Correct Beginning Balance to Reconcile

Hey there, @CaitlinAriadne.

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us here in the Community. I appreciate all the details you've included. 

First I wanted say awesome job for researching and using our help articles. That's a great start with any troubleshooting for QuickBooks. 

In QuickBooks Online, when there hasn't been an opening balance created for an account, you'll need to create a Journal Entry. However, please know you can only create a Journal Entry if you haven't reconciled the account yet.

If you've reconciled it, or if you have questions, reach out to your accountant. This can get tricky and they know how to handle the next steps. Don't have an accountant? Don't sweat. We can help you find one.

For additional details about this process, kindly check out our help article for creating opening balances I've included below.

• What to do if you didn't enter an opening balance in QuickBooks Online

Now that your opening balance is fixed, you can begin with your reconcile. 

If these are the same help articles that you've checked out before, I wanted to clarify if you're using QuickBooks Online or possibly QuickBooks Desktop? These are different programs, so the steps listed for one won't work for the other. 

Just incase you're using QuickBooks Desktop, I've gone ahead and included our help articles for this process below. 

• Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop
• Reconcile an account in QuickBools Desktop

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any additional questions or concerns. I'm always around to lend a hand. Take care!

Hello,

I am having the same problem. I did create an opening balance on the Journal but still haven't been able to fix the beginning balance. Please, help!

Thanks!

I'm here to help you fix the beginning balance upon reconciling your account, @radomira.

When creating a journal entry for the beginning balance, double-check that you entered the proper date. Also, note that the opening balance may or may not include transactions that are still pending when you created the account. 

To do that, you'll have to review the balance shown in QuickBooks. Here's how:

1. If you recently added older transactions dated before the opening balance, see this to know how to reconcile them. After that, follow the next steps to continue.
2. Click on the Accounting menu, then choose Chart of Accounts.
3. Search for the account on the list.
4. Hit  View register.
5. Search for the opening balance entry. It should have "Opening Balance Equity" in the Account column.
6. Keep note of the date and balance.

Read this article and utilize steps 2 to 3 to completely fix issues reconciliation: Learn how to review your beginning balance and look for issues for accounts you haven't reconciled b...

Here are other resources to know more on how to handle issues when reconciling the account:

• What to do if you didn't enter an opening balance in QuickBooks Online
• Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks

You're always welcome to comment back for further assistance about this matter or QuickBooks in general. We're glad to back you up. Have a great rest of the week!

Mich_S, you are amazing!!! Thank you very much for your help. That "R" was the big problem. Thank you very much!!!