I accidentally un-did my last bank reconciliation and now I can't re-reconcile my bank statement due to the beginning balance being wrong

To add to my post above, I went to Reports --> Banking --> Previous Reconciliation, and it shows that the last statement I reconciled was 02/28/25.

I'm even more confused.

I went to Banking, clicked on Reconcile, the box popped up, clicked on Undo Last Reconciliation, but the "previous beginning balance" of the previous month is wrong as well so I didn't go any further. The previous month was correct initially, but now it's wanting to be incorrect? I don't understand what's going on. 

However, I did click on Previous Reports, and January's is showing the correct amount on the display there. 

Would it be better to wait until the end of March, have an incorrect beginning balance, a correct ending balance, and let Quickbooks fix the difference? Or is that going to cause an even bigger problem?

Should I go into the checkbook and uncheck the transactions that were cleared on the February statement, but would that let me re-do the February reconciliation?

But to add to what I just posted:

If I go to Banking, then click on Reconcile, it shows a statement date of 02/28/25 but a beginning balance of <$975.10> when it should be $30.23.

If I click on Undo Last Reconciliation, the box pops up that shows the current beginning balance is <$975.10>, and the previous beginning balance was <$738.83>. The beginning balance for the January statement was $266.50.

That is not where it needs to get reset back to.

And I don't know what I just did or what I just clicked on, but I'm going back into Reconcile, and it's saying the opening balance is $3232.42. 

Is there a place where I can go to put in the beginning balance?

To correct your beginning balance for reconciliation in QuickBooks Desktop, let me provide you with different scenarios that can address your questions, @AC_Counting.

When you undo a reconciliation from previous months, the beginning balance may appear incorrect because transactions from later months are mistakenly recorded as part of that month. If you want QuickBooks to resolve the difference, you can choose to ignore the discrepancy in the February reconciliation. To do this, select the Enter Adjustment to complete the reconciliation process, and QuickBooks will automatically create a journal entry in a special expense account called Reconciliation Discrepancies to fix the reconciliation.

If you want to clear the February statement, you can uncheck the transactions in the checkbook. Subsequently, this adjustment requires you to redo the reconciliation for February to ensure accuracy.

Lastly, you can create a journal entry to record the correct opening balance and reconcile the transactions. It will establish your beginning balance for the following month's reconciliation.

To proceed with creating a journal entry, here's how:

1. In the Company menu, choose Make General Journal Entries.
2. Adjust the date to the correct statement date for your beginning balance.
3. From the Account dropdown, pick the account you want.
4. In the Debit column, enter the correct opening balance and select Opening Balance Equity, then tick Save.

After that, you can now reconcile your transactions.

1. From the Banking menu, select Reconcile.
2. Choose an Account and enter the matching statement date and ending balance from your journal entry.
3. Choose Continue.
4. Select the Journal Entry in Deposits and Other Credits,
5. Once done, click Reconcile Now.

To help you further with fixing the beginning balance, please refer to this article: Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Additionally, if you want to export your previous reconciliation reports from QuickBooks to analyze them in Microsoft Excel, you can do so easily. For detailed steps on this, see this reference: Export reports as Excel workbooks in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance with fixing your beginning balance or managing your financial entries, I'm here to help. Remember that the QuickBooks Community team is also available to support you throughout this process.

So I unchecked the February invoices, clicked on Reconcile, put in the 02/28/25 date and the true ending balance for February. What pops up are already cleared transactions from November of 2024 and February of 2024. I re-check them on the checkbook but they don't stay checked. They keep popping up on the reconciliation. 

I don't know what I did, but it's working now. The numbers are correct. Maybe I just needed to shut Quickbooks down and reopen it.

@AC_Counting  Brain's too muggy today to add much to this, but I did want to pop in for this part from @KayePe  :

"To do this, select the Enter Adjustment to complete the reconciliation process, and QuickBooks will automatically create a journal entry in a special expense account called Reconciliation Discrepancies to fix the reconciliation."

Do not ever do this.

This is the equivalent of solving a jigsaw puzzle by shoving harder on the pieces, and I can't imagine why this function was ever added to QB.

Well, I don't know what I did or what happened, but I was able to get the February statement reconciled. But you'd think Quickbooks would be a little more forthcoming of what the problem is and how to fix it easily when there's a problem. 

Thanks for following up with the Community, AC_Counting.

I'm happy to hear you were able to get your numbers displaying correctly for the account.

You can find many detailed resources about using QuickBooks in our help article archives.

Please feel welcome to send a reply here or create a new thread if there's ever any questions. The Community's always here to help. Have an awesome Friday!

Hello,

I have a question,,

How will you know when you get to a reconciliation with no errors? 

I check previous reconciliation reports. There are two ways there, one as it was when reconciled  and one that shows any changes made.

Well all of the as it was shows exactly what the reconciliations were and numbers are all what it should have been, but if I choose to show 

the report that shows any changes made, the numbers do not match.

How do you address this issue?

Please and Thank you 

It’s normal for the numbers won't match because the changes made report only shows the updates you made after reconciliation, @jbs55.

To make sure your data is spot on, you can easily cross-check it using our Audit Trail feature. This handy tool gives you a detailed history of everything you’ve changed, including any edits or deletions.

Here’s how to access it:

1. Click on Reports in the top menu bar.

2. Select Account & Taxes.

3. Then, click Audit Trail.

Here's a visual reference:

You can also check this article that can help guide you to generate reports in your QBDT to show the information you need: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

When everything is settled you may want to visit this article Year-end guide for QuickBooks Desktop to learn how to prepare financial statements for tax filing and reporting by reviewing and reconciling accounts and generating reports.

Should you have other questions or concerns, you can always get back to us anytime. I'd be glad to help you and resolve it right away. Have a great day and take care!

So, This is my issue. I undone a previous reconciliation for October 2024. Then I contacted Quickbooks Intuit. They had me to undo another reconciliation as well. I was hesitant but did.

To add to this I was also instructed by my CPA to make sure there are no double entries, well this is where my troubles started. I accidentilly deleted a reconciled transaction ,when I went to recreate it something went wrong. It is in Bill pay. so it is in the register for one month and when I open it it is showing a different month in the date field. I have been looking and trying but can not get this to cooperate. I am to the point and do not know what else to do. I have not had any training, what I have learned is figuring it out. I could really use any and all help I can get. For now, I am shutting it down and going home I will come back tomorrow and try again. Hopefully somebody will see this and know how to help me get pass this wall I am up against.  Thank you in advance for any help sent to me.

We appreciate the additional context about your concern with reconciliations, jbs55. I'll provide details that can help you clear out the bill payment.

However, I'd like to ask for more details to make sure we square this out. What steps have you already taken to try to correct the bill payment date? Did you see any error messages when doing it?

In the meantime, you might want to try deleting the transaction. Then, recreate it carefully, making sure to input the correct date. This often helps resolve common date-related issues.

Also, please know that QuickBooks Desktop offers an off-cycle reconciliation process. This option is usually used in the following situations, which might be relevent to you:

• A user accidentally undid or reversed the last reconciliation.
• A reconciled transaction was inadvertently changed or deleted.
• Cleared transactions were unchecked (uncleared) in the account register.

Follow these steps on how to initiate the process:

1. Go to the Banking menu and select Reconcile.
2. Choose the account that you're trying to sort out.
3. Proceed to the Statement Date field, then enter the date for an "off-cycle reconciliation." This date can be any date between your last reconciliation and the next scheduled one.
4. Please note that when you enter an "off-cycle" date, it will remind you that you're doing a mini-reconciliation. This puts previously unreconciled transactions back without affecting the "cycle" that they follow.
5. Enter the balance of your last successful reconciliation in the Ending Balance field, then select Continue.
6. Check off the transactions you are fixing and re-reconciling, then make sure the Difference field shows $0.00.
7. When everything looks good, select Reconcile Now.

Let me share these articles that provide more details about this option :

• Reconcile previously deleted and re-entered checking or credit card transactions
• Fix issues when you're reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop

Although it's still best to check with your accountant for a comprehensive review of your reconciliation and personalized professional advice.

Lastly, let me also add these articles as additional resource materials in case you might need them when working with your reconciliations:

• Get reports for previous reconciliations in QuickBooks Desktop
• Reconcile an account for multiple months or years of transactions and financial statements

Visit us again or reply to us one more time to share additional details when sorting out reconciliations and other bookkeeping-related tasks in QuickBooks. We'll make sure to jump right back to make sure we provide the help that you need.

Thank you for responding. I have recreated the transaction, but everything is still off. I have thought about the mini recon but I do not want to mess things up anymore than they are. The accountant is busy and can not help at the moment I just want to get it corrected so I can move on. Instead of this nightmare each day.

Thanks for following up with the Community, jbs55.

To properly identify how to correct your bill payment date and any other accidental changes that were made, I'd recommend working with an accounting professional. If you're in need of one, there's an awesome tool on our website called Find a ProAdvisor. All ProAdvisors listed there are QuickBooks-certified and able to provide helpful insights for driving your business's success.

Here's how it works:
 

1. Go to our Find a ProAdvisor page.
2. Use the City or ZIP search field to specify a location.
3. Select Find a ProAdvisor.
4. Browse through your results and find one that works best for the business. You can click on each ProAdvisor's profile to learn more information about them.
   
   

Once you've found an accountant, they can be contacted through their Send a message form.

You'll also be able to find many detailed resources about using QuickBooks in our help article archives.

If there's any additional questions, I'm just a post away. Have an awesome Wednesday!