[GNC] Account reconciliation -- Gnucash's beginning balance is incorrect.

[NoobAlice]

On 2023-11-07 12:26 PM, John Reagan wrote:
 > ... but the starting balance for that period was $299.46
 > which is the reconciled balance at the end of July. Instead, Gnucash is
 > showing a starting balance of $ -200.54.
 >
 >      I tried entering a correction transaction of $200.54, but it didn't
 > change anything.

I would think that correction would have to be:
$299.46 - (-$200.54) = $500.00

Instead, maybe there is just a $500 transaction to clear/fix.

On 2023-11-07 01:03 PM, John Reagan wrote:
> ... When 
> I use the */actions/reconcile/ *menu choice to reconcile my account, 
> that false beginning balance is factored into the final balance. ...
> 
> 
> How is that beginning balance calculated?  If I can check on the numbers 
> that are used to calculate the beginning balance, I should be able to 
> find the mistake that is generating that error.
> 
> 
> John

If the ending balance in the register matches the ending balance on the 
statement, have you tried just checking off all transactions and seeing 
if that works?


Calculating the beginning balance:

For some reason I can't get the reconciliation report (or totaling by 
Reconciliation Date) to work well right now, but try out a Transaction 
Report.

Reports > Transaction Report

Set up thusly:
Accounts
	Bank account you're trying to reconcile
Currency
	Ignore this tab
Display
	CHECK Date
	CHECK Reconciled Date
	CHECK Number
	CHECK Description
	Detail Level: One transaction per line
	CHECK Other Account Name
	Amount: Single Column
	CHECK Grand Total
	Running Totals: Grand Total Only
Filter
	Reconciled Status: Reconciled Only
General
	Report Name: Transaction Report QUICK RECONCILIATION
	Start date: BEFORE YOUR FIRST TRANSACTION EVER!
	End date: Today
	Add options summary: Always
Sorting
	Primary Key: Reconciled Date
	Primary Sort Order: Ascending
	Primary Subtotal for Date Key: None
	Secondary Key: Register Order
	Secondary Sort Order: Ascending
	UNCHECK Secondary Subtotal

Run report, SAVE CONFIG AS and name it something like "Transaction 
Report QUICK RECONCILIATION" so you don't have to set this up again if 
it gets closed by mistake.

My options summary looks like this:
Sorting / Primary Subtotal for Date Key : none
Sorting / Primary Key : reconciled-date
General / Add options summary : always
General / Start Date : absolute . 2009-01-01
Filter / Reconciled Status : reconciled
Display / Running Totals : grand
Display / Enable Links : Disabled
Display / Amount : single
Display / Reconciled Date : Enabled
Accounts / Accounts : Checking Account

This report should give you the reconciled balance in the account as of 
each period end date.

If you want a guide for finding the time period of the issue quickly:

Pull out your bank statements.  Check the ending balance for last month 
against the bank statement.  If those don't match, maybe check the 
balance for two months ago.  Then the end of last year.

If that still doesn't match, check the end of three years ago, or five, 
or ten.  Keep checking balances until you narrow down a range of before 
the difference happened.  If you find that the reconciled balance did 
not match at the end of 2022 but did match at the end of 2020, split the 
difference and try the end of 2021.  And then you know which year it 
was, so take June of that year and check that balance.  Then you know if 
it was the first or second half of that year, etc.

Your goal is to quickly narrow down which month the issue appears 
without checking every single month.  Then you can run a separate 
transaction report for that month and check it against your bank statement.