The beginning balance in bank reconciliation refers to the amount of money in your account at the start of an accounting period, @Susan607.
It should match the ending balance from the previous period and carry over any unreconciled transactions. The balance can't be deleted as this is the ending balance of the last reconciliation.
Incorrect beginning balance happens to occur for several reasons:
- If this is the first time you are reconciling this account. No balance was entered or, an incorrect balance was entered.
- You may have voided, deleted, or changed the amount of a previously cleared transaction since your last reconciliation.
- Occasionally, the company data file may be damaged (this isn't common).
To resolve this issue, do one of the following:
- Review and adjust the opening balance for the account. If the opening balance is zero, please enter the appropriate opening balance. If the opening balance is an amount other than zero, please update the opening balance for the account in use.
- If you have voided, deleted, or changed the amount of a previously reconciled transaction, ensure to correct the edited transactions using your bank statement as a reference.
You can follow these general steps in performing the correction:
- Go to the Lists menu.
- Select Chart of Accounts.
- Locate the account holding the transactions.
- Take note of the opening balance and the transactions in your bank statement.
- Make the necessary changes.
- Close the register.
Let me share this article to learn more about fix bank feed errors: Fix online banking issues in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.
Keep me posted if you still have questions about your opening balance. Have a great day and take care.
