Meaning & use
reconciliation statement
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A financial document that shows why two sets of figures that should match are different, and explains each difference.
Grammar: Countable: say 'a reconciliation statement' or 'two reconciliation statements'.
Patterns
- a reconciliation statement for something
- prepare a reconciliation statement
- a bank reconciliation statement
The accountant prepared a reconciliation statement to show why the bank balance and the company's records did not agree.
Please attach a reconciliation statement for the petty cash account before the audit.
Investors asked for a reconciliation statement explaining the gap between reported profit and cash flow.
nouncountableformal
A short written or spoken account that shows how two apparently conflicting views, reports, or sets of numbers can be made to agree.
Grammar: Countable and often followed by 'between': a reconciliation statement between the two reports.
Patterns
- a reconciliation statement between two things
- issue a reconciliation statement
The two departments issued a joint reconciliation statement showing where their cost estimates differed.
Her report reads like a reconciliation statement between the official figures and what staff actually observed.
Word forms
| plural | reconciliation statements |
|---|
Common combinations
- prepare a reconciliation statement
- The finance team prepares a reconciliation statement at the end of every month.
- bank reconciliation statement
- The bank reconciliation statement proved that the missing payment had cleared.
- reconciliation statement for an account
- He signed off on the reconciliation statement for the supplier account.
- monthly reconciliation statement
- A monthly reconciliation statement keeps small errors from growing.
- reconciliation statement showing the difference
- The auditors wanted a reconciliation statement showing the difference in full.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reconciliation
- A shorter, more general word for the process or the document; use it in speech, and the full phrase in formal reports.
- statement of account
- This lists transactions and balances but does not necessarily explain why two figures disagree, which is the point of a reconciliation statement.
- breakdown
- A breakdown lists the parts of one total; a reconciliation statement compares two totals and explains the gap between them.
Word family
- reconcile verb
- to make two sets of figures or two accounts agree
- reconciliation noun
- the act or result of making figures, accounts, or views agree
- reconcilable adjective
- able to be made to agree
- reconciler noun
- a person or tool that makes accounts agree
Commonly confused: reconciliation statement or reconciliation? reconciliation statement or balance sheet?
reconciliation statement vs reconciliation
The short noun names the process or result; the full phrase 'reconciliation statement' names the actual document you hand to someone.
reconciliation statement vs balance sheet
A balance sheet shows assets, liabilities, and equity at one date; a reconciliation statement explains why two sets of numbers differ.
Practice
The auditors asked the company to ______ explaining the difference between its reported profit and its cash balance.
Choose one answer.
'To' needs a noun phrase here, so the countable noun phrase 'reconciliation statement' fits: they asked for a document. 'Reconcile' is a verb and cannot follow 'to' in this slot, and 'reconciled' and 'reconciling' are verb forms, not the document itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “reconciliation statement”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.