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L
Lochkelly
July 23, 2024
Question

Second Reconciliation in QB Online has incorrect starting balance

  • July 23, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I don't have the Accountant version and our CPA isn't currently available.  My second-ever checking statement reconciliation in the online version has a different starting balance from our bank statement.  (Statement balance is smaller than QBO balance.)  In QB Desktop I would have simply undone May's reconciliation and started over.

 

The amount difference is exactly the amount paid to two different vendors every month, $166.67.  Since I kept getting mixed up with matching the bank feed, having duplicate transactions after migration, and getting confused about cleared versus reconciled and why some checks are now expenses (which one of these $166.67 checks is now an expense), I think I probably marked one of these transactions uncleared, unreconciled, cleared, or reconciled in error or I may have even deleted a duplicate transaction in error.  (I have a hard time understanding the Audit Log.)  If I change a currently reconciled one of these $166.67 transactions to "C" or blank, it simply doubles the difference between May's ending balance and June's starting balance.  Marking it back to "R" doesn't help.  Any $166.67 transactions that are not marked "R" are correct; they are not to be reconciled yet.  I have double-checked to make sure I haven't deleted one of these $166.67 transactions back through 2021.  Both vendors have 12 payments each year.  ($2,000 divided by 12 months equals $166.67)

 

When I go to the reconciliation screen in QBO and click the "we can help you fix it," the next screen lists only transactions "reconciled in register."  None of these are the correct amount and I don't see any that added together equal $166.67.

 

Is there any way to correct this without having to undo the May reconciliation?  Maybe with a Journal Entry or something?

 

Please help!  This is holding up the financial reports my boss is waiting on!!

 

Thanks,

Lisa in The Lowcountry

1 reply

JenoP
JenoP
July 23, 2024

Thanks for giving us a full picture of what's happening with your reconciliation in QuickBooks Online, Lisa. I can also see that you've taken a couple of steps to figure out what's causing the issue.

 

As you might already know, beginning balance problems can crop up for a few reasons, including:

 

  • A transaction was added that is older than the original opening balance. However, the initial amount entry was not updated to reflect these changes.
  • Editing, deleting, moving, or unreconciling a previously reconciled transaction can alter the ending balance from the last reconciliation, which then impacts the beginning balance for the next reconciliation.
  • A transaction was manually reconciled, causing it to not appear on the subsequent reconciliation.

 

Now, you mentioned that you already tried looking for a transaction that has an amount of $166.67. However, this can be made up of multiple smaller transactions rather than a single entry.

 

While you can create an adjusting entry to match the balance, we only recommend this as a last resort. Even then, it should only be used for small discrepancies where you've exhausted all other avenues to find the root cause.

 

It's still best to review everything to pinpoint what's causing the issue and sort it out to prevent potential issues further down the road.

 

Depending on the situation, open these these articles and follow the step-by-step instructions to sort out the balance issue:

 

 

You may also need to unreconcile the entire reconciliation for the month of May just in case you're unable to find the difference. Here's an article as a guide: Undo Or Remove Transactions From Reconciliations In QuickBooks Online.

 

Allow me to share a couple more articles in case you need additional guidance while your accountant is temporarily unavailable:

 

 

You can always reply to me or post more questions if you have additional questions about reconciliations or generating reports as you work through it in QuickBooks Online. We'd be more than glad to jump right back and help you again.

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