An accounts payable reconciliation example is more useful than a description, because the difficulty is never the concept and always the differences. The concept takes one sentence: prove the supplier-by-supplier list agrees with the ledger's single payables balance. The work is what to do when it does not, and that is best shown rather than explained. This page walks a reconciliation that does not tie at first, through the four differences that cause most breaks in a small finance team, showing what each one looks like, how it is confirmed, and whether it needs a correcting entry or only a note. The figures are illustrative and the shape is the point.
Start with the two balances at the same moment
The aging report at the cut-off gives the subsidiary total: on this site's worked payables example that is $82,700 across four buckets. The control account gives the ledger balance. Where they differ, the difference is the thing to explain, and it is a single number to start from rather than a haystack.
The four usual differences, and what each looks like
A duplicated invoice appears in the subsidiary list twice and inflates it. A payment allocated to the wrong supplier leaves both suppliers wrong and the total right, so it hides in a total-only check. A journal posted straight to the control account moves the ledger and not the list. A credit note recorded one side only moves one and not the other.
Correct in the ledger, note in the reconciliation
Duplicates and one-sided entries need correcting entries; a timing difference needs only a note explaining it will clear. The reconciliation is evidence of what was true, not the place to fix it, so next month starts from a corrected balance rather than a spreadsheet with a caveat at the bottom.
Questions people ask about accounts payable reconciliation example
Should the example use our own numbers?
Yours are the only ones that matter. The free aging worksheet on this site builds the subsidiary side from your four bucket balances and gives you the total, the overdue share and days payable outstanding at the same time.
What if it ties but feels wrong?
Check supplier by supplier rather than in total. A misallocated payment ties in total and is wrong twice, which is the one break a total-only reconciliation will never find.
How long should this take?
Minutes when payables are clean, an afternoon when they are not. A reconciliation that reliably takes an afternoon is telling you something about the month rather than about the reconciliation.