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Brenda in Canada
May 10, 2022
Question

Entering a beginning bank statement balance when there are existing transactions already recorded, in Desktop

  • May 10, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I have a large company who switched from Sage to QB in January 2022.  There were no accountants involved in the setup of the company.  When the new Chart of Accounts was set up, no one entered the bank rec information of opening bank statement balance, and outstanding bank transactions.  Thousands of transactions have been recorded before I arrived on the scene and tried to do a bank rec.  I cannot enter an opening bank statement balance.  I follow the links in the chart of accounts section, but there is no way to actually enter it.  I have spent over 3 hours on the phone with QuickBooks support.  They clearly have no idea how to do this, as they told me to make a journal entry into cash, and a credit into shareholders equity.  Even if this was correct from an accounting point of view, it still doesn't add it into the bank rec area as a bank statement balance, nor does it include uncleared amounts.

 

Can someone tell me how to enter beginning bank account setup information into an account that has been in operation for over 4 months?

1 reply

BigRedConsulting
BigRedConsulting
May 10, 2022

There's really nothing special about an opening balance transaction. You can record one yourself.

 

To do this, open the bank register and create a transaction with an appropriate (old) date using the opening balance amount from the first bank statement you will reconcile and also include all the details in QuickBooks. 

 

Then, for your first reconcile, enter 0.00 as the opening balance, but also select the opening balance transaction as cleared. When it is included along with all of the actual transactions on the statement, then the ending balance should match.

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