[GNC] Credit card reconciliation - starting balance

[Trevor Richards]

Hi Derek,I set up this account based on a credit card statement as an arbitrary starting point Aug last year.The stmt showed 105.00 as balance BF so I created that as my opening balance (owed). It balances with an account called opening balances (I think as instructed by GNU)all the following monthly transactions match the CC stmts (purchases & monthly payments from my savings acc)The savings acc reconciles OKThe CC account always shows starting balance of 4,448.06 when I try to reconcile any month 
The ledger matches the stmts. 
your comments make no sense to me. I can press the reconcile button forcing any dates I like. I do realize that it is pointless reconciling prior to start dates but I'm just pointing out that 4,448.06 is always the starting balance... I know not from where


   On Thursday, 4 July 2024 at 23:52:09 GMT+12, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:  
 
 Have you ever reconciled this account before?

You cannot reconcile "back in time".  I.e. once you reconcile to time T,
you have effectively reconciled from the beginning of time to time T. 
What this means is that you cannot go back and later reconcile to a time
BEFORE T.  Part of the reason is that the starting balance is the sum of
all reconciled transactions in the account.

As a practical example, let's say you start and put an opening balance of
$1000 on June 1, 2024 and then reconcile your transactions as of June 30,
2024.  After this, you cannot go back and re-fill January thru May,
because the "opening" balance will include all your (june) reconciled
transactions.

If you started with an opening balance, reconciled, and then go back and
filled in transactions prior to the opening balance, the only thing you
can do is re-reconcile to the SAME place (e.g. re-reconcile June 30,
2024); ignore the opening balance, make sure the ending balance is
correct, and check-off all the prior transactions from the beginning of
time to your reconcile date.

Hope this helps!

-derek

On Thu, July 4, 2024 5:53 am, Trevor Richards via gnucash-user wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestions but don't think they help.I've tried
> reconciliation stepping back to months previous to when I 1st opened these
> accounts.It always opens with the same starting balance... 4,448.06Ending
> balances are zero (not surprising... no transactions)
>
> I do get a successful reconciliation on the corresponding bank account
> that is connected to the credit card
>
>    On Tuesday, 2 July 2024 at 06:26:06 GMT+12, Tommy Trussell
> <tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  In addition to the comments below, you will need to make sure you entered
> the transactions in the correct columns. 
> Make sure the account was correctly set up as a liability account (so its
> ending balance will decrease your overall net assets balance). When you
> enter credit card transactions into the account, its running balance
> should go up, and when you enter payments (last month's card payment in
> this case) its balance should go down. The debit (left) column will
> contain the payments to the credit card bank, and the credit (right)
> column will contain the individual credit card transactions. 
> If it has been awhile since you have looked at the documentation, it's a
> good time to review the chapter on Credit Cards
> https://lists.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_cc.html
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 12:45 PM Phyllis Bruce <pobruce46 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Trevor, did you enter the unreconciled transactions from the previous
> month?  Those would have to be included for your first reconciliation.
>
> Phyllis B
>
> On Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 12:24 PM Adrien Monteleone <
> adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>
>> Have you ever reconciled this account? If not, the starting balance
>> should have been zero.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Adrien
>>
>> On 7/1/24 4:34 AM, Trevor Richards via gnucash-user wrote:
>> > I am failing to reconcile a CC account. The ledger appears to
>> replicate
>> my statement in the 1st month of transactions. The 1st transaction I
>> entered was the starting balance from the previous month's CC stmt
>> (105.00)
>> and all transactions appear correct in the months that follow. When I
>> try
>> to reconcile this CC account, it tells me my starting balance is
>> 4,448.06.
>> Where did that come from?
>> >
>> > I've searched my GNUcash file and that number does not come up.
>> > Trevor (stumped)
>>
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-- 
      Derek Atkins                617-623-3745
      derek at ihtfp.com            www.ihtfp.com
      Computer and Internet Security Consultant