Reconciliating backwards

"jo" wrote

Is it possible to reconcile a bank account in reverse or arbitrary month order? I realize this is not logical, or desirable will I screw the records up? I have errors dating back many, months which, due to illness, I have just let slide, knowing the bank was correct, and I'd like to reconcile the more recent months since I at least know there are no errors in them, and my goal is to get back as far as I can before having to let Quicken do an adjusting entry to get the bank and Quicken in sync.

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I'm closing down for the evening, so I'm not going to try to provide an in depth analysis; but I think you will, at the least, create a difficult problem for yourself, if you try this.

The opening balance of a Quicken reconcile is computed by Quicken when you start the reconcile; by netting the amount of all the existing transactions in the register whose Cleared Status is "R".

If you do not start at the "beginning", your reconcile opening balances will likely all be wrong.

I'm pretty sure you are right. I played with reconciling the two most rece nt months but saying "Finish Later" so nothing has been permanently altered , and I could see that no matter what opening balance I entered on the scre en, Quicken was computing another one,probably what you were referring to, as I was ticking off transactions. It made no sense to me, and I think I j ust have to bit the bullet and find all the statements that go back to my p roblem time and do it the right way.

"jo" wrote

I'm pretty sure you are right. I played with reconciling the two most recent months but saying "Finish Later" so nothing has been permanently altered, and I could see that no matter what opening balance I entered on the screen, Quicken was computing another one,probably what you were referring to, as I was ticking off transactions. It made no sense to me, and I think I just have to bit the bullet and find all the statements that go back to my problem time and do it the right way.

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If, for what ever reason, you have decided that prior to a certain date (the start date of your earliest statement, for example) you are not going to try to accurately reconcile, you can: determine what the real-world balance was on that date, then initiate a reconcile from day-one thru the day before that date (the end date of the previous statement), mark all the transactions in the reconcile dialog and accept the adjustment Quicken offers. From that point forward, you should be able to reconcile each month and expect a correct reconcile opening balance.