Using Quicken 2013 Premier. Began reconcile, but the Opening Balance shown there was less than it should be. My printed Reconciliation Report from last month has the CORRECT amount shown as the Ending Balance, and which would normally appear as the beginning balance for the current month. The opening balance of a Quicken reconcile is computed at the time the reconcile is initiated: the opening reconcile balance is the net amount of ALL reconciled transactions in the account at the moment the reconcile begins.
If an account is causing you problems when you’re trying to reconcile it with Quicken 2013, don’t give up. You have several options. If you’re sitting in front of your computer wringing your hands, try the following tips.
Make sure that you’re working with the right account
Sounds dumb, doesn’t it? If you have a bunch of different bank accounts, however, ending up in the wrong account is pretty darned easy. So go ahead and confirm, for example, that you’re trying to reconcile your checking account at Mammoth International Bank by using the Mammoth International checking account statement.
Look for transactions that the bank has recorded but you haven’t
Go through your bank statement and make sure that you have recorded every transaction that your bank has recorded. Cash machine withdrawals, special fees or service charges (such as for checks or your safety deposit box), automatic withdrawals, direct deposits, and so on, are easily overlooked.
Look for reversed transactions
Here’s a tricky one. If you accidentally enter a transaction backward — a deposit as a withdrawal or a withdrawal as a deposit — your account won’t balance. And the error can be difficult to find. The Reconcile: Checking window shows all the correct transactions, but a transaction amount appears positive when it should be negative or negative when it should be positive.
Look for a transaction that’s equal to half the difference
One handy way to find a transaction that you entered backward — if you only have one — is to look for a transaction that’s equal to half the irreconcilable difference. For example, if the difference is $200, you may have entered a $100 deposit as a withdrawal or a $100 withdrawal as a deposit.
Look for a transaction that’s equal to the difference
f the difference between the bank’s records and yours equals one of the transactions listed in your register, you may have incorrectly marked the transaction as cleared or incorrectly left the transaction marked as uncleared.
Check for transposed numbers
Transposed numbers occur when you flip-flop two digits in a number. For example, you enter $45.89 as $48.59.
Transposed numbers are tough to find, but here’s a trick you can try. Divide the difference shown in the Reconcile: Checking window by nine. If the result is an even number of dollars or cents, you may have a transposed number somewhere.
Have someone else look over your work
If you’re using Quicken at home, ask your spouse. If you’re using Quicken at work, ask the owner or one of your coworkers (preferably that one person who always seems to have way too much free time).
Look out for multiple errors
By the way, if you find an error by using this laundry list and still can’t balance your account, you should start checking at the top of the list again. You may, for example, discover — after you find a transposed number — that you entered another transaction backward or incorrectly cleared or uncleared a transaction.
Try again next month
If the difference isn’t huge in relation to the size of your bank account, you may want to wait until next month and attempt to reconcile your account again.
Consider the following example. You reconcile your account in January, and the difference is $24.02. Then you reconcile the account in February, and the difference is $24.02. Then you reconcile the account in March, and, surprise, surprise, the difference is still $24.02.
What’s going on here? Well, your starting account balance was probably off by $24.02. (The more months you try to reconcile your account and find that you’re always mysteriously $24.02 off, the more likely it is that this type of error is to blame.)
After the second or third month, tell Quicken that it should enter an adjusting transaction for $24.02 so that your account balances.
By the way, if you’ve successfully reconciled your account with Quicken before, your work may not be at fault. The mistake could be (drum roll, please) the bank’s! And in this case, you should do something else. . . .
Get in your car, drive to the bank, and beg for help
As an alternative to the preceding idea — which supposes that the bank’s statement is correct and that your records are incorrect — ask the folks at the bank to help you reconcile the account. (Check to see whether they charge for this service first, of course.) Hint that you think that the mistake is probably theirs. Smile a great deal.
And one other thing — be sure to ask about whatever product they’re currently advertising in the lobby. (This behavior encourages them to think that you’re interested in that 180-month certificate of deposit, and they’ll be extra nice to you.)
In general, the bank’s record keeping is usually pretty darned good. Nevertheless, your bank may have made a mistake, so ask the people there to help you. (Note: Be sure to have them explain any transactions that you discover only by seeing them on your bank statement.)
With Quicken if you are unable to reconcile your Quicken account with your paper statement then there might be the possibilities that the opening balances do not agree. So, to know more about opening balance in Quicken you have to go through the whole article.
Let’s discuss then;
- Reconcile as far as you can and then click Done.
- And if an opening balance difference is there to resolve then Quicken asks for your permission whether you want to make your totals agree with your bank statement.
You can choose from the following options:
- You need to click Adjust to let Quicken make a change to your opening balance.
- After that click Cancel in order to return to reconciliation. And then try to resolve the differences.
Steps to adjust the opening balance to match the statement are as follows:
First-time reconciliation
If you are reconciling for the first time, in that case, Quicken uses the opening balance transaction amount in your checking register as the Bank Statement Opening Balance in the Reconcile Bank Statement window. At the time of setting up the account, you may have entered a balance that was possibly different from the actual amount in your bank account. Probably transactions are missing from your Quicken account that affects the balance.
In case you have reconciled at least once before
Let’s understand this by taking an example. Suppose it’s July and you have recorded your transactions from May itself and after that reconciled your account for May/June.
After that, you went back and recorded transactions starting in January. And then you’ll notice that the ending balance in the register was incorrect after entering these transactions. So you update the date and amount of the original opening balance transaction that there is the record for Quicken in your register when you set up your account in May.
If you changed a previously reconciled transaction
In case if you have inadvertently changed or deleted a transaction that already had an R in the Clr field.
Quicken always seeks permission to confirm a change to a previously reconciled transaction.
And, if you have already ruled out other possible errors then you probably should continue with reconciliation and have Quicken record an adjustment transaction when reconciliation is complete.
In case you skipped previous months’ statements
If you have started reconciling with a current statement but you didn’t reconcile statements of each of the previous months.
Note: It is advised that you should reconcile one month at a time, starting with the earliest month. In case, you don’t have time for this then you can also allow Quicken to enter an adjustment for you.
Following are the steps to fix error Quicken Account Balance Incorrect
Quicken Account Balance Incorrect: If you found the Quicken account balance incorrect, you need to correct the balance for an account quickly by first clicking on the account name in the column present on the left-hand side of the main iBank window. Now go to Account and then select Adjust Balance and enter the proper current balance for the account. Click Ok.
You can also edit the date of the Balance Adjust Transaction once you entered the Balance Adjust transaction so that it appears at the beginning of your account in iBank.
The credit card accounts should appear in iBank with a negative balance, indicating money you owe. The credit card accounts should appear in iBank with the negative balance, indicating money you owe. Although a positive balance in a credit card account would be an indication of an overpayment.
This procedure will help you in fixing your Quicken account that shows the quicken account balance incorrect. You can also take help from Quicken Support to fix this issue. When Quicken account balance is incorrect at that time also you may face the issue which is for not showing the balance in Quicken Essentials for Mac. Our technical experts are always available to help you in fixing your issue. Just follow these step-by-step process to fix the issue.
Important steps to show a running Balance in Quicken Essentials for Mac
- Initially, you need to click on the Reset Filters button.
- It is fine if it won’t look like anything happens.
- Now, click on the Date column header.
- You need to check whether it shows the oldest transactions at the top and the newest transactions at the bottom.
- In case if it doesn’t then click the Date column header again.
- And finally, your balance should now appear.
Conclusion
As we have discussed above all the steps regarding opening balance to match the statement in Quicken. And if you need any further assistance then you can contact our Quicken Support team. You can also dial our toll-free number 8888839555.