Cannot edit opening balance

John Ralls jralls at ceridwen.us
Mon Dec 11 10:27:14 EST 2017


> On Dec 10, 2017, at 10:17 PM, Carmelo Pagán <c.pagan at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> I tried the suggestion to no avail.  So if I understand this correctly, there no remedy to recover from user error in the Reconcile function???? Hmmmmm  Machine restricts user.  Something out of whack with that IMHO.  Humans are imperfect and will make mistakes.  Shouldn't the software be robust enough to handle something like this?

Errors can be fixed, though generally not in the reconcile window. It isn’t modal: You can switch back-and-forth between it and the register and any changes you make in the register will be reflected in the reconcile window.

If you’ve reconciled transactions in error just unreconcile them in the register. It’s the single-letter column between transfer account and deposit; it has three values, ’n’ for “no”, ‘c’ for “cleared”, and ‘y’ for “yes”, meaning reconciled. Just click on all of the ones marked ‘y’. GnuCash will ask if you’re sure. You can speed it up a bit by checking the “don’t ask again this session” box.

The next thing to check is that all of your transactions are in the right direction and that the dates are correct; in particular the opening balance transaction should be the earliest one.

If you’re still stuck you’ll need to provide more information, perhaps a screen shot or two showing the register and the reconcile window. If you’re paranoid you can fuzz out transaction descriptions and transfer accounts, but do leave the other columns visible.

Regards,
John Ralls

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnucash-user [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+c.pagan=sbcglobal.net at gnucash.org] On Behalf Of Carmelo Pagan
> Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 12:43 AM
> To: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Cannot edit opening balance
> 
> Thank you Mr. Ralls. I will give it a try
> 
> Sincerely ,
> Carmelo Pagán 
> 
>> On Dec 10, 2017, at 6:02 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 10, 2017, at 2:01 PM, Carmelo Pagán <c.pagan at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hello All,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I’ve been trying to reconcile my Checking account, but I’m running 
>>> into a problem.  The reconcile window displays a negative amount as 
>>> the opening balance. I didn’t enter an opening balance when  creating 
>>> the account. After obtaining my bank’s statement and gathering the 
>>> open balance as stated. I went to enter an opening balance in the” 
>>> Equity:Opening Balances” account and it accepted the entry just fine. 
>>> I then checked the opening balance in my checking account and it 
>>> displayed the opening balance as I entered in the equity account.  
>>> When I go to reconcile the Checking account, the reconcile window 
>>> displays my opening balance as a different amount than the one I 
>>> entered, and there is no option (that I can find, and yes I did RTFM)to alter the opening Balance.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Why doesn’t a user have the option to correct an opening balance in 
>>> the reconcile window? This issues messes up every reconcile operation 
>>> that follows. I hope you (the community) can help
>> 
>> Could you clarify what you mean? The Reconcile Window (in English, anyway) doesn't use the term "Opening Balance". It has "Starting Balance", "Ending Balance", and "Reconciled Balance". The first is the balance of reconciled transactions (including the account's opening balance *if that has been reconciled*) at the beginning of the reconcile session, the second is the balance that you entered in the little dialog box at the beginning of the process; you should have entered the ending balance from your bank statement in there, and the third starts off the same as starting balance and adjusts as you mark new transactions reconciled in the reconcile window. When it matches the ending balance the green Finished button lights up and you're done.
>> 
>> The starting balance can't be edited because it's calculated from what you've already reconciled in the account.
>> 
>> If this is your very first time reconciling this account the starting balance should be 0 as there shouldn't be any reconciled transactions yet. If it's a negative number that suggests that you might have reconciled some transactions before creating the opening balance transaction; since it's not reconciled yet it's not included in the starting balance. If that's the only problem and you reconcile it--and only it--in the reconcile window the reconciled balance should match the starting balance on your statement.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls
>> 
> 
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