Fixing opening balance for an incorrectly reconciled account

Andrew Gross aegross at gmail.com
Mon May 15 17:08:50 EDT 2017


David,

At some point I fiddled with a previously reconciled transaction (I know,
bad move) and the starting balance became incorrect.  In order to finish
the reconciliation I had to add a transaction; I could then use the finish
button.  After the reconciliation though, the balance was of course off.
So I added a reversing transaction to return the account to the correct
balance. But with the next reconciliation cycle, I believe the starting
balance will be off and will need to repeat this
add-a-transaction/reverse-a-transaction hack ad infinitum.

Andrew Gross
917 750 6981

On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 6:03 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Andrew,
>
> I reread your messages. You say you "fixed" a reconciled transaction, and
> now, you have to enter an extra transaction which you reversed afterward.
> Do I have that right?
>
> OK, if you"fixed" a reconciled transaction, then presumably now, it is
> correct. First question: how did you get the account to reconcile before?
> If your transaction was wrong,  then it shouldn't have balanced.
>
> Next question: now that you fixed the wrong transaction, why do you need
> any dummy transactions at all? Again, the reconciliation should then work
> (once you take note of the note in 4.4.1 and ignore the starting balance).
>
> Despite what others are saying about creating fixing transactions, I think
> you haven't demonstrated to me that you need any such transactions.
>
> David
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 7:21, Andrew Gross
> <aegross at gmail.com> wrote:
> David,
>
> I used the wrong terminology -- I should have said "starting balance".  I
> am looking at 4.4.1 of the documentation (https://www.gnucash.org/docs/
> v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/txns-reconcile1.html) and I did create a dummy
> transaction and then reversed it after the reconciliation.  Do you believe
> this is just a one-time fix?  I would doubt that since it wouldn't change
> the underlying starting balance.  I think I am misunderstanding something
> here...
>
> Thanks
> AEG
>
> Andrew Gross
> 917 750 6981 <(917)%20750-6981>
>
> On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 9:51 PM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Andrew,
>
> What do you mean, you can't fix the opening balance? If you are talking
> about your "Opening Balance" transaction, that is just another transaction,
> and of course you can edit that. (The recent discussion about reversing
> transactions was about a technicality for business books, and not necessary
> for personal books)
>
> If you are talking about the "Starting Balance" when you reconcile each
> month, take a look in the Guide at 4.4.1, and read the note there about how
> to handle that.
>
> Either way, it's a one time fix.
>
> David
>
>
> On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 6:20, Andrew Gross
> <aegross at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings -- have looked at a couple of old threads on reconciliation
> issues that come close to this question, but not quite. In two of my
> accounts (one asset; one liability) I committed a transgression; I
> attempted to fix a reconciled transaction.  Since then, I have to put in a
> "fix" to balance each account.  I add a bogus transaction; reconcile; and
> then reverse the transaction.  Essentially, I need to be able to reset the
> opening balance in order to fix this.  I know changing the opening balance
> is not an option; is there an alternative so I can stop using the "bogus
> transaction" method?
>
> Thanks everyone,
>
>
> Andrew Gross
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