LedgerSync Close — Overview and How It Works

LedgerSync Close — Overview and How It Works

Notes
Overview
LedgerSync Close is a month-end reconciliation tool that compares your bank statements directly against the transactions recorded in QuickBooks Online (QBO). It automatically identifies missing transactions, duplicate entries, and category mismatches — and lets you push corrections back to QBO in one step. The goal is to significantly reduce the time spent on manual month-end close while improving accuracy.

What Problem Does LedgerSync Close Solve?

Traditional month-end close requires an accountant to manually download bank statements, pull QBO transaction reports, and compare the two line by line to find discrepancies. For clients with high transaction volume, this can take hours per client per month.

LedgerSync Close automates the comparison step. The system reads the bank statement, reads the QBO data, and flags only the transactions that don’t match — so you spend your time resolving real issues rather than doing a manual line-by-line review.

How LedgerSync Close Works — Step by Step

Step 1. Select the Client and Bank Account

Open LedgerSync Close and select the client and the bank account you want to close for the period. LedgerSync Close works with accounts that are connected to both a bank aggregator (Mastercard or MX) and a QBO company file.

Step 2. Choose the Statement Period

LedgerSync Close shows a suggested periods dropdown that lists the actual statement periods available for the selected account — pulled directly from the statements already in LedgerSync. Select the period you want to close.

For credit card accounts, where billing cycles often don’t align with calendar months, LS Close flags the non-standard start date and shows estimated dates. A PDF preview of the statement is shown alongside the picker so you can visually confirm the period covers the right dates without leaving the page.

Step 3. LedgerSync Compares Bank vs. QBO

LedgerSync reads the bank statement (using OCR and transaction extraction) and pulls the corresponding QBO transaction data for the same period. It then compares the two sets line by line:
  • Matched transactions — present in both the bank statement and QBO, amounts and dates align
  • Missing from QBO — transaction appears on the bank statement but has no corresponding entry in QBO
  • Missing from bank statement — entry exists in QBO but no matching transaction appears on the bank statement
  • Category concerns — transaction is matched, but the category assigned in QBO looks unusual based on historical behavior, peer data, or AI analysis

InfoNote on timing: Some transactions — particularly checks — may post to QBO in a different month than the bank statement date. LedgerSync Close accounts for this posting delay when matching, so a check that cleared 15 days after the statement close date will still match correctly rather than appearing as missing.

Step 4. Review Flagged Items

You see only the items that require attention. For each flagged transaction, LedgerSync Close shows:
  • The bank statement entry (date, description, amount)
  • The matching or nearest QBO entry (if one exists)
  • Why it was flagged (missing, duplicate, category concern)
  • A suggested correction (based on AI analysis and historical patterns)
You review the suggestion and either approve it, edit it, or dismiss it. LedgerSync only alerts you when its confidence is low — obvious matches are handled silently without requiring your input.

Step 5. Push Corrections to QBO

Once you have reviewed and approved the corrections, LedgerSync Close pushes the updates to QuickBooks Online in a single sync. Missing transactions are added, duplicates are flagged, and category changes are applied. The process respects QBO’s account type rules — LedgerSync confirms each account’s current type in QBO at sync time to avoid account-type mismatches.

Key Features

Statement PDF Preview

During period selection, the bank statement PDF is shown in a side panel. You can scroll through the statement and visually verify the dates and balances before committing to the close period. This eliminates the need to open a separate browser tab or download the statement manually.

Duplicate Transaction Detection

If a bank transaction that is already in QBO gets re-pulled and LedgerSync attempts to push it again, the system detects the potential duplicate and holds it back instead of creating a duplicate entry in QBO. Held transactions appear with an amber highlight and a "Skipped" status in the Sync Status tab so you can see exactly what was held and why. If a transaction was incorrectly flagged as a duplicate, you can use the Sync Anyway option to force-push it.

Transfers & Multi-Account Statements (AMEX, etc.)

Some statements — notably American Express and similar card products — group several sub-accounts (for example, multiple cardholders) under a single primary statement, and include internal transfers between accounts. LedgerSync Close recognizes these sub-account groupings so that transfers between a client’s own accounts are matched as transfers rather than being flagged as missing or duplicate entries. When reviewing an AMEX or multi-cardholder statement, expect to see the sub-account activity rolled up under the primary statement, mirroring how the bank presents it.

Conflicting QBO Rules Detection

LedgerSync Close can analyze your existing QBO rules and identify transactions that match multiple conflicting rules, which may cause inconsistent categorization. This helps you clean up rule conflicts before they create month-end errors. See: Identifying Transactions with Conflicting QBO Rules in LedgerSync Close

Chase Bank Support

LedgerSync Close works with Chase bank accounts. Because Chase requires account owner authorization for third-party connections, the client must connect their Chase account through LedgerSync (not through accountant-only read access). Once connected, LedgerSync Close can compare Chase statements against QBO automatically each month. See: Chase Statements — Why Account Owner Access Is Required

What LedgerSync Close Does Not Do

  • It does not replace the Rules Engine. The Rules Engine handles ongoing transaction categorization throughout the month. LedgerSync Close is used at month end to validate and finalize.
  • It does not show pending QBO transactions. QuickBooks Online’s API only returns posted transactions, so pending items in QBO will not appear in LS Close until they post.
  • It does not modify transactions without your review and approval. Every correction must be confirmed before it is pushed to QBO.

Requirements

  • The client must have a bank account connected to LedgerSync (via Mastercard API or MX)
  • The client must have their QBO company file connected to LedgerSync
  • Bank statements for the close period must be available in LedgerSync (pulled via aggregator or uploaded as PDF)

Need Help?

Contact LedgerSync Support at support@ledgersync.com

Related Articles:

    • Related Articles

    • How to Convert Bank PDF Statements to Excel, QBO, or CSV

      Overview The LedgerSync PDF Converter extracts transactions from bank statement PDFs and converts them into Excel, CSV, QBO, or OFX format — without any manual data entry. This is especially useful when a client can only provide PDF statements and ...

    • MX Bank Connection — Overview, Setup, and FAQ

      Overview MX is LedgerSync's second full bank data aggregator, available alongside the Mastercard API. MX is fully deployed and actively used across the platform — it is not a beta feature. If your bank is not supported by the Mastercard API, or if ...

    • LedgerSync Advantages Over QuickBooks Online

      Overview Even if you already have third-party bank access through QuickBooks Online, here are the key reasons accounting firms use LedgerSync to manage their client banking data. 1. Security When your team has third-party bank login access, those ...

    • How to Download Transactions from LedgerSync as a PDF, QBO, OFX or CSV File

      Overview In LedgerSync, you can download a client’s transactions in multiple file formats directly from the Transactions tab. This works for all bank connection types, including Mastercard, MX, and PDF-uploaded accounts. How to Download Transactions ...

    • QBO Sync — Duplicate Transaction Detection & Sync Anyway

      Overview LedgerSync automatically detects when a bank transaction about to be synced to QuickBooks may already exist in QBO as a manually entered entry. Instead of creating a duplicate, it holds the transaction back and flags it visibly so you can ...