How to correct my reconciliation beginning balance when reconciling? Nov rec balanced all matched. Went to rec Dec, the beginning balance is incorrect.

Good afternoon, @theresa9.

I'm here to help you fix the reconcile. 

When reconciling an account, you compare transactions in QuickBooks with the ones on your bank statements. In the end, the difference between the two records should be $0.00.

If it's not, or you reconciled an account before, and the ending balance changed, don't worry. Here's how to find and fix issues so you can finish reconciling:

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.

Several reports in QuickBooks would show you if anything were changed, deleted, or added.

Run a Reconciliation Discrepancy report

This report shows any transactions that changed since your last reconciliation. Statement dates sort them.

1. Go to the Reports menu. Hover over Banking and select Reconciliation Discrepancy.
2. Choose 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.

Use this report to see if any transactions changed.

1. Go to the Reports menu. Hover over Custom Reports and select Transaction Detail.
2. Click 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. From 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 area to today's date.
8. Choose 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. 

When everything is corrected, you can finish reconciling.

The steps above should get you back on track. If you have any other questions, I'm only a reply away.

Hi Joshua R,

Thank you for the explanation. What I found is that when I finished my November reconciliation all balanced in QB & my bank statements. Now that its time to reconcile December's statement, the beginning reconciliation balance in QB is different.

What I don't get is why the change. It all balanced. I'm reluctant to enter any adjustments as it might offset other amounts and/or accounts.  This all occurred after I did an upgrade that QB  had.

I guess my question would be to make an adjustment and keep notes when its time to send it to my account?

Hello there, theresa9,

If the beginning reconciliation balance is different from your bank statement, there might be transactions that were changed, deleted or added.

Before you do an adjustment, have you tried running the Reconciliation Discrepancy report? The report shows any transaction that were changed since your last reconciliation. I recommend doing that to determine what transactions changed. You can follow the steps provided by my colleague Joshua R.

Please let me know if you have other questions. I'll be here to assist you.

Let's check if this is a result of a company file issue, theresa9.

The Reconciliation Discrepancy report will show us what's causing this incorrect beginning balance. We can rebuild your company data to see if it's the reason of this error. This is how to do it:

1. Go to File menu.
2. Select Utilities, then click Verify data. 
3. Choose File menu again, Utilities then Rebuild Data.
4. Click OK when you get the message "Rebuild has completed".

Once done, let's check again if the beginning balance for December is now correct. 

If the same thing happens, we can perform a mini reconciliation. This method will resolve the discrepancy by doing a correction.

1. From the Banking menu, select Reconcile.
2. Select the affected account. In the Date of Statement field, enter a date between your last reconciliation (November) and the next scheduled one (December).
3. Enter the Ending Balance of your last successful reconciliation. Hit Continue.
4. Check the transaction in the Reconcile window that's causing this error, and make sure the Difference field shows $0.00.
5. Hit Reconcile Now.

After these steps, QuickBooks will asks if you want to Create a Payment Check or Create a Bill to Pay Later. Just select Create a Bill to Pay Later,  then Clear. This is to balance your account.

Comment again if you need further assistance about reconciliation. Have a great day!