When I do our Bank Reconciliation the opening balance per QuickBooks doesn’t match the Bank Statement. We used to use the auto fix in the beginning assuming the amount was off because of uncleared checks from the original setup. However a year later the amount is still consistently off.
When I do our Bank Reconciliation the opening balance per QuickBooks doesn’t match the Bank Statement. We used to use the auto fix in the beginning assuming the amount was off because of uncleared checks from the original setup. However a year later the amount is still consistently off.
The problem (as you noted) goes all the way back to your setup. Here is the proper way to set it up at the beginning.
Entering Outstanding Checks and Deposits After you’ve entered the opening balance (per the bank statement) into the account register (or through the edit account screen), enter each outstanding check and deposit as additional transactions in the account register. Each outstanding check and deposit should be entered with the date the check or deposit was written, and the transaction should be coded to Opening Balance Equity. To enter outstanding checks and deposits, follow these steps: Step 1. Display the Checking account register. Step 2. Enter new transactions directly in the register for each outstanding check and deposit.
This procedure should have been done when you originally set up the opening balances. If it wasn't you'll never have a correct bank balance or reconciliation. The best suggestion I have is for you to go back and enter the outstanding checks and Deposits from your original setup data. Then, manually reconcile the transactions (since you've already done the reconciliations). Now, delete all the "adjustment" transactions that QuickBooks automatically entered when you reconciled each time. By deleting those adjustments, it should net out to the correct reconciled balance. If it doesn't, you have other errors.
In general, when your account doesn't balance (reconcile), or when the Opening Balance per QB doesn't match your bank statement, consider the following: Assuming the dollar amount is significant, this is a tough problem. Although in previous versions QuickBooks lets you just change the beginning balance on the bank rec screen, it's not proper to do so. If you do, you're just pushing the problem in the closet. The problem could be that there are missing transactions. Or it could be that some of the transactions are already marked cleared when they shouldn't be. These errors must be found and fixed before proceeding.
If the dollar amount is very small, you could enter a new transaction in the bank account to adjust for the error and mark your adjustment as a cleared transaction. Then proceed with the bank rec. You could also enter a new balance in the reconciliation screen, but it will create a transaction in the bank account and Opening Balance Equity. So then, you'd need to enter another adjustment to clear out the Opening Balance Equity balance.