[GNC] Reconciliation

[Jack Lockard]

So I figured out what was going on. I have two sub-accounts to my checking account. I use them as faux savings accounts for my mortgage payment and a credit card payment. I use these two sub-accounts as follows:

	1. My social security comes in mid-month so I transfer the mortgage payment amount to the mortgage savings sub-account when it does. I transfer it back into the checking account at the end of the month.

	2. I use a visa card for many purchases as the cash back rewards amount to several hundred dollars each year. Whenever I make a purchase for say groceries on the visa card I transfer that amount to the visa savings sub-account. When I need to pay the credit card I transfer the money back into the checking account.

Why do I do that? To make sure I do not overspend from the checking account. 

The problem I encountered with reconciliation was because I did a reconcile on one of the sub-accounts independent of the checking account - a big NO-NO. In this scenario you must include the sub-accounts with the checking account when doing a reconcile and you must never reconcile any of the accounts independent of the others. I undid what I did wrong and balances matched.

Thanks to all for your input.

Jack



-----Original Message-----
From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+jelockard=outlook.com at gnucash.org> On Behalf Of Adrien Monteleone
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2019 7:42 PM
To: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Subject: Re: [GNC] Reconciliation

It shouldn’t change without edits.

My understanding is the starting balance is the last closing balance. The ‘guessed’ new closing balance is the net of all transactions that aren’t reconciled added to that starting balance.

The dates are irrelevant as far as I understand.

So if your last closing balance was $1000 on 10/31/19 and you click the Reconcile button, you should get a starting balance of $1000.

*But* if there is an unreconciled transaction from 2017, (due to edit or original omission) for say, $100, then the new starting balance will be adjusted by it, even though it is long prior to the last reconciliation date. This makes sense, as it is an unreconciled transaction that now, you are presumably going to reconcile. So in that case, your starting balance should be $900 even though your last closing balance was $1000. Because if you start at $1000, you’ll be off in your new closing balance when you check off that historical transaction.


Regards,
Adrien

> On Nov 21, 2019 w47d325, at 6:26 PM, Jack Lockard <JELockard at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> I just tried that ending October 31, 2018 and then October 31, 2017 and the starting balance shown does not change.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+jelockard=outlook.com at gnucash.org> On Behalf Of David Carlson
> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2019 7:16 PM
> To: David Cousens <davidcousens at bigpond.com>
> Cc: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Reconciliation
> 
> David Cousens,
> 
> This would be a great time to provide details on how to follow your suggestion.  Would it be sufficient to try setting previous reconcile dates into the reconcile dialog and see what values appear in the start and end balances?
> 
> If there are usually no reconciled transactions in the history on the reconcile dates, this might work, else it could get more complicated.
> 
> Then what? mark all following transactions as unreconciled, then re-reconcile each period again?  I think the thought of trying to do that is what makes us decide to just enter some sort of adjustment and forget about fixing history.  Unfortunately, that may cause errors in the running balance.
> 
> I hope the spell checker didn't change any of my comments.
> 
> David Carlson

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