I'm hoping you can provide some direction for our club
regarding reconciliation of accounting errors.

Several months ago our 4 year old club discovered that our
bivio balance vs our scottrade balance no longer agree.
Specifically, our bivio balance is $400.00 less than our
actual funds as represented in our scottrade account.

We don't know when or even which entries that these errors
can be attributed to. Over the course of our clubs
existence, we have had 3 members leave and 2 new members
join.

In preparation for 2011 taxes, we would like to know the
best way to correct this $400.00 error on the books. Is
there a precedent or some guidance you can provide?

Should this $400 be divided among the entire club in the
reconciliation or should it omit the two most recent
members?

many thanks

Laura:

The best way to correct the difference between your
brokerage account cash and the bivio cash is to determine
what causes the difference. Until you know why there is a
difference, you won't know the appropriate correcting
entries.

Locating the transaction that caused the difference should
be easy for a club that is only four years old. I would
start comparing the cash balances for Dec 31, 2010. If they
agree, compare each month in 2011 until you find the month
that the difference first occurs. If they don't agree, then
compare Dec 31, 2009. You can compare half years or quarter
years until you narrow down the date.

Jack Ranby, Treasurer
Grants Partners Investment Club.

PS. If you use "autosync"; the email notice will tell you
each time whether the cash account is in balance between
your brokerage account and bivio. It would help prevent this
problem in the future.

Jack,
Thank you for your comments. However, our club contacted
bivio several months ago attempting to resolve this. The
simple truth is that there were changes in the bivio entries
that were made for some of the corrections but not for all.

We do use 'auto sync' -- but this provided a false sense of
security. Monthly emails reported that the balances between
bivio and scottrade 'agreed' when in fact they did not.
Lengthy troubleshooting calls and emails with customer
support have not helped us resolve this problem. We learned
a lesson--but now need to know what to do for the books.

thanks--really appreciate the help and suggestions