Reconcile a bank, credit card, or petty cash account

If you signed up to try a new way to reconcile in QuickBooks Labs, you're in the right place. If you didn't, you can learn about the current QuickBooks reconciliation here.

It's important to reconcile your bank, credit card, and petty cash accounts to make sure your books are correct. Banks and credit card companies usually generate a monthly statement for each of their customers' accounts. Petty cash accounts have logs that are kept with the cash.

• When you reconcile a bank or credit card account, you make sure that what's in QuickBooks matches the account statement. You check the beginning balance and each transaction in the statement.
• When you reconcile a petty cash account, you make sure that QuickBooks matches the petty cash log. You check the beginning balance and each transaction in the petty cash log for the period you're reconciling. Learn about petty cash accounts.

In the steps below, we show you how to reconcile a bank or credit card account.

Secrets for your success

Reconciling is simple but it requires you to focus and do one step at a time. Experts pick a time to reconcile when they won't be interrupted and possibly lose their place. Do the same for yourself. It can be frustrating if you have to start over when you're checking transactions.

When you reconcile an account in QuickBooks, the primary goals you're going to accomplish on your way to reconciliation success are to:

1. Make sure the beginning balance in the statement matches QuickBooks.
2. Find the first transaction on your statement and then find the same transaction in QuickBooks.
3. Make sure the transaction amount is correct in QuickBooks, then give it a checkmark. Experienced bookkeepers put a checkmark on the statement transaction too.
4. Repeat this for each transaction on the statement.
5. When you finish checking all the transactions in the statement, check the difference at the top of the Reconcile window. When it equals zero, success! You reconciled your account for this statement period!

Get ready to reconcile

If this is the first time you've reconciled, we recommend that you start with your simplest account that has the least amount of transactions.

1. Open the account statement you received from your bank or credit card company.
   If you haven't reconciled for a while

   Start with the oldest statement you have. The farther back you start, the more likely you are to uncover any errors or discrepancies that might exist. Then reconcile against each statement, one after the other, up to the most recent statement.

2. Click the Gear icon > Reconcile.
3. Select the account you want to reconcile. Depending on the type of account you select, different statement information fields appear below.
4. If this account has been reconciled before, make sure you're reconciling the statement after the most recent reconciliation. You can find the last statement ending date below the Ending date field. It should be exactly or close to a month later.
5. Compare the beginning balance on your statement with the beginning balance in QuickBooks and make sure they match.
   If they don't match

   An alert appears. It's important to resolve this discrepancy before you continue and we can help you do it. Click the link in the alert, which takes you to the discrepancy report where we show you the problem. Learn more

   
   
6. Enter the statement information. We recommend that you double-check what you enter. Catching an error now can make reconciling later, much easier.

Service charge and interest fields may appear for unconnected accounts. If there are no amounts to enter, you can leave these fields blank.

7. Click Start reconciling.

Start reconciling

You're in the reconciliation window and ready to reconcile. There's a lot of great functionality in this window and it can be a little overwhelming but don't worry, you can learn it as you go. To start, remember your simple goal:

Find each statement transaction in QuickBooks, make sure it's correct, and then select it. You know you're done when the difference at the top of the window in QuickBooks equals zero. You can do this!

1. On the account statement, find the first transaction. Then find the same transaction in the Reconcile window and make sure it's correct.
2. Select the checkmark in the right column. If this is a connected account, downloaded transactions are automatically selected for you.
3. Most bookkeepers like to put a checkmark on the statement transaction too. This helps keep track of the transactions they've found in both the statement and in QuickBooks.

In QuickBooks, when you give a transaction a checkmark, you mark it as cleared (tentatively reconciled). When you finish a reconciliation, QuickBooks changes the cleared transactions to reconciled. In the register, cleared transactions have a C in the reconciliation status column and reconciled transactions have an R.

4. Repeat the first steps for each statement transaction.
5. Keep the following in mind as you reconcile:
   • If a transaction is incorrect, you can click it to edit it.
   • To find a specific transaction, you can filter and sort the transactions. Learn more about filters
   • QuickBooks automatically filters transactions after the statement ending date. If you're missing a transaction in QuickBooks and its date is close to the statement ending date, you might turn off that filter to see if it posted later.
   • If you're sure a transaction is missing, you can click Create (+) at the top of the page to enter it. You don't have to leave your reconciliation.
6. After you finish checking each transaction on the statement, look at the difference at the top of the Reconcile window. If it equals zero, hooray! Click Finish now.
   
If you're having trouble getting the difference to equal zero, no worries. Try these expert sleuthing tips.

1. Click Edit info to make sure the statement information you entered when you started this reconciliation is correct.
2. At the top of the Reconcile window, look at the total number transactions you selected for each transaction type. Compare these numbers with those in the statement and make sure they're the same.
   • If it's just one transaction you're looking for, the amount of the difference at the top of the Reconcile window might be the same as the transaction you're looking for. You can use the filter to search for that amount.
   • If the statement number is higher, look for transactions that aren't selected in QuickBooks.
   • If the statement number is lower, there are too many transactions selected.
3. Make sure the amount of each transaction in QuickBooks is the same as in the statement.
4. If you're still having trouble getting the difference to equal zero, here are some more details for these tips.

 

7. If you're reconciling a credit card account, decide how you want to pay the bill. You can:

   • Write a check now to pay the balance due or any amount you want. You can also print the check later.

   • Enter a bill for payment later to better manage your cash flow. Learn more

   • Leave the balance in the reconciled account. QuickBooks will still complete the reconciliation and mark the transactions you selected as reconciled in the register.

8. To view the reconciliation report, find it in the Reports and History tab.
9. Select Print from the View report drop-down arrow.

See also

Reconciliation overview

Find beginning balance discrepancies before reconciling

Fix beginning balance discrepancies before reconciling

Find reconciliation errors

Set up a petty cash account