[GNC] Reconciliation of accounts is not permanent

[Mark Truelove]

Hi David, long in the past I probably reconciled multiple accounts in one
session without thinking about it, but after the first incident I started
saving after I reconcile each statement.  This is the third time this has
occurred over about 5 years, prompting me to reach out about it instead of
just catching up all the lost reconciliations as I did in the past.

Consider that while I'm reconciling without issue across several accounts
each month (or maybe up to three, admittedly, for inactive accounts), that
the glitch when it appears takes me back several months or a year, over
which I definitely did not skip saving my activities. I also handle basic
activities (paying bills) twice a month, saving of course as I go.  My
ledger is currently up to date with no lost transactions, it's only the
reconciliation of those accounts that has been forgotten.

Besides the main credit card account I mentioned earlier, I have another
whose recommended reconciliation date fell back to 8/18/2021.  I'm holding
off on new activity for now for the sake of this conversation.

I'll take this to the next level and open a ticket to see if it goes
anywhere.

Thanks.

On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 1:27 PM David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Mark,
>
> From this side of the Internet it almost appears that you are forgetting
> to save the data file after reconciling, but always remembering to save
> other times, which is not very likely.
>
> Have you tried breaking down your procedure and inserting cross-checks?
>
> ie, just before starting a reconciliation, save the file, then reconcile
> one month, save the file, review the reconcile box of the freshly
> reconciled transactions to verify that they are still reconciled on the
> correct reconcile date, save again, rinse and repeat as needed?
>
> I just tried the reconciliation report for the first time and found that
> it shows mountains of information about reconciliation status down to split
> details when they exist, so that may help you too.
>
> If, as I suspect, you do indeed discover that some reconciliations are not
> being properly recorded in your file, please both let us know here and also
> file a bug report.
>
> On Wed, Sep 27, 2023, 10:49 AM Mark Truelove <true911m at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi again. Besides my tendency to be details-specific (given my
>> professional
>> background), I also had some college level accounting and understand
>> double-entry, reconciliation, and the basics.  No, I am not an accountant,
>> but I have been using GnuCash mostly successfully for more than twelve
>> years now.  I am new to this list, but not to the topics we're discussing.
>>
>> Regarding using the wrong year for the reconciliation date, the program
>> suggests an approximate date based on the last, and at the moment that
>> recommendation is 9/24/22.  This is not in a vacuum, however, because all
>> of the unreconciled transactions between August '22 and present are still
>> in the ledger awaiting reconciliation against these 12 or so monthly
>> statements that I just re-downloaded.  If I'd simply entered the wrong
>> year, this would not be the case.
>>
>> I'd hoped this would have been something familiar to someone, only that I
>> didn't know about because I hadn't been on the list previously.  Based on
>> the responses, it's beginning to look a little obscure now.
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 10:52 AM Michael or Penny Novack <
>> stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > > The purpose of reconciliation is to verify that from the last closing
>> > > date to the new closing date, the listed transactions cleared the
>> > > account and thus explain the change from the opening balance (last
>> > > closing balance) to the new closing balance listed on the statement.
>> > >
>> > > The actual balance, in your books, on a given day, or as of a given
>> > > day, is irrelevant to that reconciliation.
>> >
>> >
>> > Precisely. You EXPECT there to be a difference based on checks written
>> > (appear in the gnucash account) that have not yet cleared. In other
>> > words, the main part of the job (if no errors) is to verify that the
>> > total of checks written but uncleared matches the difference between the
>> > bank statement of the account and the gnucash account as of the date of
>> > the statement.
>> >
>> > When it still doesn't match you then need to find the error, a check not
>> > entered for the correct amount. Usually at your end but once I had one
>> > of these at a bank end.
>> >
>> > Michael D Novack
>> >
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