Which Auction Flex report do I use for trust reconciliation?

Any of Consignor Summary, Totals by Consignment Order or Totals by Item — whichever you already run — saved as CSV, together with the Export to QuickBooks IIF file for the same auction.

Why does a consignor's payout disappear from the reconciliation?

Almost always a name spelled differently in the settlement export and the QuickBooks file. Fix the spelling at the source; matching by name is deliberate so nothing is guessed.

Can I use a PDF bank statement?

No — use the CSV, Excel or OFX/QFX download from online banking so every transaction has a machine-readable date and amount.

Auction Flex, QuickBooks and Bank Export Guide

1 · The settlement export (what you owe, and to whom)

This is your auction software's statement of the auction: what sold, for how much, commission, fees and the net owed to each consignor. From Auction Flex any of these works — use the one you already run:

Consignor Summary — Reports #21 / #23. One line per consignor: the quickest for month-end.
Totals by Consignment Order — #24 / #25. One line per consignment, useful when a consignor has several.
Totals by Item — #26 / #27. Item level; biggest file, most detail.

Save it as CSV, one file per auction. Run it after the final settlement, not before — a pre-settlement export changes when late fees or buybacks post.

2 · The QuickBooks / IIF file (what you actually paid)

In Auction Flex, Pay Consignors → Export to QuickBooks for the same auction. The IIF file carries what the settlement export does not: the check number, the payee as it went to the bank and the date the payout was made. That is what gets matched against cleared checks and what fills the check register your state board asks for.

One auction, one settlement export, one IIF. If a month had three auctions, bring three of each. An auction you leave out shows up as unexplained deposits and checks.

3 · The trust account bank statement (what the bank saw)

Download it for the full period from online banking as CSV, Excel, or the Quicken / QuickBooks "Web Connect" file (OFX/QFX). Not a PDF — a PDF has no machine-readable dates and amounts, and retyping it is where errors start. Only the trust account: the operating account's statement is not part of this.

The four alignment points

Point	What goes wrong	Fix
Consignor spelling	"J. Smith Estate" in the settlement, "Smith, J Estate" in QuickBooks: the payout is left out and named as unmatched.	Fix the spelling in the source system, then re-export. Matching by name is deliberate — nothing is guessed.
Auction number	Two exports for different auctions, or the IIF from last month's auction.	Check the auction number on every file before you run.
Period	Statement from the 1st to the 31st, settlement dated the 2nd of next month.	Pick one convention (calendar month, or the auction's settlement window) and keep it.
Opening balance	Typed from today's online balance instead of last month's reconciled ending balance.	Carry forward the reconciled figure; SaleLedger pre-fills it from the previous period.

Practice with fictional files first

The tutorial ships one fictional auction month shaped exactly like these three exports, so you can see an out-of-balance result and its exception list before you touch your own records. The monthly routine itself is in the reconciliation guide; the arithmetic is in the free three-way check.

The three files behind a trust reconciliation.

1 · The settlement export (what you owe, and to whom)

2 · The QuickBooks / IIF file (what you actually paid)

3 · The trust account bank statement (what the bank saw)

The four alignment points

Practice with fictional files first

SaleLedger reads all three and does the rest.