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acmd
October 23, 2020
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next statement reconcile beginning balance is off exactly by the bank service fee

  • October 23, 2020
  • 1 reply
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Using reconcile in a new qb file for the first time (using QB Desktop Pro 2018).

 

I've entered all my transactions for the account for the period I'm reconciling EXCEPT the bank service fee. I'm entering the bank service fee in the Reconcile screen.

 

Example of values entered into the Reconcile screen:

Statement date: 2020-01-31

Beginning Balance: 10.00

Ending Balance: 100.00

Service Charge: 12.00 (2020-01-31)

 

The ending balance INCLUDES the service charge. So that means I have 78.00 in deposits & payments + a 12.00 bank service fee.

 

On the final Reconcile screen I see:

Service Charge: -12.00

Interest Earned: 0.00

Ending Balance: 100.00

Cleared Balance: 100.00

Difference: 0.00

 

Everything looks fine here. But once I hit Reconcile Now and start to reconcile the next statement period, the starting balance, which I would expect to be 100.00 still, is now in fact $112.00. This doesn't match the statement starting balance for the next month,

 

Am I doing something incorrectly?

Best answer by acmd

Hi acmd,

 

I'm glad to hear you were able to sort this out! Thanks for sharing with us the detailed steps you've taken to have your bank service charge as cleared. You are always welcome to reach out if you have more questions.

 

Take care.


Yes essentially using the Bank Charge field in the Begin Reconciliation window doesn't work. I have to enter the Bank Charge manually first (i.e. Banking > Write Cheques) then perform the reconciliation. Otherwise the Bank Charges are always uncleared which causes an incorrect starting balance for the next period.

 

If I didn't just create a brand new, fresh QB company file, I'd assume this was a problem with my data or my process, but it seems to be a bug in the software.

1 reply

L
LauraAB
October 23, 2020

Welcome back, acmd,

 

I'm glad to see that you're taking care of reconciliations in your QuickBooks Desktop company file. They're just as important as other bookkeeping tasks, especially when it comes to making sure everything is in balance. I'm here to help you get back on track and moving forward with this process.

 

When you notice a beginning balance is off, there are a number of places you can look in the program to see what might be causing the issue. Luckily, we've got an article that outlines these steps so that you can work through them at your leisure. Check out the Fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop article and scroll to the To fix an incorrect balance heading to get started. The first portion of the article is for when you're reconciling for the very first time, so the section I've highlighted will help you with your next steps since you've already completed a reconciliation.

 

I've also got our article that takes you step by step through the reconciliation process: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop. From what you've described, it sounds like you're on the right path, but this article can be used to compare your steps just to be sure.

 

Give those a shot to start and then let me know how it goes. I'll be around if you still need help with this!

A
acmdAuthor
October 25, 2020

Hi Laura,

Looking at the Reconciliation for the next month (the starting balance is incorrect), I clicked on Locate Discrepancies > Discrepancy Report. This shows the Bank Service Fee that I entered from the previous month as Uncleared. I believe clearing this transaction will show me the correct starting balance for the next month. How do I clear this transaction?

 

Another detail which might be important is I'm using Bank Feeds, but the Bank Service Fee that I entered in the previous month's Reconciliation appears as Matched in the Match Transactions dialog. 

J
JamesM
October 26, 2020

Hi acmd. I'm glad you've made progress on your reconciliation. I'll be happy to pick up form here and help you get on track with an accurate reconciliation. Based on what you've described, I encourage you to check out this article here. The article goes in detail on how to handle cleared and uncleared transactions. I encourage you to check it out and if you have questions, feel free to reach back to me in the comments below. I'll be on standby. 

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