.
Read a coverage row
Each subject row shows the current accounting equation and its workflow state:
| Column | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Subject | The account or schedule being reconciled. Required for close means it can block the period. |
| Profile | The reconciliation method used for the subject. |
| Evidence | Whether required support is complete, missing, stale, or not yet verified. |
| Ledger balance | The balance in the books for the selected period and scope. |
| Supporting balance | The balance supported by the statement, subledger, or schedule. |
| Reconciling items | Explained timing or other reconciling items between support and ledger. |
| Unexplained difference | The amount that remains unsupported after reconciling items. Investigate any non-zero amount. |
| Open blockers | Material items that prevent completion. |
| Review | Whether the run is unprepared, prepared, in review, returned, or approved. |
| Conclusion | Open, reconciled, reconciled with timing items, stale, or superseded. |
| Close gate | Whether this subject passes, warns, or blocks the close. |
| Next action | The single current step and its owner. |
An em dash means Kraal does not have a value to report. It does not mean zero.
Statuses that need special care
- Reconciled with timing items means the difference is explained by identified timing items, not that follow-up is finished. Review expected clear dates and investigate overdue items.
- Stale means the ledger or support changed after the run. Rerun before relying on it.
- Superseded means a newer run controls the period.
- Unsupported evidence means Kraal cannot verify that evidence type in this workflow. It is not the same as complete evidence.
- A Warn close gate requires judgment and a documented disposition. A Block must be cleared before close.
A zero unexplained difference does not replace evidence review, exception resolution, or required signoffs.
Work a reconciliation run
Click a subject to open its run detail.
- Recheck the client, entity, period, and as-of date.
- Read the equation: ledger balance, supporting balance, reconciling items, and unexplained difference.
- Review the evidence status and any blocking reasons.
- Inspect timing items, exceptions, adjustment proposals, and manual assertions.
- Follow the displayed Next action.
- When preparation is complete, sign as preparer and add a concise comment when judgment was involved.
- The reviewer either approves or returns the run for revision.
- Confirm the workpaper still matches the signed copy before relying on the signoff.
If a source changes after signoff, the run becomes stale. Rerun it and repeat the affected signoff; a prior signature does not approve changed evidence.
Client requests and evidence review
When a required statement, answer, or approval is missing, the next action may offer Send request. Add only the context the client needs, then send it to the appropriate portal contact.
Request states distinguish delivery from accounting acceptance:
- Sent to client / Delivered — the client still owes the response.
- Awaiting your review — something arrived, but the firm has not accepted it as evidence.
- Accepted — a person reviewed the response and accepted it for the run.
- Replacement requested — the prior response did not satisfy the request; the client owes a corrected response.
- Delivery failed — the client was not successfully reached; repair the delivery before treating the item as client-owned work.
Sent to client or Delivered does not prove that a notification reached the recipient's inbox or was opened. If the client reports that nothing arrived, confirm the assigned contact, review Delivery issues, and resend through the normal request workflow.
Arrival is not acceptance. A file in the workspace, or an answer in the portal, can still leave the reconciliation and close blocked until a reviewer accepts it.
Manual certification is also not a shortcut around missing support. It should state the evidence reviewed, the method used, the conclusion reached, and any limitation or follow-up.
Resolve exceptions honestly
Not every exception should be disposed of with a status choice.
The source or calculation is wrong
When an exception came from missing, stale, mismatched, or failed source data, fix the underlying statement, mapping, schedule, or other input and rerun the reconciliation. Kraal does not offer a disposition that would merely rename a calculation problem without repairing it.
A person raised a review exception
When an exception represents a genuine human review judgment, the detail may offer an allowed disposition. Review the evidence, choose only from the outcomes Kraal presents, and document the reason. Do not infer a status from the exception's title or reason alone.
The run was already approved
An approved run is no longer open for ordinary item changes. If a material exception is discovered after approval, return or reopen the run for revision, correct the issue, rerun as needed, and obtain fresh preparer and reviewer signoffs. The previous approval remains in history but does not approve the revised evidence.
How Kraal actions behave
Kraal may offer a Do it action for bounded steps such as starting or rerunning a reconciliation or preparing a standard client request. The action appears only when the current record supplies everything needed and your role allows it.
If Do it is absent, follow the named human step or open the run detail. Do not guess an account type, item status, or target outcome to force an action. Approvals, overrides, preparer/reviewer signoffs, reopening, and close locks remain deliberate human decisions.
How reconciliation affects close
A required reconciliation passes its close gate only when its current run, evidence, exceptions, and required signoffs satisfy the period's policy. The Close Sheet links directly back to the exact reconciliation when one is holding the period.
After clearing a reconciliation blocker:
- Refresh the Reconciliation Hub and confirm the row's conclusion and close gate.
- Return to the Close Sheet.
- Confirm the Canonical reconciliations section updated before advancing the close review.
Troubleshooting
- No accounts are bound — the client has no confirmed reconciliation subjects yet. Ask the person responsible for client setup to configure them.
- Profile pending — the selected account does not yet have a supported or confirmed reconciliation method.
- The unexplained difference is an em dash — the value is unavailable; refresh or repair the named source instead of treating it as zero.
- The run says stale — the books or supporting evidence changed. Rerun it before signing.
- The client responded but close is still blocked — open the request and complete firm review; received is not the same as accepted.
- The action is visible but unavailable to me — your role may be read-only or a prerequisite may still be blocking. Read the reason shown beside the action.
- A correction is needed after approval — return or reopen the run, then repeat preparation and review on the revised evidence.