Balance Reporting

What Is Balance Reporting?

Balance reporting is a report by a bank to a customer, normally a company or organization, informing the customer of the balances in their accounts. Individual consumers can also request balance reports, but balance reports for corporate and organizational customers are typically much more complex.

These real-time reports are vital to the customer's cash-management program, especially for companies with far-flung operations and banking relationships in many countries and time zones, because they allow companies to see exactly how much money is in all of their accounts at the time the report is created. It may take time for balances to change, such as with 401(k) reporting.

How Balance Reporting Works

Balance reporting used to be done on a daily basis, but now companies can often access their current account information at any time. Customers can also now export the data for queries in other applications.

Online banking has become ubiquitous in the business world, and companies can now access balance reports through their online banking portals. Businesses need to monitor cash inflows and outflows closely in order to maintain good accounting practices and meet expenses, and the larger the business, the more complicated this task can become. The largest multinational companies conduct transactions around the clock in every time zone. Balance reporting helps companies track their performance, as well as keep enough cash on hand to pay employees and cover expenses.

Balance Reporting Products and Features

Individual consumers can obtain balance reports via phone or text, as well as through online banking portals and monthly account statements. Banks typically offer a more complex range of balance reporting products to businesses and other organizations. Some balance reporting features of business and organizational bank accounts include:

• Real-time pending transaction reporting
• The ability to search for and isolate specific transactions in a report
• Front and back images of deposit tickets and canceled checks
• The ability to download balance reports in PDF or other file formats, such as Excel

Balance reporting may also allow customers to archive, print, fax, email, or electronically store check images. Banks may also help automate end-of-the-month accounting by offering some reconciliation services, which can produce a matched-list report of written checks and cleared checks, or a report of paid items that have cleared the account during the period in question. This can protect the business from fraudulent banking activity, make account reconciliations more accurate, and save the business time and money on account reconciliations at the end of the month.