Ive been trying to reconcile my checking account, but I keep running into a problem. How do I reconcile say, for the month of June, when there are transactions from July ion the reconcile window. I want to reconcile my accounts historically, but I cant get the window to "focus" on just one month, and thus the balance is never accurate.
Thanks for the help
If you reconcile correctly it won't matter what shows in the window. With the exception of people/companies that only do a handful of transactions a month there's almost never a time when a reconciliation window won't have newer transactions listed & unreconciled.
Make sure the beginning balance in QB's reconciliation window matches that of your bank statement. Enter the ending balance in QB per your bank statement. Check off all items appearing on your bank statement. The bottom difference should be zero when all is correct. Reconcile in QB and you're done.
If you want to see the check register show the balance per the reconciliation then choose to sort the register by cleared status (an option at the bottom of the window). This will show you everything cleared with a checkmark and the remaining uncleared transactions. You can then view the balance at the last checked/cleared transaction and it'll match your bank statement.
Tara thanks for the help. I guess my question comes downt to, if I want to reconcile from January-July, I should enter the begining balance as the opening balance of January 1, and the ending balance as the closing balnace of June X (off bank statements, and then go through and clear transactions as they appear on my statement?
Im using Quickbooks for Mac Pro 2006, and I dont see the sort by cleared transactions options.
Aga> > Ive been trying to reconcile my checking account, but I keep running
I'm sorry, I didn't think to ask which platform you were on. QB for Mac doesn't have this option which is one of its *many* glaring and stupid omissions.
All of the Windows versions of QB allow you to sort registers by different criteria.
Unfortunately you just need to take your current register balance and subtract from it all of the uncleared (unchecked) transactions. The difference should match your ending bank balance.
Does not matter what version you are using. If you are a novice using the software then common sense dictates that you prepare a reconcilation one month at a time not six at a time.
I'm sorry, I didn't even read your first paragraph! Yes, you can do what you describe but you really should take the time to do each bank statement individually.
Typically, the problem is in the other direction. That is, you have transactions in June that don't show up until July's bank statement (you wrote a check on June 30th and it cleared your bank July 10th).
The bank doesn't know as much as you -- you will almost always have more transactions to screen than the bank reports.
It might be easier to reconcile your bank stuff month by month rather than bi-annualy.
Hey, Thanks for the help.
I guess Im specifically c> Gabrielle wrote:
Agreed, you are totally confused. It may be time to call your accountant in to teach you how to reconcile a bank account. The difference figure does not take into account other months.
It shouldn't be taking anything into account that you don't specifically check off.
Your beginning balance should appear automatically at the top right of the screen from your last successful reconciliation. Enter the new month's ending balance, per the bank statement, then start checking off transactions that appear on the statement.
You'll see at the bottom left the totalled amounts of the deposits and checks/debits you mark off. At the bottom right you'll see the ending balance listed, then the amount you've cleared (checked) so far, and the bottom figure is the difference you still have to go before you reach zero and reconcile.
If you've checked off everything that appears on your bank statement then the bottom number will be zero, it needs to be zero for you to successfully reconcile. Any unmarked transactions will remain unmarked and waiting for the next reconciliation. They don't affect your current reconciliation. Once you've reached zero at the bottom right of the screen, where it says Difference, click Done.
Be forewarned though under the new check procedures post 9/11 that the check you wrote on June 30th could very well clear on June 30th.
They can clear it by copy, they don't need the original.
The float for checks is now gone.
And if it doesn't say zero, then there is something appearing on the bank statement that you didn't check.
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