Do i need to clear up uncategorized expenses before reconciling my transactions?

Hello Debbie:

 The short answer is no. You can keep things uncategorized and reconcile. I do this all the time. And then I reach out to the client and ask them to give me more clarity on the transactions that I don’t know how to classify. Once they let me know the answer, I open the transaction and just change the account/category.

Thank you Lynda. 

I own a restaurant and stupidly thought I could keep up with the bookkeeping. We only have 10 employees. Who was I kidding? 

Thank you for your assistance Lynda.

Take care

Lynda is right. While it's often referred to as a best practice to clear up uncategorized expenses before reconciling transactions, it's not a requirement and it's often not possible without information back from the client. Sometimes a client has just a few uncategorized expenses while we've also seen clients with dozens or even hundreds (especially in a clean up situation). We built an app called Uncat on the QuickBooks App Store to help us get descriptions and receipts for expenses back from clients without having to export and email spreadsheets of uncategorized expenses back and forth. We hope it's useful to other bookkeepers and accountants.