How is it possible that the beginning balance on the reconciliation page is different than the ending balance on my last successful reconciliation and how can I fix this?

Hello there, @usermcbbwarner.

Thanks for outlining the details of your concern with the reconciliation issues in your account in QuickBooks Online.

To start, check the beginning balance once you start reconciling. Ensure that it is the amount in the account at the start of your review period. Thus, it should correspond to the amount on your bank statement for the exact start date.

If it doesn't match, please review the original opening balance. You can use this guide to correct the opening balance: Enter and manage opening balances in QuickBooks Online.

Also, verify that you're reconciling the accurate account. Once done, categorize and match online bank transactions to determine the beginning balance.

From there, you'll be notified if someone makes a change that alters your starting balance. Then, run and check the discrepancy report by clicking the We can help you fix it. Review the report and talk to the person who made the adjustments before making the necessary changes; they might be intentional.

For the detailed step-by-step process, please review this article for further guidance: Fix issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past in QuickBooks Online.

If there are no discrepancies, it would be best to seek professional advice from your accountant to ensure the accuracy of your accounts. If you're not affiliated with one, you can utilize our Find an Accountant tool to look for one in your area.

Once everything is settled, I've got these handy resources here that can help you organize your accounts:

• Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online
• Fix issues at the end of a reconciliation in QuickBooks Online

Keep me posted if you still have questions or concerns about your transactions in QBO. I'll be around for you. Keep safe always.

Thanks for the response, Carneil_C.  Sadly, I've already done what you've suggested.  The beginning balance for the period I'm reconciling exactly matches the last successful reconciliation AND the beginning balance on the bank statement.  When I click the "We can help fix this" or whatever button, the reconciliation log shows nothing.

Now for the back story...I'm trying to correct some incorrectly done reconciliations from 2021 (which I recently discovered...I know that's really bad).  I've created myself an accountant account and used the Undo option to remove reconciliations back to that point (when I had incorrectly entered a transaction and then later incorrectly reconciled it - I'm a volunteer treasurer for my church who is trained in engineering not in finance/accounting and I was doing lots of self-teaching).  After a call with the QBO support team (who gave me almost nothing helpful), I opted to try the July '21 reconcile again but this time I unselected all the transactions QBO pre-picked for me.  I then manually selected each one that was on the bank statement.  This revealed 3 transactions that were not on the list of possible transactions to reconcile.  I checked them and found they had been (incorrectly) reconciled in a prior period. (Note, I reconciled all of 2021 one weekend in Dec '21 once I realized the reconciling was a thing.  I clearly hadn't done those properly.) So, I rolled back another month's reconciliation.  Repeated the process and found more transactions not available for selection for that period (for the same reason).  I repeated this until I had removed all the reconciliations I'd done myself and to the point where the last completed & successful one was done by my predecessor.  It is at this point, QBO was telling me that I couldn't start because my beginning balance was wrong (north of $17K wrong) yet showed nothing in the reconciliation log.  I'm totally baffled. If the Undo option on reconciliations really does so completely, my engineering brain cannot fathom how I'm facing this mess.  Any further insights are appreciated.  The upside is that I figured out how to properly execute reconciliations so if I could just get to the point where I could resume doing the last 24+ months' worth of them I'd be golden.  I'll toss another weekend at catching up.

I've been having the same issue (for almost the same reason!).  Did you get a resolution?  I tried un-reconciling the previous month, but the mysterious discrepancy keeps sneaking in between the previous ending balance and the next month's beginning balance.  Pleas help!

Hello, Mark. I'll make sure to provide the best resolution to your reconciliation concern.

Let's review the discrepancy report to identify and rectify the entry that affects your beginning balance and reconcile your account in QuickBooks Online (QBO) accordingly.

Someone may have made changes (edited, deleted, moved, or unreconciled an already reconciled transaction) to your account. That's why the ending balance of your last reconciliation is affected, and the beginning balance of your next one is impacted. To identify the affected entries, here's how:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select Reconcile.
2. Select the account that you want to reconcile from the Account ▼ dropdown.
3. Click the We can help you fix it link to open your discrepancy report.
4. Review the discrepancy report. Use it to decide if and how to make changes.
5. Before editing anything, talk with whoever made the changes - they may be intentional.

Once you've identified which entries that causes the discrepancy, make the necessary corrections. For the complete guide, check out Step 4: Review any discrepancy reports section in this article: Fix issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past in QuickBooks Online.

When you're done, reconcile your account. I'd recommend doing this every month to help monitor your income and expense transactions and detect possible errors accordingly. You may want to check out this article as your reference in doing and fixing reconciliations in QBO: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

I'm all ears if you have other reconciliation concerns or questions about managing your accounts and transactions in QBO. You can drop a comment below, and I'll gladly help. Take care, Mark.