Fix issues when you're reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop

Learn what to do if your accounts in QuickBooks Desktop don't match your bank statements at the end of reconciliation.

When you reconcile an account, you compare transactions in QuickBooks with the ones on your bank statements. In the end, the difference between the two records should be $0.00.

If it's not, or if you reconciled an account before and the ending balance changed, don't worry. Here's how to find and fix issues so you can finish reconciling.

Learn what causes ending balance issues

• Someone entered an incorrect ending balance at the start of the reconciliation.
• Someone edited or deleted transactions that were already reconciled.
• There are missing or duplicate transactions in QuickBooks.
• Someone entered transactions into QuickBooks that hasn't cleared your bank yet.
• Someone made an adjustment to your last reconciliation with a journal entry.

Step 1: Review your opening and beginning balances

If you haven't already, make sure your opening and beginning balances are correct. Once you know these are accurate, you can start looking for other issues.

Step 2: Look for changed, deleted, or added transactions

There are several reports in QuickBooks that show you if anything has been changed, deleted, or added:

Run a Reconciliation Discrepancy report

This report shows any transactions that were changed since your last reconciliation. They're sorted by statement dates.

1. Go to the Reports menu. Hover over Banking and select Reconciliation Discrepancy.
2. Select the account you're reconciling and then select OK.
3. Review the report. Look for any discrepancies.
4. Talk with the person who made the change. There may be a reason they made the change. Once you know, edit the transaction as needed.

Run a Missing Checks report

This report shows any missing checks. These may be throwing off the ending balance of your reconciliation.

1. Go to the Reports menu. Hover over Banking and select Missing Checks.
2. Select the account you're reconciling and then select OK.
3. Review the report. Look for any transactions on the report that aren't on your bank statement. If they aren't on your bank statement, they shouldn't be on your reconciliation.

Run a Transaction Detail report

Use this report to see if any transactions changed.

1. Go to the Reports menu. Hover over Custom Reports and select Transaction Detail.
2. Select the Display tab.
3. In the Date From field, select the earliest date in QuickBooks for the account. You can also leave it blank.
4. In the Date to field, select the date of your last reconciliation.
5. Go to the Filters tab.
6. In the Account field, select the account you're reconciling
7. In the Entered/Last Modified field, set the Date from to the date of your last reconciliation. Then set the Date to field to today's date.
8. Select OK to run the report.
9. Look for any discrepancies or transactions that don't match what's on your bank statement.
10. Talk with the person who made the change. There may be a reason they made the change. Once you know, edit the transaction as needed.

If you need help, reach out to your accountant.

Step 3: Look for reconciliation adjustments

Sometimes users make a reconciliation adjustment to force an account in QuickBooks to match their bank records. You shouldn't do a reconciliation adjustment without your accountant's guidance. Adjustments don't fix errors. And if you fix the errors later on, an adjustment causes problems down the road.

Review the account and make sure no one made an inaccurate adjustment.

1. Go to the Lists menu and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Open the Reconciliation Discrepancies account.
3. From the Dates field, set dates for your last few reconciliations.
4. If you see any adjustments that are making the account balance inaccurate, reach out to whoever made the adjustment. Make sure your corrections aren't conflicting with the adjustment.

Finish reconciling

When everything is fixed, you can finish reconciling.

If you're unable to find any issues in your accounts, you may need to undo the previous reconciliation until the opening balance is correct.

If someone edited or deleted a transaction from years ago, you may need to undo your reconciliations for the past few years to get to where the opening balance is correct.