Starting a new year

[Manfred Usselmann]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:47:25 -0400
Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> hendrik at topoi.pooq.com writes:
> 
> > I recently started a new file for 2008, after using the previous
> > one since 2005.  The only reason is that over the years some
> > accounts became unreconcilable because of lost statements.  If
> > there was some way of pseudoreconciling transactions from the past
> > so that reconciliation could be done again, I would have had no
> > need to start a new file.  Of course, those pseudoreconciled
> > transactions should be marked in some way so that later I know they
> > weren't reconciled against an actual statment but are just actin as
> > if.
> >
> > I noticed no reduction in startup time when I started using a new, 
> > smaller file.  Perhaps I could measure it with the proper tools,
> > but for me it was not significant.
> 
> Reconciliation is always from the start of time until the reconcile
> date.  This means that in order to reconcile at date T0 you
> effectively reconcile everything BEFORE T0..  For example, if you
> reconcile on 12/31/2007 that means you've got to have reconciled
> everything prior to that.  If you're missing the April 2007 statement
> then either you guess (based on the May 2007 starting balance) or you
> can never reconcile the account again.

Or, if you don't care what exactly caused the deviation (what I assume
because you started a new file anyhow) just add an adjusting
transaction with the missing amount and date 31.12.2007 using the
opening / equity account.

Manfred