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

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Rich:

You have received several replies, but I have a sense that some of them 
are talking past you. The issue may be that the term "Starting Balance" 
can mean multiple things in GnuCash.

On 2023-04-26 06:09, 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.

"Starting Balance" meaning 1: Another term for "Opening Balance". In the 
account register, the running total amount after the first transaction.  
If you told the GnuCash "New Account" setup dialogue[1] that an account 
which you are creating has a non-zero Opening Balance, then GnuCash 
creates the first transaction in this account, with the "Opening 
Balance" amount in the new account, and an offsetting amount in the 
Equity:Opening Balances account.

"Starting Balance" meaning 2: The value shown in the "Reconcile Window", 
bottom right corner, labelled "Starting Balance". This is no more or 
less than the sum of all transactions in that account which are marked 
as "Reconciled". As Derek Atkins pointed out,

> 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.
Rich, I think you are using meaning 2 when you say "the reconciliation 
window shows a Starting Balance of several hundred dollars instead of 
$0." From your description, this sounds like expected behaviour. You 
have "reconciliation issues", so that says to me that you have already 
marked some of the transactions in this account as "reconciled". The 
"Starting Balance" value which you see in the Reconciliation Window 
should be exactly equal to the sum of those transactions as they affect 
this account.

So, maybe a question you have is, "How to I untangle incorrect 
reconciliations in an account"? For that question, it would be helpful 
to know what are the "reconciliation issues" you see, what transactions 
are in the account, and what reconciliation you have done so far.

Does this help? Best regards,
     —Jim DeLaHunt


[1] /GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide/, Figure 2.11 "*New Account 
Hierarchy Setup: Account Setup"* 
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/basics-together1.html#idm1843>

[2] /GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide,/ Section 2.9.4. 
"*Reconciliation*" 
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_txns.html#txns-reconcile1>