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Dirkdaddy
February 16, 2021
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Strange sudden bank account reconciliation issues, starting balance changed

  • February 16, 2021
  • 1 reply
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I am working with company who started a new bank account in 2020. Their operations are messy to say the least but I'm only hired to clean up after they do the daily operations. I had the bank account in question reconciled through the YE 2020, but the staff at company had added their own expense entries hitting that bank account, billing customers from the expense entries. So I went through and using the register changed the R from my entries to theirs one by one. I have done this many times with this company so that's nothing new and I know exactly how to do it. 

 

The problem is that all of a sudden my "starting balance" was off according to QBO. I checked the historical reconciliation reports and the changes made section in particular. The changes all offset each other as I intended. I still got the error. In the past I've seen this but when you just hit Reconcile anyway those R entries equal out and you can reconcile with the correct starting balance, but this time the starting balance was still incorrect. So I saved for later, then resumed. This in the past has solved many calculation issues with Reconcile feature. But not this time. 

 

So I saw the entries causing problems started in September and since I had spreadsheets with data to support bank reconciliation I just un-reconciled through September and figured I'd just redo it and solve the QBO problem with starting balance. When I did this is made it worse! Now the problems went back to just about the whole history of the bank account, or March 2020. So I just unreconciled the entire history of the account, figured that would solve it. 

 

Now its saying that my starting balance is off by $100,000 which is inconceivable and I'm not sure how to fix it. I  logged out in frustration and turned off my computer, hoping a reboot and time away would change something if the was some issue on QBO end which it appears. 

 

I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. Advice? The support online chat seems to be out of commission, we're having really bad weather across the USA and perhaps that is another problem. I'll attach some screen shots. 

Best answer by BettyJaneB

I'm grateful for the details that you gave, @Dirkdaddy.

 

I'd like to shed some light regarding your beginning balance for your bank account in QuickBooks Online.

 

There will be a beginning balance in the system if there are reconciled transactions. If you've created changes to the reconciled entries, this will affect your opening balance.

 

To fix this, you'll need to undo the reconciliation. After that, go to your bank register and remove the R status of your transactions to zero out the amount.

 

Here's how:

  1. Go to the Accounting menu.
  2. Select Chart of Accounts.
  3. Find the account holding the transaction. Then select View register. 
  4. Select the transaction you want to unreconcile to expand the view.
  5. Review the check column. If the transaction is reconciled, you’ll see an “R.” User-added image
  6. Select the checkbox. This changes the letter in the box. Keep selecting it until the box is blank. This removes the transaction from the reconciliation.
  7. Select Save.
  8. Close the account register.

For more details about this process, please see this link: Learn how to unreconcile an individual transaction from a completed reconciliation.

 

On the other hand, I'd also recommend checking this great reference, which talks about fixing issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past in QuickBooks Online. This link provides complete steps about handling balance issues: Learn what to review so you can start reconciling.

 

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me here should you have any further questions, I want to make sure you're taken care of. Thanks for coming to the Community.

1 reply

D
DirkdaddyAuthor
February 16, 2021

beginning balance showing incorrect amount. Should be zero. 

BettyJaneB
BettyJaneBAnswer
February 16, 2021

I'm grateful for the details that you gave, @Dirkdaddy.

 

I'd like to shed some light regarding your beginning balance for your bank account in QuickBooks Online.

 

There will be a beginning balance in the system if there are reconciled transactions. If you've created changes to the reconciled entries, this will affect your opening balance.

 

To fix this, you'll need to undo the reconciliation. After that, go to your bank register and remove the R status of your transactions to zero out the amount.

 

Here's how:

  1. Go to the Accounting menu.
  2. Select Chart of Accounts.
  3. Find the account holding the transaction. Then select View register. 
  4. Select the transaction you want to unreconcile to expand the view.
  5. Review the check column. If the transaction is reconciled, you’ll see an “R.” User-added image
  6. Select the checkbox. This changes the letter in the box. Keep selecting it until the box is blank. This removes the transaction from the reconciliation.
  7. Select Save.
  8. Close the account register.

For more details about this process, please see this link: Learn how to unreconcile an individual transaction from a completed reconciliation.

 

On the other hand, I'd also recommend checking this great reference, which talks about fixing issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past in QuickBooks Online. This link provides complete steps about handling balance issues: Learn what to review so you can start reconciling.

 

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me here should you have any further questions, I want to make sure you're taken care of. Thanks for coming to the Community.

    D
    DirkdaddyAuthor
    February 16, 2021

    Thank you for that. I didn't realize when I hit "un-reconcile" that some transactions would remain as marked R but you were correct that was the problem with this account. Well you learn something every day!

    Now I wish that prior reconciliations would still be marked as cleared when reworking so it would be easier but that's probably wishful thinking. 

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