KeystoneFix the period and the source records
Decide the period you are reviewing and keep the relevant source records available. Confirm the active leases, rent amounts and any approved changes. If several people maintain records, agree which system is authoritative for new entries so the review does not compare two independently changing versions.
Keep an unchanged export or report before making corrections. This gives the reviewer a way to understand what changed during reconciliation. Do not delete historical spreadsheets or receipts simply because the current balance looks reasonable.
Check the charges before matching payments
Review each tenant's opening balance and charges for the period. Check the tenant, lease, unit and dates rather than relying only on a total across the property. Investigate a missing bill, an unexpected duplicate or a change that does not match the approved lease information.
Write down why an adjustment is needed and use the application's supported correction workflow. Avoid compensating for an unexplained difference with an unrelated entry just to force the closing total to match.
Match recorded payments with evidence
For each payment recorded in the ledger, check the amount, date and reference against the actual channel through which you received it. Names in transfer descriptions can be incomplete, so use the available evidence to identify the correct tenant rather than matching on a name alone.
A tenant reporting a transfer is useful information, but it is not the same as confirmation from your bank or payment channel. Keep unresolved items on a review list with an owner. Keystone records payments and receipts; it does not provide online rent collection or a bank's settlement confirmation.
Review balances tenant by tenant
Check that the opening balance, charges, adjustments and payments explain the closing balance. Then compare the combined total as a second check. A matching property-level total can hide a payment assigned to the wrong tenant, so it cannot replace the individual review.
Look at unusual balances separately. A credit, a newly overdue amount or a balance after a tenancy ends may need a different follow-up. Keep the explanation with your working records and use your organisation's agreed process for communicating with tenants.
Close the review with clear ownership
Record who reviewed the period and which differences remain unresolved. Give each exception an owner and a next step, and retain the supporting reports and receipts according to your own record-keeping requirements. A review is not finished merely because the total has been copied into another sheet.
If you use a tenant portal, confirm that the corrected records are understandable there too. For a new system, test this complete cycle with sample records before switching the portfolio's authoritative records. The tenant-ledger overview explains how Keystone keeps these entries together.