reconcile outstanding checks

[mchaires at comcast.net]

> There will often be items in the gc register that haven't shown on the bank statement (yet). < 

  

That is indeed the case. What I expect to be able to do with the Reconcile function is to say "OK. With the exception of these items in the register that the bank knows nothing about (because they have not been presented for payment (yet)), the statement and register agree. So gc, mark this period (calendar month in my case) Reconciled. gc will not allow me to do that because the difference between the statement total and register total is not zero and hence the Finish button is disabled. 




It's true. I do not have an Accounting background, but I have been balancing checkbooks for a number of years. What am I missing? It seems the only way out of this dilemma from gc's point of view is 1) Change the balance in the Reconcile window so that it does not include the sum of the outstanding checks 2) Change the date of the checks to the date the bank actually paid them instead of the date they were written (and entered into the register) 3) In the Reconcile window , mark the checks as paid , even though they weren't. 




----- Original Message -----




From: "Maf King" <maf at chilwell.net> 
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org 
Cc: mchaires at comcast.net 
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 12:32:56 PM 
Subject: Re: reconcile outstanding checks 

On Tuesday 19 Jul 2011 17:04:05 mchaires at comcast.net wrote: 
> When I use the Reconcile function, how do I account for outstanding checks? 
> The only way I see to reconcile an account with outstanding checks is to 
> clear the checks, even though they weren't paid in  this period. 

Hi, 

I think that you may be mis-understanding the use of the reconcile function. 

The idea is that you compare your account with a statement from the bank - if 
they send you a statement today, then it won't show checks that you may have 
written recently.  that doesn't matter - you probably know more than your bank 
about pending and future transactions!   

the idea of reconciling is to make sure that you agree with everything on the 
statement, and that you check that the bank haven't for example paid a check 
twice. 

You enter the closing balance of the statement, and try to "tick-off" items in 
your GC register to come to the same total - there will often be items in the 
gc register that havn't shown on the bank statement (yet). 

HTH, 
Maf.