Why don't ending and cleared balances do not match?

Let's work hand in hand to fix the differences in your account, ABC1236. 

There are some reasons why this occurs, which may cause damage data, and we can fix this by performing the Verify data and Rebuild utility tools in QuickBooks Desktop. This way, it'll return to its default order and automatically fixes minor company record data issues. The Verify Data utility identifies any potential data damage issues, while the Rebuild Data utility repairs data in your company file.  

If the program is in multi-user mode, you need to change to single user mode (Go to File -> Switch to Single User Mode). It is very important that you have to create a backup copy of your company file before running Verify and Rebuild Data.   

Verify Data:  

1. Press the File menu.  
2. Choose Utilities from the drop-down option.   
3. Select Verify Data.  
4. Tap Ok to continue.  

Note: If the verify process is successful, you are done. In case it fails due to some problem, QuickBooks will notify you to run Rebuild data.  

Rebuild Data:  

1. Click the File tab at the top. 
2. Select Utilities from the drop-down option.  
3. Choose Rebuild Data.  
4. Click Ok on Rebuild has completed.     

When the verify/rebuilding data finished, we can close and reopen your file to revamp it. Or restart your computer to refresh your QuickBooks data.   

However, if the issue persists after doing the steps above, I suggest contacting our QuickBooks Desktop Support Team. They'll be able to pull up your account in a secure environment and help you navigate using one of their tools. 

Let me know how everything goes by leaving a comment below or if there's anything else I can help you. I'm always around to help you out. Take care!

I found the verify data option from the utilities group. The Verify data function did not find any issues with the data, so the rebuild utility tool was not needed.

I contacted help through a chat session and was provided some standard instructions for finding discrepancies and reconciliation. I read the instructions and ran some of the reports, but found nothing and didn't expect to. I do this work for a small business and it was a slow month. As mentioned in the previous post, there were only a few debits and credits, the beginning balances matched and the cleared balances matched. 

I don't really understand where the $60 difference came from when I am the only one who uses Quickbooks. 

My only option is pay the $300 cost for support out of my own pocket for QB support. 

Is there anything from QB which clearly explains the difference between cleared and ending balance and how they can differ when the beginning balance is the same and all the credits and debits match. 

Your response was totally unhelpful. My original question was that my beginning balance in QB matches the bank statement. The bank statement ending balance matches the QB cleared balance. I have four debits and four credits in the QB journal. The four debit entries match and equal bank statement debit total. The four credit entries do the same.

The QB ending balance is $60 higher than the QB cleared balance. 

I am the only one who uses QB.  I have no idea where to look for the $60 discrepancy.

Thanks for getting back here in the thread @ABC1236.

The best way to locate the discrepancy of $60 on your QuickBooks Desktop account is to contact our QuickBooks Support. Also, please provide them your bank statement. In that way, they can compare the transaction that is entered on your QuickBooks and your financial institution statement.

Please follow these steps on how to contact our QuickBooks Support:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Choose the QuickBooks Desktop Help tab.
3. Enter your concern.
4. Click the Contact Us button.
5. Select Continue.
6. Choose either Start messaging or Get a callback.
7. Fill up all the information needed.
8. Click Submit or Confirm my call.

I'd also recommend visiting this article to make sure we address your inquiry on time: Support hours and types.

You might want to use the Previous Reconciliation report so you can review your past reconciliation, you can refer this link for more information: Get reports for previous reconciliations in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to leave a message in the comment section. I'm always around here in the Community to help. Take care, and have a good day.

My apologies. You did help me understand what I needed to understand. 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread.  I'm facing a similar issue. Can you please share what the solution was?

Hello, CScotty.

I'll highlight the solution and elaborate it to resolve the balance discrepancies. 

It looks like ABC1236's issue has been resolved by one of my colleagues, JessT. 

Looking back to his original response, you'll want to review your bank register and those previously reconciled transactions. What we're looking for is the transaction that causes the discrepancy.

I'm permalinking their answer for convenience: JessT's response. 

You also mentioned that the February 20 (your last thread) is correctly reconciled with the correct balances (cleared and ending balances). In this case, you can start reviewing those transactions up until the current period. 

When you finally locate the discrepancy, do a special reconciliation to correct the balances.

I do recommend reaching out to an accountant before doing this. They'll ensure your books are accurate and correct when dealing with the current period. 

We do have other articles to help you out in other processes. Check them out if you need assistance recording the current period's transactions. 

I'll share other processes to help you out in managing your books in the Desktop platform. Just let me know by creating a new thread. I'll be there to assist you. 

I am having the same issue, and it's frustrating to say the least.

My previous reconciliation shows a Cleared Balance that matched my bank & Quickbooks.. Life is good.. Well, until the next statement comes in.. My current bank statement MATCHES the PREVIOUS RECONILIATION REPORT under the "Cleared Balance", yet this is NOT the Beginning Balance that was previously reconciled.. I try to go back to the previous month, and the numbers are still off.

There were no previous changes or deletions to understand why the reports are not matching up.. 

Please help.

Mike

Help is here, mgraschke.

Issues with beginning balance can be fixed by the following a few steps.

The first step is to review the original opening balance before checking your bank statement. Make sure you're working with the correct account for the correct month. Then you can match and categorize downloaded transactions.

Once done, you can run the Discrepancy report. This will show the transactions that affects the incorrect balance and what are the changes you need to make.

Here's how:

1. Go to Accounting and choose Reconcile.
2. Select the We can help you fix it link to open your discrepancy report.
   
3. Review the discrepancy report. Use it to decide if and how to make changes.
4. Before editing anything, talk with whoever made the changes - they may be intentional.

Once done, review each transaction on the report one at a time:

1. Select View to see the history of changes to the transaction.
2. Review the Change Type column. This tells you what changed.  
3. Make edits based on the message in the Change Type column:

Here's an article that provides more details on how to fix issues with beginning balance: Fix issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past in QuickBooks Online.

 You can check out these articles that can give some insight into reconciling and split transactions: 

• Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online

• Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks

I want to make sure that you're able to get back to running your business as soon as possible. I'll be back around shortly. 

I am not using QBO.. Using Quickbooks Premier Desktop version..

Hello, mgraschke.

I can guide you in fixing the incorrect beginning balance.

You can run Reconcile Discrepancy or Audit Trail report to fix the incorrect balance. I'll show you how.

Here's how to run the Reconcile Discrepancy report:

1. Click the Reports menu, then select Banking.

2. Choose Reconciliation Discrepancy.

3. Select the appropriate Account, then hit OK.

4. You now have a list of transactions that were changed since the last reconciliation. Use this report to identify the transactions causing the issue.

5. If you find a discrepancy, note the transaction date and the Entered/Last Modified, which will tell you when the change occured.

Here's how to run the Audit Trail report:

1. Click the Reports menu, then select Banking.

2. Choose the Previous Reconciliation.

3. Select the appropriate account being reconciled.

4. Click the most recent statement date. Choose Transactions cleared at the time of reconciliation, then hit Display.

5. Note the statement and the reconciliation creation date.

6. Go to the Reports menu again, then select Accountant & taxes, and then Audit trail.

7. Set the Account filter to the account being reconciled.

8. Go to the Display tab and set the Date filter with the From field blank and the To date set to the statement date.

9. Select OK, then set the Entered/Modified filter with the From date set to the previous reconciliation creation date from the PDF, and the To field as today's date.

10. See if any of the transactions in the report can account for the discrepancy.

To correct the discrepancy, you need to re-enter or edit the transactions in QuickBooks Desktop.

You can review this guide for more info: Fix issues when you're reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let us know if you have further questions about your beginning balance. We're always here to help you.

Hi, I have been through my Quickbooks, my bank account and my paperwork.  Nothing is unaccounted for and yet, there is a discrepancy of $1008 that I cannot for the life of me find the cause.  I am diligent about my bank statement and keeping up with QBB but I am stumped.  Can anyone help?

Hello there, @Breesgal. I'm here to further help you fix the incorrect balance in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

Let's start with running the Reconcile Discrepancy report, Audit Trail report, or Previous Reconciliation report to verify what transactions cause the discrepancy. For the instructions, you can perform the steps outlined by my colleague, Giovann_G.

Then, to fix the discrepancy, you might have to re-create or edit the transactions. You may also want to perform the following options in fixing the balance:

Undo a previous reconciliation and redo it

1. First, create a backup copy of your company file.
2. Next, from the Begin Reconciliation window, click Undo Last Reconciliation.
3. Select Continue then, OK when prompted.
4. Close and reopen the Begin Reconciliation window.

Another option is to ignore the discrepancy and let QBDT enter an offsetting adjustment. To do so, you'll have to select the Enter Adjustment button to complete the reconciliation. Once done, the program will automatically enter a Journal Entry under a special expense account named Reconciliation Discrepancies. 

If in case the discrepancy is caused by a banking error that shows when you download or import the transactions, you may need to contact your bank to fix it. When calling your bank, request a representative who is knowledgeable with QuickBooks Bank Feeds and account activation.

For more information fixing the reconciliation discrepancy, please see this article: Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Then, to further guide you with the reconciliation process, check out our Reconciliation hub. 

In case you'll need helpful links and guides to assist you in doing QuickBooks tasks, you can visit our QuickBooks Help page. From here, you'll find a number of help articles and even video tutorials based on the QuickBooks feature you've searched. You can also bookmark them in your browser for easy access and use them as your future reference.

I'm always here to help if you need further assistance fixing your QuickBooks and bank balance. Don't hesitate to post your concern here. Have a good one.

Well I give up.  I haven’t found any errors yet, and the previous reconciliation discrepancy report for the period I put in (end of last reconciliation) was zero.  Truthfully, I know just enough about Quickbooks to get myself into real trouble so I’m a little worried about undoing anything, even with a backup.  I’m just flummoxed that this happened and I can’t get to the bottom of it.  Last reconciliation was fine.  I was shocked this wasn’t. 

Hey Breesgal, 

Thank you for reaching back out! If you would like I recommend contacting our Support Team and they can walk you through the steps when it comes to backing up the company file and so forth. They even have the tools to do a screen share in a secured environment. Here's how to get in touch with us:

1. Go to the Help menu, then click QuickBooks Desktop Help or press the F1 key.
2. Hit the Contact Us button, as seen in the display.
3. Enter a brief description of the problem.
4. Select Continue.
5. Choose which method you would like to connect. The options will be chat or our call back feature but in this case choose the call back feature.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.  Also, don't hesitate to share how the interaction go. I'll be around. Take care and be safe.

Unfortunately they won't help me because my plan (2019 Pro) doesn't have a support plan.  I have NO INTENTION of upgrading until after I do my taxes next year.  I asked the woman if she could steer me to a place I could ACTUALLY get help and she just kept repeating, "We're the level 1 technicians who can help you with this.  Would you like to buy...."  I told her what I said above, not until after my taxes.  But she wouldn't give me any other avenue for help.  This is ridiculous.  The ending balance is greater than the cleared balance by about $791.  I'm about to just do an adjustment and call it a day.  

That "help" call just infuriated me because, even if I didn't want to buy anything, she could have at LEAST given me some online place to turn to besides the QBB community.   But nope.  All she wanted to do was sell me something. 

My balance is off by the checks that have not cleared

I have not checked the checks that have not cleared, but the balance is still off by the amount of the checks that have not cleared

Hello there, @joanneMM. Thank you for joining the Community today. I would be glad to assist you in resolving the uncleared checks to ensure that the balance amount is not off, allowing you to reconcile your account in QuickBooks.

To ensure accuracy, it is important to verify that the checks have been cleared by your physical bank. Once cleared, you can proceed to add and match the transactions in QuickBooks. In the event of a duplicate transaction, you can match them to prevent any discrepancies in the balance amount. For more details, about adding and matching bank transactions, see this article: Add and match Bank Feed transactions in QuickBooks Desktop.

Once the transaction is added, you can manually reconcile the transaction. This will help you balance the amount and make sure your accounts in QuickBooks match your real-life bank and credit card statements. 

Here's how:

1. Head to the Lists menu.
2. Go to Chart of Accounts.
3. Open the appropriate account.
4. Locate the transaction and select it to expand the view.
5. Keep clicking the Checkmark column until you see an asterisk (*).
6. Click Record, then hit Yes to confirm the action.
   

For more details about reconciling, see this article: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop.

If the issue persists, let's start with running the Reconcile Discrepancy report, Audit Trail report, or Previous Reconciliation report to verify what transactions cause the discrepancy.

Here's how to run the Reconcile Discrepancy report:

1. Click the Reports menu, then select Banking.

2. Choose Reconciliation Discrepancy.

3. Select the appropriate Account, then hit OK.

4. You now have a list of transactions that were changed since the last reconciliation. Use this report to identify the transactions causing the issue.

5. If you find a discrepancy, note the transaction date and the Entered/Last Modified, which will tell you when the change occurred.

For more information about fixing issues with reconciling, see this article: Fix issues when you're reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop.

To view the reconciliation report and print it, you can go to the Reports Center and run either Detail, Summary, or Both. To personalize the reports, see this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to post them in the Community or reply to this post. We are here to assist you and offer our support. Take care.