QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Reconciling Accounts

Reconciling a bank statement with a paper check register is tedious and error-prone. Besides checking off items on two different paper documents, the check register and the bank statement never seem to agree—likely due to arithmetic mistakes you’ve made.

With QuickBooks, you can leave your pencils unsharpened and stow your calculator in a drawer. When all goes well, you can reconcile your account in QuickBooks with just a few mouse clicks. Discrepancies crop up less often because QuickBooks does the math without making mistakes. But problems occasionally happen—transactions might be missing or numbers won’t match. When your bank statement and QuickBooks account don’t agree, the program helps you find the problems.

Preparing for the First Reconciliation

If you didn’t set the beginning balance for the QuickBooks account to the beginning balance on a bank statement, you might wonder how you can reconcile the bank account the first time around. The best way to resolve this issue is to enter the transactions that happened between your last statement’s end date and the day you started using QuickBooks. Or you can create a journal entry (Recording Purchases Made with Petty Cash) to record the beginning balance. (You’ll select these items as part of the first reconciliation as described on Starting a Reconciliation.)

Warning

Alternatively, QuickBooks can align your statement and account the first time you reconcile, as described in the box on Adjusting an Account That Won’t ...