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Chapter 5
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Chapter 10
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Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
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Chapter 5

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Starting reconciliation

First inspect your bank statement for items that might not be in the Quickbooks bank account register.  You may find an advantage to entering these items before opening the Reconcile window.  (For the first reconciliation of a new account, see below.) 

Start by opening the account register for this account.  The reconciliation window, when it is opened, will accept one service charge and one interest deposit, each needing expense and income accounts, respectively.  Transactions entered in this manner will  not have any name in the Payee field.  If the statement contains any other items that are not in the register, such as automatic payments, these should be entered.  Of course, you could enter these transactions through Write Checks or Make Deposits.   In my own operation, I have them set up as memorized transactions (Chapter 7.) Each month, I bring each of them up, and have only to enter the actual dollar amount.

In any case, you should open the register and enter any needed transactions.  That being done, go on to open the Reconcile window.

Select Activities|Reconcile, which brings up this window.

Account To Reconcile will display the name of the account whose register was open.

 

Opening balance XE "beginning balance:reconciliation"  is displayed, summing all historical transactions.  It may not be what you expect, but should not be changed, unless you clearly understand what you are doing, and why.  Except in the rare case of actual data file damage, discrepancies can only be due to editing of previously reconciled transactions.

Ending balance should be copied from your bank statement. 

Interest Earned or a Service Charge should be entered, unless this has already been done. Each will require an account.  If necessary, you can open the chart of accounts and add an income or expense account.  These may well be classified as Other Expense or Other Income, since they do not come from your business operations.  The dates are not critical, but there is an advantage to using the same date as is shown on the statement.  This helps if detail verification becomes necessary.  When entered, these items have the status of cleared. 

Deposits and Other Credits and Checks and Payments should be compared against the statement.  Those appearing on the statement should be checked, in the left-most column.  I suggest that you work with a pencil in one hand, also marking items on the bank statement.  Each item in view should be on the bank statement, and everything on the bank statement should be showing here, scrolling if necessary.  The space bar, Tab,   U  and  T are useful for marking cleared items, varying with version.  Mouse clicks will also do it.

Last Rpt button prints the most recent previous reconciliation report XE "reconciliation report:print last"  (in recent versions.)

A transaction will be in one of three states: not cleared, cleared, or reconciled.  If you switch between the register and the reconcile window, you will observe some differences  in marking certain transactions:

Status

Register

Reconciliation

Not cleared

(blank)

(blank)

Cleared but not reconciled

*

b

Reconciled

b

(not in list; included in beginning balance.)

Should you check some odd transaction, or leave it blank?  The rule is simple:

You are waiting for the transaction to appear on the statement

blank

You are not waiting to see this transaction, because it is on the statement, or you know it never will be (transaction reversed or voided.) 

b

Difference value (at the bottom) is the amount not reconciled.  With a successful reconciliation, it goes to zero , and you may click Done (and heave a sigh of relief!)  Next you will have a chance to print a reconciliation report.  (In graphics versions 2.0 and  3.0, do it now or forget it;  there are no provisions for printing prior reconciliation reports.)

Printing the report, if elected, is the last step in reconciliation.  Later versions display a dialog box, asking if the report printed correctly.  Once you check Yes, reconciliation is finished.  That report is now the Last Report, and the previous report is deleted.  All of the cleared transactions are now marked  b  in the register.

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Last modified: May 21, 2004