Reconciling simply means telling Joy Pilot what each line on your bank statement was for. Money in is matched to an invoice or a sale; money out is matched to an expense, a tax payment, or money you paid yourself. Once every line is matched, your books agree with your bank — and your reports and tax figures can be trusted.
This guide covers the Bank Reconcile page, for limited companies and for sole traders who have banking turned on.
Before you start: your bank transactions need to be in Joy Pilot. See How to Add a New Bank Account and the bank feed guides in Banking and reconciliation.
Take card payments through Stripe? Your Stripe account comes into Joy Pilot as its own bank feed, and you reconcile it exactly as described here. See Getting Paid by Card — Connecting Stripe to Joy Pilot.
No bank feed, or no separate business bank account? Use Quick reconcile instead — you'll find it under Actions on the Banking page. It has its own guide.
Opening the Bank Reconcile page
Click Accounting in the top menu, then Banking.
Open the bank account you want to work on and choose Bank reconcile.
You'll see one row for each bank transaction that hasn't been matched yet:
Part of the row | What it shows |
Bank Transaction | The date and wording from your bank statement. |
In / Out | The amount that came in or went out. |
The tick | Turns green when what you've ticked on the right adds up exactly to the bank amount. Click it to reconcile the line. Nothing is saved until you do. |
Accounting Transaction | Joy Pilot's suggested matches, each with a tick box — plus |
Three ways to match a line
1. Accept the suggestion
If Joy Pilot has found the right invoice or expense, it's already shown on the row. When there's a single suggestion for the exact amount it's ticked for you and the tick is green — check it's correct and click the tick. If there are several suggestions, tick the box next to the right one first.
2. Find Match
The record already exists in Joy Pilot but wasn't suggested? Click Find Match, search for it, select it and add it to the row. You can filter by type, wording, date and amount.
One payment for several invoices or bills? Select them all. The tick turns green when they add up to the bank amount.
Only part of an invoice was paid? Change Fully paid to Part paid on the row and enter the amount received. For a bill or a tax payment, click the amount and type what was paid. The rest stays outstanding, ready to match to a later bank line.
3. Create New
Nothing to match it to yet? Click + Create New and choose what the money was for. Each option is explained below.
Create New — what each option does
The menu is the same on every line. Options that don't fit the line are greyed out — Invoice and Cash sale are for money coming in, Credit Note is for money going out.
Choose | For | Money |
Invoice | A customer paid you and you want a full invoice on record | In |
Cash sale | A customer simply paid — no invoice was ever sent | In |
Credit Note | You refunded a customer | Out |
Expense | A business cost | Out (or in, for a supplier refund) |
Asset | Equipment you'll keep and use, such as a laptop or a van | Out |
Takings / Drawings | Money you paid to yourself | Out |
Taxes | A payment to, or refund from, the tax office | Out or in |
Other Income | Money in that isn't from a customer, such as bank interest | In |
Other | Anything that isn't income or a cost — a loan, a pension payment, an investment | In or out |
Transfer | Money moved between two of your own bank accounts | In or out |
Invoice
Opens the normal invoice form in a window, with the date and the amount already filled in from the bank line. Choose the customer, check the description and VAT, and click [ Save as final ]. The total has to equal the money received. When the window closes, Joy Pilot reconciles the line for you.
Cash sale
The quickest way to record money from a customer who never had an invoice. Almost everything is filled in: the customer is Cash sales, the date and amount come from the bank line, and the wording comes from the bank reference. Just save — or type over the wording first. If you use Products, your products appear as buttons to click. See Bank reconciliation - Recording a cash sale (no invoice needed).
Credit Note
For money you paid back to a customer. It opens the credit note form with the date and amount filled in. Choose the customer, describe what you refunded and save. If you use Products and the goods came back, leave Return to stock ticked.
Expense
Adds a blue row to the line — nothing opens. It has:
Description — filled in from the bank wording. Change it if you'd like something clearer.
Amount — filled in from the bank line. Click it to change it.
VAT — the VAT included in the total.
Category — what kind of cost it was, e.g. Computer costs. Start typing to search.
Click the tick to create the expense and reconcile the line in one go.
💡 Joy Pilot's AI will often add this row for you, with the category already chosen from how you treated similar payments before. Check it and click the tick.
💡 Have a receipt? You can attach it to the expense afterwards from Business → Expenses.
Asset
Works exactly like Expense — description, amount, VAT and category — but for equipment the business will keep and use for more than a year. Your accountant can tell you where the line falls between an expense and an asset.
Takings / Drawings
For money paid to you (or another owner or director). Limited companies see Takings; sole traders see Drawings. Choose:
Paid to — who received the money, if there's more than one of you.
Income type — for a limited company, whether it was a Dividend, Net salary, an Expense reimbursement or a Director's loan. For a sole trader it's Drawings.
Then click the tick.
⚠️ A taking has to be the only thing on its bank line — it can't be combined with other items.
Taxes
Opens a small window where you describe the tax bill: the tax type (VAT, Corporation tax, Income tax, payroll taxes and so on), the period it's for, the date due, a payment reference and the amount due. Enter a minus amount for a refund. Click [ Create ], and the tax bill appears on the row — then click the tick.
💡 Paying a tax bill in instalments? Click the amount on the row and enter what this payment covered. The rest stays outstanding for the next one.
⚠️ Taxes can only be recorded on bank accounts in your own currency.
Other Income
For money in that didn't come from a customer — bank interest, a dividend you received, a grant. Type a description, check the total, choose the income type and click the tick. There's no VAT on these.
⚠️ Money from a customer is a sale, not other income. Use Invoice or Cash sale, so it shows in your sales figures and your VAT is right.
Other
For money that is neither income nor a cost — a loan received or repaid, a pension payment, an investment, a deposit. Type a description, check the total, and choose the transaction type (the account it belongs to). Then click the tick. If you're not sure which account to choose, ask your accountant — this is the one option where it's worth checking.
Transfer
For money moved between two of your own accounts — from your current account to savings, or a payout from Stripe. There's nothing to type: choose the other bank account (if you have more than two) and click the tick. Joy Pilot records the other side of the transfer on that account for you, ready to match when it appears on that feed.
⚠️ Transfer is greyed out until you have at least two bank accounts in Joy Pilot, and a transfer has to be the only thing on its bank line.
One bank line, several things
Sometimes one payment covers more than one thing — a card payment that was part stationery, part software. Click + Create New again on the same line to add a second row, then click each amount and split the total between them. You can mix new rows with existing records from Find Match.
⚠️ The amounts must agree. The tick only turns green when everything you've ticked adds up exactly to the bank amount. If it won't, hover over it — Joy Pilot tells you the difference.
Helpful extras
Refresh Suggestions — asks Joy Pilot to look again for matches, useful after you've added invoices or expenses elsewhere.
The magnifying glass next to a bank line finds earlier transactions with the same wording, so you can see how you treated it last time.
The pencil next to a bank line lets you tidy up the bank's wording.
Let the AI learn from you — see AI Assisted Bank Reconciliation.
The Actions menu at the top of the page takes you to your bank statement, lets you add transactions by hand, and more.
Common questions
A customer paid me but I never sent an invoice. What do I choose?
Cash sale. It fills in almost everything for you.
I refunded a customer. What do I choose?
Credit Note. Cash sale is greyed out on money going out because it's only for money coming in.
One payment covered two invoices.
Use Find Match and select both. The tick turns green when they add up to the bank amount.
A customer only paid part of an invoice.
Match the invoice, change Fully paid to Part paid, and enter what you received.
A customer paid my invoice by card through Stripe. Where do I reconcile it?
On your Stripe feed, not your normal bank account. The payment shows as two lines — the amount your customer paid, which you match to the invoice, and Stripe's fee, which you record as an expense. When Stripe pays out to your bank, reconcile that as a Transfer. The full walkthrough is in Getting Paid by Card — Connecting Stripe to Joy Pilot.
Money came into Stripe that wasn't for a Joy Pilot invoice.
Record it as a Cash sale — for example a sale from your online shop that was paid through the same Stripe account.
I matched the wrong thing.
If you haven't clicked the tick yet, untick the box on the row and choose again — or remove a blue row you added by mistake. If it's already reconciled, message us and we'll help you undo it.
Some options under Create New are greyed out.
Options are greyed out when they don't fit the line: Invoice and Cash sale need money coming in, Credit Note needs money going out, Transfer needs a second bank account, and Taxes needs an account in your own currency. Hover over a greyed-out option to see why.
I saved an invoice from Create New but the line is still there.
Joy Pilot normally reconciles the line for you when the window closes. If another suggestion on the row was already ticked, it leaves the choice to you — tick the right one and click the tick.