I am attempting to complete a bank reconciliation but the beginning bank balance has changed

Hi Dennis,

When your beginning balance has changed, the possible causes are as follows:

• Entering an incorrect opening balance when the account is created in QuickBooks.
• Adding transactions older than the opening balance but failing to update the original opening balance entry to reflect the change.
• Edited, deleted, moved, or unreconciled an already reconciled transaction. This changes the ending balance of your last reconciliation, which impacts the beginning balance of the next one.
• Manually reconciling a transaction, causing it not to show up in the next reconciliation.

To resolve this issue, gather the bank statements for the account and date range you want to reconcile. Then, access the Bank transactions section in QuickBooks Online, and ensure that all transactions from that period have been matched, categorized, posted, or excluded.

If the beginning balance doesn’t match the ending balance of the last reconciliation, an alert will appear that reads: "Your account isn't ready to reconcile yet. Your beginning balance is off by..."

Click the link in the alert that says: "We can help you fix it." This will open the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report. The Change Type column in the report will tell you what has changed.

Follow the instructions provided in the report to make the necessary corrections.

• If a transaction was deleted, recreate it exactly as it appears in the discrepancy report.
• To adjust the amount or account of a transaction, refer to the Amount changed section within the article: Fix issues with your beginning balance for accounts you've reconciled before.

If you have other concerns, feel free to leave us a message.