[GNC] Starting balance of new account is not $0

[Phyllis Bruce]

Hmmmm.  Yes I did mean Rich.  I was assuming he was just getting started
and that he cancelled his reconciliation because it didn't work for him.

My starting balance in all my reconcilable (?) accounts was not zero.  When
I created the accounts I entered the ending balance of the previous
statement as the starting balance (the equity).  I had no trouble at all in
reconciling those first statements.  Of course, I entered any *unreconciled*
transactions into Gnu so they were available to the first reconciliation.
A brand new credit account would have a zero balance.  A brand new cash or
checking account *could* have the initial deposit as the starting balance.
Am I completely off the rails here?

On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 9:15 AM Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Wed, April 26, 2023 10:09 am, Phyllis Bruce wrote:
> > Derek, when you *first came into Gnucash* did you enter current balances
> > as
> > equity?  Any balance on a credit card would be negative to equity.  Your
> > cash accounts would be positive.  It's not too late to do that.  Enter
> the
> > beginning balance on the statement you are trying to reconcile as equity
> > for that account.  Use help to get to the tutorials and best practices.
>
> I think you meant to direct that to Rich, not to me.
>
> (For the record, yes, when I started my accounts in.. 2002.. I did indeed
> put in starting balances.)
>
> BUT, you must put them in prior to reconciling.  And even so, the first
> time you reconcile you will get a starting balance of 0.
>
> -derek
>
> > On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 8:21 AM Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On Wed, April 26, 2023 9:09 am, Rich James wrote:
> >> > I'm trying to resolve some reconciliation issues and decided to go
> >> back
> >> to
> >> > my first statement from last year when I opened the account to
> >> establish
> >> > that everything is balanced.  However, when I start to reconcile and
> >> put
> >> > in
> >> > the statement date and ending balance, the reconciliation window shows
> >> a
> >> > Starting Balance of several hundred dollars instead of $0.  This gives
> >> me
> >> > an incorrect difference that I can't properly clear.
> >> >
> >> > Is there a known issue where this can occur?  Or can anyone suggest a
> >> way
> >> > to resolve this?  I'm seeing similar behavior with another account as
> >> > well.
> >>
> >> You cannot go "back in time" to reconcile.  When you reconcile an
> >> account
> >> at date X, you are reconciling from "the beginning of time" to date X.
> >> You cannot then go back to a date earlier than X to (re)reconcile.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps,
> >>
> >> >
> >> > Thanks,
> >> > Rich
> >>
> >> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> >> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> >>
> >> -derek
> >>
> >> --
> >>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
> >>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
> >>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
> >>
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> >
>
>
> --
>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>
>