[GNC] Fwd: Reconciliation mystery - unreconciled transactions in a period that was reconciled.

Tue Dec 21 15:32:11 EST 2021

In short, as long as I exit and reopen the application after each month's
reconciliation, I should have a complete set of backups and be able to go
back a month at a time.

Evidently, that did not occur to me, but the number of transactions is low,
so it should be easy to export as a csv and simply reimport. I can also
export and reimport the entire CofA, so that may be the cleanest route,
rather than having this fight.

On Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 3:14 PM Rogier F. van Vlissingen <vliscony at gmail.com>
wrote:

> thanks much...
>
> I will first check with my mint buddies to see if there is experience with
> upgrading Gnucash past the native version (3.8)... and yes, they are
> running behind, but I do not want to incur more support worries either,
> unless it seems a reasonable risk.
>
> As to your comments about the balances, it is even more screwy than you
> think.
> As of right now, when I go back to December in reconciliation, it shows me
> an opening balance that of $52.03 instead of what it was ($180.12) and the
> two mystery "n" txns are still showing unreconciled. When I do reconcile
> them, I end up with an ending balance of $187.37, and a reconciled balance
> of -107.37, with a difference of $295.34 which is ridiculous. So it looks
> worse every time I look.
>
> Seems to me the only way is to export and then re-import the raw data, and
> just redo the whole year. I cannot think of any other way, other than
> redoing it manually. I will first figure out if I want to do the upgrade.
> The Gnucash site recommends against it.
>
> Then when I redo this, I will simply make a backup every time I finish a
> month and keep them around until I close the year. This last time, I did
> the entire year in one session and had no backups.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 2:43 PM David H <hellvee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Rogier,
>>
>> I think you are placing too much emphasis on the opening balance
>> being off, forget that you know why it's off so just accept that and move
>> on.  It's the closing balance that is the important thing as long as that
>> agrees you are all good so I don't consider you are "rolling forward" an
>> error - isn't your reconcile ending balance supposed to be $52.03?  The
>> only way to view the correct opening balance would be to go back to a
>> GnuCash backup prior to your December reconciliation and start it all over.
>> If you want to try that check out
>> https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-guide/basics-backup1.html for
>> details on backup and log files.
>>
>> Upgrading to 4.9 won't change this behaviour but at least it should give
>> you a warning before unreconciling a transaction assuming you haven't
>> turned off warnings - you can check this using the menu item Actions >>
>> Reset Warnings - click on it to display any warnings you have turned off.
>>
>> Cheers David H.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 21 Dec 2021 at 21:29, Rogier F. van Vlissingen <
>> vliscony at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I follow you and in fact, I had tried that before.
>>>
>>> If I simply re-enter the Dec2020 reconciliation (you are right, I have
>>> not done Jan2021 yet, that was when I noticed the discrepancy), what
>>> happens is it shows with $187.37 for an opening balance, and the two
>>> offending "n" txns still showing up, but then when I mark them as
>>> reconciled, the reconciled ending balance shows $52.03, which means I am
>>> rolling the discrepancy of $135.34 forward. In short, this whole thing is
>>> screwy beyond my ability to understand.
>>>
>>> It now seems to me that the only way out may be to export the data,
>>> uninstall the old version and install version 4.9, and simply redo the
>>> entire year. In other words, if I were to upgrade my installed version to
>>> 4.9, I would most likely be rolling the mistake forward. Maybe I can
>>> actually try v4.9 first, and see what happens, and then I can still export
>>> the data and start the year over, simply redoing all the reconciliations.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 2:43 AM David H <hellvee at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> No, don't change any dates, what I was thinking was that if you hadn't
>>>> reconciled again yet (which seemed to me to be the case) you could just use
>>>> the end of December date and ending balance and go through the
>>>> reconciliation process again.  Those two txns should show up as
>>>> unreconciled so you could check them off as being reconciled as at December
>>>> 2020.
>>>>
>>>> 4.9 has just been released, 3.8 is old so likely did have the feature
>>>> that caused txns to become unreconciled if you updated the txn description
>>>> etc.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers David H.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, 21 Dec 2021 at 13:32, Rogier F. van Vlissingen <
>>>> vliscony at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Oh, the pic was just my sig, irrelevant.
>>>>>
>>>>> on Gnucash 3.8 Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon.
>>>>>
>>>>> What happened is a mystery to me. I was racing for the tax deadline,
>>>>> and all I did was enter a whole year pretty quickly and reconcile the
>>>>> accounts every month, When Dec was reconciled I shipped it off to the
>>>>> accountant, and never noticed the problem, so it existed right then, for in
>>>>> the reports the closing balance of that account was 52.03 and not 187.37,
>>>>> yet the reconciliation in January shows an opening balance of 187.37.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have no idea how I get to re-do the december reconcile?
>>>>> do I reset the year to 2020 and then simply go back to the
>>>>> reconciliation? Or do I need to manually reset the transactions somehow?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 6:37 PM David H <hellvee at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Rogier,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Was there a pic ? The mailing list doesn't allow embedded pics - you
>>>>>> need to attach them as a file or I find that sometimes pasting them into
>>>>>> the email as the very last thing also works.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You could just try re-doing the Dec 2020 reconcile - they should show
>>>>>> up there allowing you to check them off and include them in the Dec 2020
>>>>>> reconcile. What version of GnuCash / what OS are you on - there were issues
>>>>>> ages ago with amending reconciled txns causing the flag to be reset to "u"
>>>>>> ?   It seems if your opening balance is correct for Jan (does this come
>>>>>> from a last reconciled record in GnuCash?) you are correct in that they
>>>>>> would have been reconciled previously based on your figures, so must have
>>>>>> been unset by some action - did you update any details on these two txns
>>>>>> after reconciling for December ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers David H.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, 21 Dec 2021 at 07:03, Rogier F. van Vlissingen <
>>>>>> vliscony at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> To: <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks, I am not totally clear as to what you are saying...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It seems clear that the problem is in December only, and I remember
>>>>>>> racing
>>>>>>> for the tax deadline ;-) so I may have done something wrong in that
>>>>>>> last
>>>>>>> reconciliation of the year. But, yes, it is two months ago, and I do
>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>> have a memory of making the mistake, I am now setting up my 2021 and
>>>>>>> that's
>>>>>>> when I realized the discrepancy. there was no error with the dates,
>>>>>>> and the
>>>>>>> two transactions do show up as unreconciled in Jan 31 2021 reconcile.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Here is the pic in Dec 2020 - the two "n" transactions are the 2nd
>>>>>>> and 3rd
>>>>>>> last, so there was only one final one on 12/31.2020 (not shown in
>>>>>>> table).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "n" 12/30/2020 $35.88
>>>>>>> "n" 12/31/2020 $99.46
>>>>>>> ending balance $52.03 but statement says $187.37 - difference
>>>>>>> $135.34,
>>>>>>> which is the total of the two "n" transactions.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> mysteriously, the reconcile process thinks the Jan 21 opening
>>>>>>> balance is
>>>>>>> (correctly) $187.37, so that, if I accept the two "n" transactions,
>>>>>>> I come
>>>>>>> out wrong, for that opening balance assumes they were already
>>>>>>> reconciled in
>>>>>>> december, but the register and the trial balance do not reflect it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In short, if I reconcile them in January, I am perpetuating the
>>>>>>> mistake.
>>>>>>> So it seems that ideally, I should undo the December reconcile and
>>>>>>> do it
>>>>>>> again, at which point in time I may have to correct my 2020 filing.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am not sure if or how I can undo the reconcile for December.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is it possible that I did the reconciliation, but forgot to save the
>>>>>>> data
>>>>>>> or some such thing?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <
>>>>>>> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Sun, Dec 19, 2021 at 5:29 PM <davidcousens49 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > Rogier,
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > It would appear on the surface that somehow you did not reconcile
>>>>>>> the two
>>>>>>> > transactions which remained marked as "n" which means not
>>>>>>> cleared("c) or
>>>>>>> > not
>>>>>>> > reconciled("y").  How ? Unfortunately without knowing exactly what
>>>>>>> you did
>>>>>>> > during the reconciliation process it will be hard for anyone to
>>>>>>> tell.
>>>>>>> > Obvious
>>>>>>> > things are to check the dates on the two transactions to make sure
>>>>>>> they
>>>>>>> > are in
>>>>>>> > the reconciliation period and check that any transactions after
>>>>>>> the end of
>>>>>>> > the
>>>>>>> > reconciliation date are not marked with "y". A common error is
>>>>>>> entering the
>>>>>>> > wrong year when entering the transaction.  Any unreconciled
>>>>>>> transactions
>>>>>>> > from
>>>>>>> > earlier periods should show up in the reconcilation window panes.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > That the balances add up with the two un reconciled transactions
>>>>>>> suggest
>>>>>>> > opening
>>>>>>> > the reconciliation process again and seeing if the two unmarked
>>>>>>> > transactions
>>>>>>> > appear in it.
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > David Cousens
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > On Sun, 2021-12-19 at 16:42 -0500, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote:
>>>>>>> > > A while ago, I set up a business in Gnucash after having some
>>>>>>> outrageous
>>>>>>> > > problems with QBO.
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > Once I got going it all worked out OK, but it appears I may have
>>>>>>> made
>>>>>>> > some
>>>>>>> > > mistakes in the end and I cannot comprehend how I might have
>>>>>>> done it or
>>>>>>> > how
>>>>>>> > > to fix them.
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > The primary tipoff was that I did all my reconciliations of three
>>>>>>> > accounts
>>>>>>> > > and as it was, the bank account ended up with a $187.37 balance
>>>>>>> on
>>>>>>> > > 12/31/20, however the account register shows to transactions
>>>>>>> that are
>>>>>>> > still
>>>>>>> > > showing "n" for unreconciled, and the balance at 12/31/20 shows
>>>>>>> $52.03
>>>>>>> > and
>>>>>>> > > the two "n" transactions account for the difference, $135.34.
>>>>>>> But why do
>>>>>>> > > they show "n" and is the ending balance $52.03???
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > I have not been able to figure out a way to fix this.
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > Evidently, the result is a minor error in my final reports of
>>>>>>> 2020, and
>>>>>>> > > hence in my tax filing.
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > <
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > > >
>>>>>>> > > Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <
>>>>>>> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me>
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > > <
>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > > >
>>>>>>> > > _______________________________________________
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