How to Create a Reconciliation Report in Excel with ChatGPT

Creating reconciliation reports in Excel is one of those tasks that feels like it should be simpler than it is. You have two sets of data that are supposed to match, but finding the small differences can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. This article will show you how to use ChatGPT as a smart assistant to generate the exact Excel formulas you need, turning hours of manual work into a few quick prompts.

What Exactly Is a Reconciliation Report?

At its core, a reconciliation report is a way to prove that two sets of records are in agreement. Think of it as balancing your checkbook on a larger scale. Companies use it for all sorts of things, from checking that their internal sales logs match their Shopify sales data to making sure their bank statement aligns perfectly with their own accounting records (a bank reconciliation).

The goal is to identify any discrepancies - like missing transactions, duplicate entries, or mismatched amounts - so you can correct them. Doing this ensures your financial records are accurate, helps prevent fraud, and gives you a clear picture of your financial health. Traditionally, this involves tedious line-by-line manual checking or complex Excel VLOOKUP formulas that are easy to get wrong.

Getting Your Data Ready for Reconciliation

Before you can ask ChatGPT for help, you need to organize your data in a way that both you and Excel can understand. The key is clean, structured data in tables.

Let's use a classic bank reconciliation as our example. You’ll typically have two data sets:

1. Your Bank Statement: A CSV file you download from your online banking portal.

2. Your Company's Records: An export from your accounting software (like QuickBooks) or your own internal ledger kept in a spreadsheet.

To prepare this data for a reconciliation in Excel:

• Step 1: Put Each Dataset on a Separate Sheet. Open a new Excel workbook. Name one sheet "BankStatement" and the other "CompanyRecords." Paste your data into the corresponding sheets. This simple separation keeps things tidy.

• Step 2: Ensure Consistent Column Headers. Make sure your columns are clearly labeled. For a financial reconciliation, you’ll want columns like Date, Description, Transaction ID, and Amount. Having a unique identifier like a Transaction ID makes matching much more accurate.

• Step 3: Format Your Data. Make sure dates are formatted as dates and numbers are formatted as currency. If you have "debits" and "credits" in separate columns, it's often easier to combine them into a single "Amount" column, using positive numbers for deposits and negative numbers for withdrawals.

Your "CompanyRecords" sheet might look something like this:

And your "BankStatement" sheet should look similar. With your data organized, you’re ready to let ChatGPT do the heavy lifting.

How to Use ChatGPT to Generate Excel Formulas

This is where the magic happens. Instead of trying to remember complex syntax, you can just describe what you want to do in plain English. The key is to be clear and specific in your prompts.

Finding Matching Transactions with XLOOKUP

The most common task in reconciliation is confirming that a transaction from one list exists in the other. XLOOKUP is the modern, more flexible replacement for VLOOKUP and is perfect for this.

Let's say you want to check if each transaction from your "CompanyRecords" sheet appears on your "BankStatement" sheet.

Your Prompt for ChatGPT:

"I have an Excel workbook with two sheets: 'CompanyRecords' and 'BankStatement'. Both sheets have a 'Transaction ID' column in column A and an 'Amount' column in column D. In the 'CompanyRecords' sheet, I want to create a new column called 'Bank Match'. For each Transaction ID in 'CompanyRecords'!A:A, I want you to look for a matching Transaction ID in 'BankStatement'!A:A. If you find a match, return the corresponding Amount from 'BankStatement'!D:D. If not, return the text 'Not Found'."

ChatGPT's Formula Response:

=XLOOKUP(A2, BankStatement!A:A, BankStatement!D:D, "Not Found")

Simply copy this formula, paste it into the first cell of your new "Bank Match" column in the "CompanyRecords" sheet (adjusting A2 if needed), and drag it down. Now you can instantly see which transactions have cleared the bank and, more importantly, which haven’t.

Highlighting Differences with Conditional Formatting

Now that you've identified matches, what about the transactions where the amounts don't match? ChatGPT can provide the formula you need for Conditional Formatting to make these rows stand out.

Your Prompt for ChatGPT:

"In my 'CompanyRecords' sheet, I have the original transaction amount in column D and the matched amount from the bank statement in column E (from the XLOOKUP). I need an Excel conditional formatting formula that highlights the entire row if the amount in column D does not equal the amount in column E."

ChatGPT's Formula Response:

=$D2<>$E2

How to Apply it in Excel:

1. Select all the data in your "CompanyRecords" sheet (but not the headers).

2. Go to the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting, and choose New Rule.

3. Select "Use a formula to determine which cells to format."

4. Paste the formula =$D2<>$E2 into the formula box. The dollar signs are important - they lock the column references so the rule checks columns D and E for every row you've selected.

5. Click the Format... button and choose a fill color, like light red.

6. Click OK.

Now, any row with a mismatched amount will instantly be highlighted, drawing your attention directly to the problem areas.

Summarizing Your Findings with SUMIF

Finally, you'll want to build a small summary table to quantify the results. This is where SUMIF comes in handy. It lets you sum values in a range that meet a specific criterion.

Your Prompt for ChatGPT:

"I need an Excel formula to sum all the amounts in my 'BankStatement'!D:D column where the corresponding transaction does not appear in my 'CompanyRecords' sheet. I have a helper column (let's say 'F' in the 'BankStatement' sheet) that says 'Not Found' if a match wasn't located in the CompanyRecords sheet."

ChatGPT's Formula Response:

=SUMIF(F:F, "Not Found", D:D)

This formula is self-explanatory: it sums the values in column D but only for rows where column F contains the text "Not Found". This one formula quickly tells you the total value of transactions recorded by the bank but missing from your books.

A Step-By-Step Bank Reconciliation Walkthrough

Let's put it all together into a complete process you can follow.

1. Setup the Spreadsheet: Create a new Excel workbook with two sheets: "BankData" and "BookData". Paste your raw data into each, ensuring clean headers like TransactionID, Date, Description, and Amount.

2. Prompt for the Match Formula: Go to ChatGPT and use a prompt like the XLOOKUP one from earlier. Be specific about your sheet names and column letters.

3. Find Unmatched Items in Your Books: In your "BookData" sheet, create a new column E called "BankMatch". Paste the XLOOKUP formula from ChatGPT into cell E2 and drag it down. Filter this column to show only the "Not Found" results. These are transactions in your books that haven't hit the bank yet (or were never processed).

4. Find Unmatched Items from the Bank: Repeat the process in reverse. In your "BankData" sheet, create a new column E named "BookMatch". Use a similar XLOOKUP prompt, but this time have it look for matches in the "BookData" sheet. Filter for "Not Found" to see transactions the bank recorded but you missed. These are often forgotten bank fees or interest payments.

5. Prompt for the Summary Formulas: Ask ChatGPT for formulas to create a simple summary dashboard at the top of a new 'Summary' sheet. You'll want fields like:

   • Total Value of Matched Items

   • Total Value of Items in Books, Not in Bank

   • Total Value of Items in Bank, Not in Books

   • Number of Discrepancies (a simple COUNTIF formula can handle this).

6. Investigate and Adjust: With all discrepancies clearly identified and quantified, you can now investigate each one. Once resolved, make the necessary adjustments in your accounting system and re-run your matched columns to confirm everything balances to zero.

Tips for Better Prompts & Better Formulas

The quality of your formula depends entirely on the quality of your prompt. Here are a few ways to get better results from ChatGPT:

• Be Hyper-Specific: Don’t just say "check for matches." Say, "look up the value in cell A2 from the 'SalesData' sheet in column A of the 'CRM-Data' sheet and return the value from column F."

• Describe Your Goal: Explain what you are trying to accomplish. For example, "I am trying to perform a bank reconciliation and need to find transactions that exist in my bank statement but not in my books." This context helps the AI choose the best formula for the job.

• Ask for an Explanation: End your prompt with "Please explain how the formula works." This is an amazing way to learn why the formula works, helping you become better at Excel yourself.

• Refine and Iterate: If the first formula doesn’t work perfectly, don’t give up. Copy the formula back to ChatGPT and explain the error you got or what it's doing wrong. For instance, "This formula is returning 0, but I was expecting it to sum the values. My amounts are in column D. Can you fix it?"

Final Thoughts

Using ChatGPT to help with your Excel reconciliation report streamlines a historically tedious process. By clearly describing your data structure and your goals, you can get precise, powerful formulas in seconds, allowing you to focus on analyzing discrepancies rather than wrestling with spreadsheet syntax, saving you time and reducing the risk of human error.

While this method is a huge step up from manual checking, the process still relies on exporting files and organizing spreadsheets. For truly effortless analysis, we built Graphed . Instead of exporting CSVs and generating formulas one by one, you can connect your data sources (like Shopify, QuickBooks, and Salesforce) directly to our platform. Once connected, you can just ask questions in plain English, like "Show me transactions from Shopify sales that are missing from my recent Stripe payouts," and get a live, automated report in seconds - no more spreadsheets required.