Inherited a mess

[garbo215]

I'm in a pickle. Our main accountant quit very suddenly & left the books 5 months behind. Yes, my boss really let this happen: he is very trusting and this is a small business. I was just doing the AR/AP & I'm still an accounting student w/33 hours to go for my BS yet somehow my boss thinks I can do both jobs, now...so I have finished closing the September books and am now working on October. So far I've been able to clear out most of the GL accounts in the trial balance & match AR & AP accounts, etc. to the corresponding reports in Quickbooks Pro 2012. I have done all the journal entries, etc. that are part of our EOM closing.
However, I am stuck on the bank reconciliation. The O/S deposits from last month have cleared, I have deducted all the outstanding checks & other debits, so I can't understand why the books aren't matching up to the bank statement. It is about 5K off at the mo.
Am I skipping an obvious step? Where should I be looking for this discrepancy? Please assume that I haven't tried everything, as I seriously have had no previous training in this type of procedure. I have had to teach myself by recalling accounting textbooks & looking at what she had done to our books in the past.
I appreciate any input I can get!

 

[parmatax]

First thing I would double check is that the beginning balance matches the bank's beginning balance when you go to reconcile the bank account. Otherwise was there a JE you entered that affected the bank account that should not have been made?

 

[kirby]

Another thing to check is the last bank recon done by the former accountant. You need to prove that the recon is valid. If it is not then that becomes a reason why your recon will not work.
Best way for me is just to RE-DO the bank rec for the last month it was done by the former accountant and see if your recon agrees to the former accts recon, if so then you can rely on it.