Banking: Reconciling your accounts

Use this window to reconcile your QuickBooks account with your bank statement. You can reconcile checking, savings, money market, and credit card accounts.

Account to Reconcile Enter or select the account you want to reconcile.
Opening Balance This amount is the sum of all previously cleared items in the register (those marked with an X in the Clr column).

If the amount that QuickBooks shows disagrees with the opening balance on the bank statement, it means either that (1) you mistakenly cleared a transaction in the current statement period, or (2) a previously cleared transaction in your register — one dated before the current statement period — was changed or deleted between today and the last time you reconciled. You can handle the discrepancy in one of two ways:

  • Quit reconciling and look for the problem in the register. When you fix the problem, choose Banking > Reconcile again. Your opening balances should now match.
  • Ignore the discrepancy in the opening balances for now. When you finish reconciling, QuickBooks adds a balance adjustment transaction to the register.
Ending Balance Enter the ending balance shown on your bank or credit card statement.
Service Charge
and
Interest Earned
If the statement shows a service charge or interest earned that you haven't yet entered in QuickBooks, enter the transaction amount and date here. In the Account fields, enter the expense account you use to track service changes, and the income account you use to track interest income.
Deposits and Other Credits
and
Checks and Payments
These lists show all uncleared deposits and credits, and uncleared checks and payments, in your QuickBooks register. Mark all the transactions that appear on your statement.
To... Do this
Mark a single transaction Click the transaction.
Mark all the transactions Click Mark All.
"Unmark" a transaction Click the transaction again.
"Unmark" all the transactions Click Unmark All.
Items you have marked cleared This tally shows the number of transactions you have marked as cleared.
Ending Balance, Cleared Balance, Difference These amounts track how well your QuickBooks register balances against your statement:
Cleared Balance The total of your opening balance plus the transactions you've marked. QuickBooks recalculates this amount each time you mark or unmark a transaction.
Ending Balance The ending balance on your bank or credit card statement.
Difference The difference between the Cleared Balance and the Ending Balance. When the difference is 0.00, you have reconciled the account.

If you finish marking the transactions and the difference between the cleared balance and the ending balance is not zero, it means that your account does not balance for the current statement period. More about reconciling

Done Completes reconciliation. Click Done only after you have marked all the transactions that appear on your statement, and after you have checked the Difference amount at the bottom of the Reconcile window. When the difference is 0.00, you have reconciled the account.

If you finish marking the transactions and the difference between the cleared balance and the ending balance is not 0.00, it means that your account does not balance for the current statement period. More about reconciling
Cancel Closes the Reconcile window without completing reconciliation. QuickBooks remembers the items you have cleared so far. They appear in the register with a * in the Clr column, instead of an X, to indicate that you haven't completed reconciling those items. If you then resume reconciling the account at a later time, you must re-enter any service charges and interest earned.
Go To Displays the transaction you selected so that you can edit it. This is useful when a transaction contains an error such as an incorrect amount.
Mark All
and
Unmark All
Marks all unmarked transactions, or unmarks all marked transactions.
Last Report Prints a copy of the reconciliation report from the previous time you reconciled your accounts. This is helpful when you need to compare the previous reconciliation to the reconciliation you are doing now.