What if my beginning balance doesn't match my statement when I reconcile? (2024)

QB Issue Resolution:

When you open the Begin Reconciliation window and select an account to reconcile, the opening balance displayed doesn’t match the ending balance from your previous reconciliation.

Why this is happening

This issue can occur for several reasons:

1. If this is the first time you’re reconciling this account, either no balance was entered or an incorrect balance was entered.
2. You may have voided, deleted, or changed the amount of a previously cleared transaction since your last reconciliation.
3. Occasionally, the company data file may be damaged (this isn’t common).

How to fix it

To resolve this issue, do one of the following:

• If this is the first time you’re reconciling this account,correct the opening balancefor the account.

  If the opening balance is zero, enter the opening balance for the account.

  If the opening balance is an amount other than zero, change the opening balance for an account in use.

• If you think you’ve voided, deleted, or changed the amount of a previously cleared transaction,correct the edited transactions.

  To help you find the edited transactions:

  1. Run a Reconcile Discrepancy report.
     1. Choose Reports > Banking > Reconciliation Discrepancy.
     2. Select the appropriate account and click OK.
     3. Use this list of transactions to identify the transaction(s) causing the problem.

        Note: This report provides a list of transactions that were changed since the last reconciliation.

     4. If you find a discrepancy, note both dates:
        • The transaction date is the date when the transaction occurred.
        • The Entered/Last Modified date tells you when the change occurred.
  2. Run a Previous Reconciliation report.
     1. Choose Reports > Banking > Previous Reconciliation.
     2. Select the appropriate account, select the statement ending date, and click Display.
     3. Compare this report to past statements from your financial institution and look for differences.

  To correct the discrepancy, you may need to:

  • Enter missing transactions.
  • Edit existing transactions.
  • Undo a previous reconciliation and redo it.
  • Ignore the discrepancy and let QuickBooks enter an offsetting adjustment.
  • Contact your financial institution about a banking error.
• If you’ve previously reconciled the account without problems and haven’t made any changes to previously cleared transactions, it’s possible you have data damage. Run the Verify Data utility followed by the Rebuild Data utility to correct the damage. You may also need to troubleshoot your company file for damaged transactions.