Adding previous years threw off reconciliation by opening balance

KylerG · ‎June 22, 2021

I first reconciled my account with an opening balance entry recorded in Owner's Investment on 1/1/2020 until the present day. I recently added the entire year of 2019 and changed the opening balance entry to the date of 1/1/2019 and it's corresponding beginning balance. I also unreconciled this entry in the chart of accounts.

Reconciliation now complains that my beginning balance is off and by the amount of the 1/1/2020 opening balance when it was originally reconciled even though my Bank Balance and QBO Balance now perfectly match. I understand that this is because I reconciled with the opening amount of 1/1/2020 initially and this is no longer reconciled but how do I go about fixing this?

DivinaMercy_N · ‎June 22, 2021

Thanks for getting back here, @KylerG.

As long as the previous dates 1/1/2020 of your transactions are reconciled, it could fix the difference. Also, the steps you took in manually reconciling the entries in the register were correct that results in matched opening balance. Check out this link for more info: Reconcile transactions that are older than your opening balance in QuickBooks Online.

For your additional reference, see this article: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

To have a copy of your reconciliation for the previous period, you can pull up a reconciliation report. This is also a big help so you can avoid issues in doing future reconciliations.

Keep me posted if you have other questions about reconciling your account. I'll be on the lookout for your response. Have a good one.

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KylerG · ‎June 22, 2021

I attempted to correct for this by making two entries, one on 1/1/2020 that credits the Bank for the Opening Balance on that date from Owner's Investment and one on 12/31/2019 that debits the Bank for the same amount as Owner's Pay & Personal Expenses. I manually changed the first entry to "Reconciled" from the bank register. I'm not sure if this is the preferred solution but it seems to work. Thoughts?

Jovychris_A · ‎June 22, 2021

I know this could be a long way to run but I'm here to help share some insights to fix the opening balance, @KylerG.

The Opening Balance is the Ending Balance of the previous period of reconciliation. That means you'll have to fix the reconciled transactions in the previous year (2019) for you to fix the opening balance (2020). The entries in your bank are correct, you've made two entries and then reconciled the debit transaction for 12/31/2019 this helped QuickBooks to resolve the Opening Balance on 1/1/2020.

To ensure that you'll be guided in cases like this, I'd suggest checking your bank statement to make sure that the transactions you've added and reconciled are correct. I also encourage you to consult an accountant to check if the accounts that you've made credits and debits are correct.

You can also refer to the below articles that can help fix opening balance issues:

I'm always here to assist anytime if you have other concerns with bank reconciliation. I'm always here to help you out. Stay safe and well!

KylerG · ‎June 22, 2021

I consulted with a QBO certified accountant who was getting paid $150/hr and he basically said he didn't know. That's why I posted here and tried to correct the problem on my own. I manually reconciled all transactions day by day by looking through the register transactions while referencing the bank statements and made sure the ending balance each day matched what I had in QBO.

DivinaMercy_N · ‎June 22, 2021

Thanks for getting back here, @KylerG.

As long as the previous dates 1/1/2020 of your transactions are reconciled, it could fix the difference. Also, the steps you took in manually reconciling the entries in the register were correct that results in matched opening balance. Check out this link for more info: Reconcile transactions that are older than your opening balance in QuickBooks Online.

For your additional reference, see this article: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

To have a copy of your reconciliation for the previous period, you can pull up a reconciliation report. This is also a big help so you can avoid issues in doing future reconciliations.

Keep me posted if you have other questions about reconciling your account. I'll be on the lookout for your response. Have a good one.

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Adding previous years threw off reconciliation by opening balance