Reconciling your accounts
Reconciling may sound mysterious and scary, but it's really not. All it means is you check your QuickBooks records with your bank or credit card statements to make sure they match.
You can also check out these Little Square articles for more info about what Reconciling means and how to troubleshoot problems: Reconciliation: Do you match? and Reconciliation: Troubleshooting and correcting.
Step 1: Choose the account you want to reconcile
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If you use online banking in QuickBooks,
download your account statement
. If you don't use online banking, either find your paper bank or account statement or access your online statement.
Tip: It might be easier to print out your online account statement so you don't have to keep switching screens on your computer. - In QuickBooks, choose Banking > Reconcile. The Begin Reconcile window appears.
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In the Account to Reconcile field, choose the account you want to reconcile.
Note : When you choose an account to reconcile, you're also choosing any subaccounts you've created under this account.
- Enter the statement date from your account statement in the Statement Date field.
- Enter the ending balance on your account statement into the Ending Balance field.
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If your bank or credit card compay charges you a monthly service charge or fee, enter the amount of that fee into the Service Charge Amount field. Enter the date your bank charged you this fee, the QuickBooks account you want this fee charged to.
Tip : If you use Classes to categorize your expenses, choose the Class you associate with this fee.
- If this is an interest-bearing account (like a savings account), enter the amount of interest you earned during this statement period in the Interest Earned Amount field. Enter the date your bank posted the interest, the QuickBooks account you want to add this interest to, and the Class you want to associate with this interest.
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Click OK.
The account window closes. Now it's time to reconcile your transactions.
Step 2: Mark your transactions
Start at the top, with the first transaction listed in the Deposits and Credits section of the window. Then go on to Checks and Payments below.
Tip: You can use your arrow keys to navigate through the lists of transactions. Press the space bar to select a transaction; press the space bar again to unselect it.
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Match the first Deposit/Credit on your bank statement with the same transaction on the Reconcile window.
Tip : Would it be easier to find and match transactions if the transactions in the Reconcile window were sorted in order by Date, Check Number, Payee name, Memo, or Amount? Click any of the column headers to sort the transactions. Click it again to reverse the sort order.
- If the transaction amount matches with the same transaction on your bank statement, check the box next to this transaction to mark it as cleared.
- If the transaction amount doesn't match the transaction amount on your bank statement, double-click the transaction in the window to open it, then correct the transaction .
- If you find a transaction on your bank statement that is not shown in QuickBooks' list of uncleared transactions, add the transaction now.
Step 3: Finishing Up the Reconciliation
After you've finished marking transactions, you've got just a few more steps to complete your reconciliation:
- When you've finished marking the transactions, double-check the Service Charge, Interest Earned, and Ending Balance amounts at the bottom of the window to make sure they match the totals of all Service Charges, Interest Earned, and Ending Balance on your bank statement.
- If they don't, click the amount link to open the Begin Reconcile window.
- Make any changes, then click OK to return to the Reconcile window.
- Look at the Difference amount in the bottom right corner of the Reconcile window:
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If the amount is 0.00 (zero):
Click Reconcile.
Congratulations! You've reconciled the account with the statement. You can now print a reconciliation report (if you are reconciling a bank statement), or pay your credit card bill. - If the amount is not zero: Oops--your account doesn't balance for the period of time covered by the statement, and you need to correct the difference. (Keep reading for help with this.)
Congratulations! Viewing and Printing Reconciliation Reports
You're done reconciling your account and you got a $0 difference. The Contratulations window appears.
To view a reconciliation report:
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Choose a report to view:
- Summary shows only the beginning and ending balances and amounts reconciled.
- Detail shows every transaction you marked.
- Both shows both Summary and Detail information.
- Click Display.
To print a reconciliation report:
- Open the report you want to print for viewing.
- Click Print on the report.
Don't need to view your reconciliation report right now? Click Close. But don't worry--we've kept those reports if you want to see them later. Learn more about Previous Reconciliation Reports.
Reconciling Really Fast
If you're pretty sure your account is going to balance, you can skip the process of checking and marking each transaction individually.
Click Mark All. All the transactions in the window are marked.
Check the Difference down at the bottom right corner of the window.
If it's $0.00, you're done reconciling! Click Reconcile to finish up.
If the Difference is not $0.00, you're going to have to check individual transactions to find the problem. Click Unmark All to unmark all your transactions, then start at the beginning of Reconciling your account.
What to do if your account doesn't balance
Sometimes your bank statement just refuses to balance with your QuickBooks accounts. Don't worry--we've got some ideas on how you can fix it:
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If the Difference is small--like less than a dollar--you might not care enough to track down the discrepancy. To enter an adjustment to your account that will make it balance:
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Click Reconcile.
A message appears, warning you that your account doesn't balance, and telling you how much the Difference is.
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Click Enter Adjustment.
QuickBooks creates a transaction that balances the account and marks this transaction as cleared. If you want to see this transaction, open the account register and look for a tiny little transaction.
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Click Reconcile.
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Compare the opening balance amount shown on your statement with the amount shown in the Beginning Balance field in the Reconcile window. If
your opening balances don't match
, 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, choose Enter Adjustment to make QuickBooks add a balance adjustment transaction to the register.
Need more help? Try Reconciliation: Troubleshooting and correcting .
Undoing a Reconciliation
If your Beginning Balance when you open up a new Reconcile window doesn't match the Ending Balance of your last reconciliation, you've got a problem. One good way to solve it are to use the Previous Reconciliation Reports to find transactions that aren't cleared (or have changed). You can also open the account register, then search for (and fix) the problem transactions in it.
But when neither of these methods work, or they uncover a tangled mess in your last reconciliation, you can choose the brute force method: Undo Last Reconciliation.
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On the Reconcile window, click Undo Reconcile.
A window appears that shows you how far back you're going--back to the beginning balance of the most recent reconciliation you've done on this account.
- Click OK. QuickBooks undoes the most recent reconciliation.
- Now you go back and re-reconcile the account, being careful to look for any errors or changes to transactions so that you end up with the Ending Balance you need.
If you think the problem is further back than the most recent reconciliation, you can undo multiple reconciliations one at a time. Follow steps 1-3 above. After QuickBooks undoes the most recent reconcile, the window reappears. Click Undo Last Reconciliation again. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you've undone reconciliations back to where you need to begin re-reconciling.
Printing a reconciliation report
When you've finished reconciling an account, you can print a reconciliation report for the account.
- When you have finished marking the transactions in the Reconcile window, click Reconcile.
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Select the level of detail you want in the report:
- Summary: A report that lists totals only.
- Detail: A report that lists totals for cleared, uncleared, and new transactions, and shows transaction details in each of these sections.
- Both:
- Click OK (if you selected None in step 2) or Save as Text or Print (if you selected Summary or Full in step 2).
But what if you want to print a report from the last time you reconciled this account? Or any other previous reconciliation report . If you reconciled this account using QuickBooks for Mac 2014, go to Reports > Banking > Previous Reconciliation. If you're looking for a reconciliation you did in a previous version of QuickBooks, we can't show you that report. We're sorry about that!