--- title: "How it works — a month with Rationara, start to finish" description: "The five-step monthly workflow: bank feeds and receipts arrive daily, we categorize and ask questions, reconcile every account, run a formal checklist-driven close, and publish your report package." url: "https://rationara.com/how-it-works" source: "https://rationara.com/how-it-works.md" route: "/how-it-works" site: "Rationara" updated: "2026-08-19" --- # A month with Rationara, start to finish *How it works* Bookkeeping isn’t a mystery — it’s a rhythm. Here is exactly what happens to your books over a month, what we do, and the small number of things we’ll need from you. Nothing below is aspirational; each step is how our team works today. ## Step 1: Transactions arrive on their own (Daily) Your bank and credit card accounts connect to Rationara through a secure, read-only feed. Every deposit, payment, and charge appears in our review inbox within a day of clearing — no envelopes of statements, no data entry, no forgotten accounts. Receipts work the same way: forward them to your organization's private Rationara email address (or snap a photo), and we read the vendor, date, and amount automatically and hold them for matching. **Your part:** Forward receipts as you get them. That's it. ## Step 2: We categorize, match, and ask (Weekly) Our bookkeepers work your inbox: each transaction gets an account, and where it applies, a fund, grant, and program class. Receipts are matched to their bank transactions and attached to the entry. Rules we've learned about your organization — this vendor is always office supplies, that deposit is always membership dues — apply automatically, but a person reviews every entry before it posts. When a transaction needs your judgment, we don't guess. A short question lands in your portal with the transaction attached, and your one-sentence answer becomes part of the permanent record. **Your part:** Answer 2–5 short questions a month, from any device. ## Step 3: We reconcile every account (Monthly) At month end, each bank and credit card account is reconciled against its statement, line by line. Timing differences are documented, duplicates are caught, and the reconciliation is locked when it's done — after that, nobody can quietly edit a transaction inside it. If a statement hasn't arrived or a deposit is in transit, that's noted on the close checklist rather than papered over. **Your part:** Nothing — unless we spot something odd, in which case you'll hear from us. ## Step 4: We close the period — formally (Monthly) A close isn't a feeling; it's a checklist. Before a month can be approved: the review inbox must be empty, no draft entries can remain in the period, every account must be reconciled, and expenses over $250 must have receipts attached. Items that fail block the close until they're fixed. Once approved, the period locks. Your January numbers in July are the same January numbers your auditor sees in March — restatements require a documented correcting entry, never a silent edit. **Your part:** Nothing. You'll get a note that the month is closed. ## Step 5: Reports publish to your portal (Monthly) By the 10th business day of the new month (20th on the Essential plan), we publish your report package: statement of activities, balance sheet, budget vs. actual, fund balances, and anything else your board expects. These are snapshots of the locked period — they will never change out from under you. Your treasurer and board members read the same package from their own logins. Come audit or 990 season, the year is already assembled: functional expenses, restriction schedules, and the full general ledger, ready to hand over. **Your part:** Read the summary. Forward the package to your board, or invite them to the portal. ## The portal: what you actually see You never open a general ledger. Your portal has a few plain sections, and everything in it reads from your closed, reconciled books. The full tour — dashboard, questions, expense reporting, published reports — is on [The portal](https://rationara.com/portal). - **Finance dashboard** — Current cash position across your accounts, this month's income and spending, and how the year is tracking against budget — in plain numbers, not accounting jargon. - **Questions** — Every open question from your bookkeeper, with the transaction or receipt attached. Answer inline; your answer is recorded with the entry forever. - **Published reports** — Every monthly package we've ever released, organized by period. Snapshots of locked books — safe to forward to a board or a funder. - **Your people** — Invite your treasurer, board members, or office manager with their own read-only logins. You control who's in; deactivate anyone anytime. ## Getting started: we move the books, not you Most organizations come to us from QuickBooks, an outgrown spreadsheet, or a departed volunteer treasurer’s system. Migration is our work, not yours — chart of accounts, ledger history, funds, and classes are imported with guided tools, and your first month runs in parallel with your old system before anything is switched off. The full migration path — exactly what we can import, the week-by-week plan, and what we’ll ask you for — is on [Switching & onboarding](https://rationara.com/switching). ### Onboarding at a glance - Week 1: Kickoff call: your funds, programs, grants, and reporting needs - Week 1: Connect bank and credit card feeds (read-only) - Week 2: Import chart of accounts and history from QuickBooks or CSV - Week 2: Set opening balances to your last reconciled period - Week 3: Map funds, classes, and grants; review with you - Week 3–4: First month run in parallel; compare against your old system ## Want to see this on your own books? Bring last month's bank statement to a call and we'll walk through exactly how it would move through this workflow.