Check whether the finance team knows every business bank account

Compare the bank register with ledger accounts, bank portals, financing agreements and payment-provider records. Ask entity owners about accounts used for a specific project, location or former operation. The chart of accounts tells you what finance recorded; it does not independently prove that every account has been recorded.

Look for transfers whose other side is missing, charges from an unfamiliar institution and statements addressed to a former employee. Check acquisitions, renamed entities and discontinued operations for accounts that never entered the central register. Preserve the legal holder and historical identifiers while investigating.

For each account, capture the legal entity, bank, masked identifier, currency, purpose, status and responsible owner. Add the ledger mapping, statement source and latest reconciled period. Keep full account details and identity documents in the restricted record rather than a broadly shared inventory. Include the date each fact was verified and the evidence location. That lets a reviewer distinguish a recently confirmed bank record from an assumption carried forward from an old spreadsheet.

Distinguish deposit accounts from investments, credit facilities, payment-provider balances and accounts held for others. They may all affect the cash-management view, but they have different records and accounting treatment. Avoid grouping them under one generic bank label simply because a dashboard displays them together.

For an account with uncertain ownership or status, contact the institution through an authorized representative. The FDIC's guidance on locating old accounts describes starting with the institution and establishing entitlement where necessary. Do not treat possession of an old statement as authority to access another entity's account.

When an unrecorded account is found, obtain statements from its opening or the earliest relevant reporting date. Identify the source of its initial funding and subsequent activity. Ask the accountant to determine the correction across cash, intercompany, income and expense records. Adding only today's balance can leave earlier periods and counterpart accounts wrong.

Investigate whether another ledger already contains the activity under a different name. A bank rename, merger or conversion can make one account look like two. Compare identifiers and continuity evidence before creating a new ledger account or deleting an existing one.

If the account is closed, obtain closure evidence and trace the remaining funds. Keep its historical record for reporting and audit support. The register should distinguish closed accounts with completed reconciliations from accounts merely hidden in the online portal.

Reconcile the register with the monthly statement-collection list so every open account has an expected record. Review accounts with no recent statement, no owner or no accepted reconciliation. Keep the investigation status visible even when the balance is believed to be small.

Provide the relevant population to auditors when requested. PCAOB confirmation guidance considers the substance of banking relationships, including relationships beyond cash balances; the engagement team determines its own scope. A complete internal register helps finance respond without substituting its records for independent audit evidence.

Require updates when an account opens, changes owner, changes provider or closes. Include that step in entity and banking approvals. At the next periodic review, compare the register with fresh bank and ledger evidence instead of asking only whether the old spreadsheet still looks familiar.