cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Ess Dee
Level 1

Ending balance on previous month's reconciliation report does not match beginning balance for next month

Backstory - we had not been using bank feeds.  A former employee had set up a second bank account for our main checking to use with the feed, in the hopes of getting everyone to switch over to that account.  It pretty much got abandoned, but had several months worth of transactions in it.  I just recatagorized the transactions in that second account to move them to the original.  They're now in the register with the lightening bold indicating they were auto matched.  

 

Before I recategorized those transactions, I had done a monthly reconciliation that looked good.  Now, when I go to reconcile the following month, the beginning balance doesn't match.  Not even close.  There's nothing showing up in the Reconciliation Discrepancy report.  Unmatching the auto-matched transactions (from either before or after the reconciliation date) doesn't appear to have an affect on what they system says the starting balance should be.  If I view the previous reconciliaiton report, it still shows all the right numbers, including the ending balance (which should be the new starting balance).

 

I'm assuming the problem is from me moving those transactions over, but I can't figure out how to address it.

1 Comment 1
Nick_M
QuickBooks Team

Ending balance on previous month's reconciliation report does not match beginning balance for next month

Hey there, Ess Dee. 

 

Thanks for dropping by the Community, based off of your description it sounds like you may need to re reconcile the account if there was a change or if something was removed. Regardless, I have a really helpful article you can check out that highlights how to fix issues when you're reconciling. Here's the link, and I'm also including the steps down below. 

 

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.

Important: If you need to add transactions or if need to modify transactions you already reconciled, you may need to do a mini-reconciliation. Reach out to your accountant for help with this.

 

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.

 

If there's anything else I can help with in the meantime, feel free to post here anytime. Thank you and have a nice Monday afternoon. 

Need to get in touch?

Contact us