Reconciliation opening balance differs from account balance

Thank you!

I have same problem as user named erroneous but am on Desktop Pro 2020 (for PC not MAC). My QB check register balance is correct and matches the actual bank balance but the Reconciliation Opening Balance is wrong. It relates to a deposit transaction my tax accountant deleted in the prior year while trying to fix an overpayment. The deposit is reflected correctly in my QB so have no idea what happened. When I try to follow your instructions and select Banking, there is no Chart of Accounts option. Please advise and thank you.

Hi @MJDuncan,

Thank you for joining the thread. I'll provide you the steps on how you can proceed.

In QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) for Windows, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Company tab.
2. Select Chart of Accounts.

At this point, you can follow the steps shared by my peer @DivinaMercy_N above. 

For additional details, you can also view this article: Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop. It has the steps on how to resolve a zero balance or an incorrect balance. 

Please know that you're always welcome to post here in the Community if you have other questions. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Ryan, thank you for your response. This option does not work because the item shows a check already in the check register. I enter my QB data quarterly because we are low volume. In Sep 2020, my tax accountant "cleaned up" a small customer overpayment from 2017. The discrepancy report shows she deleted the original deposit transaction but that is not accurate as it is still there - customer account balance is correct and the QB check register matches the actual bank balance. The only place the balance is not correct is in the reconciliation module. I hope this provides some additional context to my issue. Thank you and I look forward to your response. 

I've got here a great method for you to correct your reconciliation beginning balance issue in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), @MJDuncan.

You can do a special or mini-reconciliation to correct your opening balance. It's a process that uses an "off-cycle" reconciliation date to make a correction. Let me guide you how.

1. Go to the Banking menu. 
2. Choose Reconcile.
3. Select the bank account with the transactions (original deposit) you need to reconcile.
4. In the Statement Date field, enter a date (between your last reconciliation and the next scheduled one) for an "off-cycle reconciliation." 
5. Enter the balance of your last successful reconciliation in the Ending Balance field, then click Continue.
6. In the Reconcile window, check off the transactions you are fixing and re-reconciling.
7. Make sure the Difference field shows $0.00.
8. When everything looks good, click Reconcile Now.

You can learn more about this process through this article: Reconcile previously deleted and re-entered transactions.

In case you're still having trouble fixing your opening balance, I'd also recommend letting your accountant check your transactions (i.e. deleted original deposit or the overpayment from 2017). This way, you can keep your financial data accurate.

Additionally, you can learn more about fixing beginning balance issues through this article: How to fix the beginning balance discrepancies when doing reconciliation. It includes topics about undoing previous reconciliation and how to redo it.

Please let me know if you have other reconciliation concerns or inquiries. I'm just around to assist you further. Take care always.

Rea_M, THANK YOU! Your suggestion worked like a charm!

I have a relatively new QB file (barely a year).  Beginning Balance is off by 2500 since the last reconciliation.  I have unreconciled back a few months to the point that there are no transactions in that amount that could be throwing it off. Nor are there any general journal entries or other evidence of an entry error.  I've run data verification check and nothing turned up.  Audit trail was turned off.  It's as though the beginning account balance changed itself to -2500.

How does this happen?  Easiest way to fix it?

I'm running Mac desktop version.

I have a fairly new (18 months) company account.  Since the last reconciliation the beginning balance has decreased by $2500.  I've undone a few months reconciliation find where the error begins, but went back before any transactions of that amount and the discrepancy is still there.  I've run a data verification and all was well.  Audit trail was turned off. No General Journal entries at all in this file.  

It's as though the account beginning balance changed itself from $0 to -$2500.

How does this happen? What is the easiest way to fix it?

Hi hayslaw,

Let's run some steps to isolate what causes the beginning balance discrepancy. You can run the Reconciliation Discrepancy report to locate the transaction that causes the discrepancy. Here's how:

1. Click the Reports menu.
2. Under Banking, select Reconciliation Discrepancy.
3. Select the Account.
4. If you find a discrepancy, note the transaction date and the Entered/Last Modified, which will tell you when the change occurred.

If the balance is still off, you can run some data damage troubleshooting steps to fix this issue further. Here's an article as your guide: Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let me know if there's anything that I can help. Keep safe!

Hi,

I have a similar issue and looking for help.

History;

I am using a PC with Desktop Pro.  The files were loaded from my retired bookkeeper from a Mac sometime in April and she told me everything was reconciled through March, 2022.  Although I am many months behind on reconciliating, there are only about 30 transactions per month and I believe there shouldn't be any errors as I looked them over on paper.

The issue;

When I go to reconcile, the beginning balance is $713,xxx.xx, and it stays the same no matter what date I put in to reconcile.  This is obviously incorrect as the company since 2015 has never exceeded a $40,000 balance, and from what I have read, the issue was probably created by a corruption in the transfer from the Mac to PC.  When I open the register, the balance shown seems to be correct - I didn't reconcile by hand to see if there were outstanding checks but it is close enough to determine that it is right.  

My accountant suggested if I am going to create a Journal Entry, or what ever QuickBooks recommends, he would like me to change the beginning balance of Dec. 31, 2021, and confirm the check marks for the first few months, then reconcile the rest of the year in 2022.

As stated on the instructions QuickBooks had suggested, I have run the Discrepancy Report and Previous Reconciliation Report and they come up clean.  The Previous Reconciliation Report says there have never been any previous reconciliations.  I did get a bit confused trying to use the instructions that Divina posted on this string so I thought to reply to this post to get some guidance.

I have a case number where I've spent over an hour with a tech guy who couldn't help me with this.  I am usually not a complainer but just ask for someone that is experienced to help me as I am just getting back to QuickBooks after 15 years, but learning fast.  The case number is - [Removed]

Feel free to call, email or chat.

Thank you in advance,

John

Hello, John. 

I appreciate the details about the reconciliation and beginning balance issues. Since you've already called and left empty-handed, I'll take this opportunity to help you with these problems. 

There are possibilities as to why this happened. I'll list the three common factors on why there's an incorrect beginning balance (with no prior reconciled transactions):

• Possible data corruption (could've happened during the transition to QuickBooks Desktop Pro from Mac).
• A wrong company file was used when converting (could've been a backup copy). 
• Your reconciled transactions were all unreconciled (errors during the transition). 

Let's do a simple run by running the Verify and Rebuild utilities to fix the data corruption: 

Run the Verify utility: 

1. Go to File, then hover on Utilities. 
2. Select Verify Data.
3. Follow the prompts to proceed with the Verify process. 

Once done, run the Rebuild utility: 

1. Go to File again, then hover on Utilities.
2. Select Rebuild Data this time. 
3. Follow the prompts to start the data fixes. 

Check your beginning balances again. We also need to review your bank register for the reconciled transactions. 

If there are no issues, then it's likely that a wrong backup copy or file was used during the transition. Check your recent backups from your Mac, then convert it again with the correct file. 

Alternatively, we can stick with the current company file in QuickBooks Desktop Pro. Then, we'll create a journal entry as what your accountant mentioned. Generally, we would want to correct the beginning balance and ensure the amount is correct.

A guide can be found here: Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Although, if you need help with this, I suggest consulting your accountant again. They'll guide you on what accounts to select for the journal entry. 

If everything is correct, then it's likely that your records were unreconciled when transitioning to QuickBooks Desktop Pro. Happens when there are potential data issues, then the system somehow pushes with the conversion. 

In this case, we'll want to do a special reconciliation. We'll want to look at the bank statement as our reference.

Make sure to enter the correct amount in the Ending Balance field. Set the correct Statement Date for your accounting period as well. 

If you need help with the reconciliation, check out this article: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop. 

After fixing the issues, do you need help following up with your customers' balances, receipts, and invoices? We can email their transactions within QuickBooks. Take a look at this guide if you need help: Email sales forms, invoices, and statements in QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to drop by again if you need more help with the reconciliation process. If you'd like to take care of other things like your expenses, taxes, or payroll, let me know and I'll gladly help out again. 

Hi JamesPaul,

Thank you for the quick reply.

As you suggested I just ran the Verify Data Report and it came up with a few duplicate names, and prompted me to click to Rebuild Data.  When I click on Rebuild as prompted, it says "Errors that rebuilding you company files wont fix", Error 213.  There is a link to the article but that web page doesn't open.

Thanks,

John

Hi Jamespaul,

Not sure if you received my last reply.  I ran the two utilities you suggested, actually the first one prompted me to the Rebuild.  I have an error 213 and it says there are duplicate E Check names in 9 and 10.  I am currently searching on how to change those names because the article it links to doesn't seem to open.

I appreciate you trying out the steps provided by my colleague and for letting us know the results, @John1400. I'll share an insight to fix your query about error 213. 

The only reason that causes QB Desktop to encounter error 213 is duplicate entries in the QBWin.log file. Various types of lists need to be managed for effective data management like the customer, employee, class, item, vendor, and names. Error 213 occurs when QuickBooks finds a duplicate entry in the Accounts list of the data. 

Currently, you need to change at least one character and merge or delete them to resolve the duplicate. Before doing so, make sure to take a backup of your company file on your desktop or any removable storage device before following the troubleshooting steps to avoid any data loss. 

Here's how to find the duplicate names using the QBWin.log file:

1. Find QBWin.log or QuickBooks.log files.
2. Press Ctrl + End to move to the bottom of the file.
3. Press Ctrl + F to bring up the Find window and find the word "duplicate" in the log.
4. Locate the name, account, customer message, etc., referenced in the error message.

Then, you can start editing the duplicate name. I'll walk you through the steps below:

1. Edit one of the names:
   1. Open the list the name is on. (Customer List, Vendor List, and so on.)
   2. Double-click the name in the list to edit.
   3. Change at least 1 character of the name to differentiate it from its duplicate.
   4. Click OK.
2. Repeat Step 1 for all duplicate names mentioned in the QBWin.log.
3. Run the Verify Data Utility to ensure there are no more duplicate names.

The following article contains additional information about this, as well as steps for finding and editing the duplicate names: QBWin.log: Verify list. Duplicate name encountered. 

If the issue persists, I recommend reaching out to our QuickBooks Desktop Support team for better assistance, our phone agents will be able to assist you in getting this resolved. 

1. Go to the Help menu and select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact us.
3. Enter a brief description of your concern.
4. Choose either Start messaging or Get a callback. 

Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions about Error 213. I'm still here for you if you need further assistance. Have a good one.