I know the setup related to journal line reconciliation utility and what it does - reconcile accounts that their balances net to zero. But I'm having hard time to apply this to real-time business situation in GL. Can anyone help me understand and has anyone used this utiltity before in the R12 project and for what purpose? In other words - how does it help accountant?

Thanks

Journal Reconciliation feature is used to track any clearing account. Clearing accounts are those whose balance should come down to zero periodically.
Using reconciliation journal feature you can track which journals are brining the balance of clearing account down to zero.

Lets say an employee in the company keeps a petty cash with her for office related minor expense.

You will enter this journal when issuing petty cash:

DR: PETTY CASH $100
CR: CASH $100

Every now and then the petty cash balance should come down to zero. Then you will issue another $100 in petty cash.

Lets say following purchases were made using petty cash. These journals could come from AP or could be directly entered:

DR: PIZZA $50
CR: PETTY CASH $50

DR: SUPPLIES $50
CRL PETTY CASH $50

You want to track in GL which journals consumed the last petty cash that was issued. You can use journal reconciliation feature for this purpose.