Balancing your QuickBooks registers can save your company money by catching overpayments, bank errors and incorrect customer payments in a timely manner. The reconciliation feature within QuickBooks makes it possible to quickly create new transactions and edit existing transactions to get your register to balance. Before attempting to reconcile your accounts, you should make sure that you entered all of your transactions in the account register. Otherwise, you must leave the Reconciliation window and add the missing transactions before you can continue. Reconciling your accounts monthly helps you stay on top of your finances and prevents small mistakes from creating discrepancies in your books.

Reconciliation Process

Click the "Banking" menu and select "Reconcile."

Select the "Account" field and choose the account you want to reconcile from the list.

Choose the "Statement Date" field and enter the ending date from your bank statement.

Check the beginning balance on your statement with the beginning balance in QuickBooks. If the balances don't match, click the "Locate Discrepancies" button. Select "Discrepancy Report" and check the transactions listed on the report for any incorrectly edited transactions. Edit the original transaction in its appropriate account register to resolve the discrepancy.

Click the "Ending Balance" field and enter the ending balance from your bank statement.

Enter any interest charges not already included in QuickBooks in the "Finance Charge" field. Select the "Account" drop-down list and choose the account for the charges.

Click "Continue" and select each transaction that matches a transaction on your bank statement.

Click "Reconcile Now" if the difference amount equals zero. Otherwise, check to make sure your existing transactions are entered correctly.

Edit Incorrect Amounts in Reconciliation Window

Select the incorrect transaction in the Reconcile window.

Click "Go To" to view the transaction in its register.

Correct the amount of the transaction to edit the transaction.

Return the the Reconcile window and mark the checkmark column to show the transaction as cleared.

Adding Transaction

Click the "Banking" menu and select "Use Register."

Click in the first empty row at the bottom of the register to select the row.

Click the "Date" field and use the pop-up calendar to change the date so that it matches the date on your statement for the missing transaction.

Chose the "Payee" field and enter the payee's name and then select the "Account" drop-down list to select the account with the missing transaction.

Select the "Payment" field and type the total for the payment. Or, select the "Deposit" field and enter the total deposit for the missing transaction.

Click the "Record" button to save the transaction and return to the Reconciliation window to clear the transaction.

Warning

Information in this article applies to QuickBooks Premiere and Enterprise 2013. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.