Reconcilliation problems [SOLVED]

[Steve Blackwell]

Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:

> Jason <jason at cougarcorp.net> writes:
> 
> > Steve Blackwell wrote:  
> >> I asked this question last week but didn't get any replies so I'm
> >> trying again.
> >>
> >> I'm attempting to reconcile my checking account. I've done this
> >> many times before and not had any problem. This time the beginning
> >> balance is wrong so I must have moved or deleted a reconciled
> >> transaction by mistake. I don't know how I could have done this
> >> without noticing the warning message but nevertheless something
> >> has changed.
> >>
> >> What I am looking for is a way to see all the changes I've made to
> >> that account since last time I reconciled it. Is there a report I
> >> could use? 
> > I don't know if there's a report, as I don't think GNUCash is fully
> > transactional in that sense.
> >
> > A somewhat more manual way is: load one of the backup files where
> > everything is OK and compare the "old" and "new" accounts for the
> > differences. If it's just a single transaction, you could even sort
> > by amount and look for a transaction of exactly that amount.
> >
> > Other than that, I think you'd need an XML differ tool for GNUCash
> > to do an outright compare of the data files.  
> 
> Your other option is to ignore the starting balance and reconcile
> off the correct ending balance.  This should show you the unreconciled
> transaction or show you the amount of the missing/deleted transaction.
> 
> Note that this is exactly why GnuCash warns you before allowing you
> to modify a reconciled transaction/split.
> 
> > Jason    
> 
> -derek

I tried loading the oldest backup but it was only about 20 days old and
still contained the problem.

In the end I made an assumption that there was only one problem
transaction, calculated the difference between my statement's beginning
balance and GC's beginning balance and then did a search for that
amount. It turned out that the difference was the same as a number of
paychecks from 2003. I found that one of them had become un-reconciled.
No idea how that happened. I reconciled as normal and added in the one
missing transaction and now all is well.

Steve