Reconciling a bank account or credit card

What this does

Reconciliation is how you prove the books agree with the bank. You enter the statement's ending balance, tick every register line that appears on the statement, and the difference between the statement and the cleared lines has to reach zero before the app lets you finish. A finished reconciliation freezes its cleared lines (they can't be edited afterward) and becomes the starting point for the next one.

Banking → Bank Reconciliation covers checking and savings accounts; Banking → CC Reconciliation covers cards. Same workspace, one difference in sign: a card's statement balance is the amount owed.

Before you start

accounting.manage. The statement in hand, with its closing date and ending balance. Enter everything you know about first (checks written, card charges, the month's deposits) and work the inbox down; reconciling is a check on entry, not a substitute for it. If the register is far behind, a statement import fills the gaps first.

Steps

Pick the Account. Under it the page says when it was last reconciled and at what balance, or "No prior reconciliation."
Enter the Statement date (the closing date on the statement) and the Statement ending balance (for a card, the Statement balance (amount owed)). Start Reconciliation.
The workspace shows four figures: Beginning balance (the last finished reconciliation's ending balance; with no prior one, the register balance through the end of the month before the statement), Cleared balance, Statement ending, and Difference. Below, the register lines dated on or before the statement date that haven't been cleared in a previous reconciliation, grouped as Deposits and Credits and Checks and Payments (on a card, Payments and Credits). Each shows its Source; a line from a bank alert or receipt has Show source document to see the scan beside it.
Tick each line that appears on the statement. The Cleared balance moves as you go. Select-all is there for a month where everything cleared.
When the Difference is zero, Finish Reconciliation. If it isn't, the button tells you the difference and refuses; see below.

Save Progress keeps your ticks so you can come back. Back returns to setup without losing them; a session stays open per account until it's finished.

Resolving a difference

The difference is always one of four things. A statement line with no register line: the transaction was never entered. Enter it (Money Out → Checks, Money Out → Credit Cards, a deposit, or a transfer), and it appears in the workspace. A register line the bank never saw: an outstanding check, a duplicate entry, or something entered on the wrong account; leave a legitimate outstanding item unticked, void a duplicate from the row's menu. An amount that's wrong: Edit it from the row's menu with a reason, and the lines refresh. A wrong ending balance typed in: go Back and correct it.

Ticking a line to "make it balance" that isn't on the statement carries the error forward into every future beginning balance. Don't.

What happens in the books

Finishing posts nothing. It stamps each cleared line with the reconciliation, records the account's last reconciled date and balance, and marks the session completed. From then on the cleared lines refuse edits, and the next reconciliation starts from this ending balance.

Common problems

Beginning balance is wrong on my first reconciliation. With no prior session, the app uses the register through the end of the prior month. If you started the books mid-history, post the opening balance as of the day before the statement period (see Bank accounts) so the register agrees with the bank at the start.

Lines from months ago keep showing up. They were never cleared. If they're real and the bank has them, tick them; if they're outstanding checks that never cashed, void them.

I finished with the wrong balance. A completed reconciliation can't be reopened. Post a correcting entry dated in the current period and reconcile it out next month.

"This account has no linked GL account, so there is nothing to reconcile." The account was created on the older Manage Accounts screen without a GL link. Edit it there and pick the linked account, or recreate it under Bank Accounts.