[GNC] Incorrect Starting Balance in Reconcile Popup

[Richard]

"This would be my first point: you need to change 12457 to 9880" That is 
not possible. I can not change it in any way.

"suggests a problem with either your data or your procedures. Perhaps 
you could provide more detail?"

I have gone through all the items in that account for this year when I 
started the account.

I find a single item un-reconciled until I get to the current month. The 
box with 12457 does not allow any changes so there is no way to change 
that. I have in the past gone thru this process to find an error and 
having the balance column, I can change the entry dates to follow the 
balances on the statement, checking each item against the bank 
statement, ending with the New Balance.

Unfortunately there does not appear to be an obvious way to either 
reconcile the individual item that I found, nor does checking it off in 
the reconcile window do any good - just adds to the problem. Without 
adding a balancing entry, _there is no way to finish reconciling_.

Again this whole morning I have gone through months worth of statements 
and only found that one un-reconciled item.

"David T. * MY terse reply could simply have been 9880<>12457 and left 
it at that!"

Perhaps David you fail to realize that someone asking for help does not 
know what you want them to tell you and snark doesn't make it any easier 
on them.

"This would be my first point: you need to change 12457 to 9880--after 
all, you're reconciling to your *bank's* records." How do you propose I 
make that happen except by adding a balancing entry?

Phyllis: "no one told Richard you CAN change the starting date on the 
way into the reconciliation screen" Changing the date doesn't change the 
previous balance.

In any case, thank you and others for taking the time to help me with this.

On 12/8/2025 9:12 AM, sunfish62 at yahoo.com wrote:
> Adrien previously made valid points-- to wit, you should not consider 
> adding a balancing entry to be correct. I echo his advice for you to 
> go back to a point before your first balancing entry and get this in 
> order.
>
> Your terse reply makes informed advice difficult,* but it suggests 
> that the current bank statement is 9880 and the reconciliation dialog 
> prepopulates with 12457, which you accept and then proceed to the 
> reconciliation window. This would be my first point: you need to 
> change 12457 to 9880--after all, you're reconciling to your *bank's* 
> records. GnuCash makes an educated guess as to what the closing figure 
> should be, based on dates and reconcile flags-- but it's only a guess.
>
> You should at least go back first and correct your books from the 
> beginning, and we what happens when reconcile to the bank's numbers.
>
> David T.
>
> * MY terse reply could simply have been 9880<>12457 and left it at that!
> On Dec 8, 2025, at 3:50 PM, Richard Fochtmann <rfochtmann at gmx.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>     Get BlueMail for Mobile <https://bluemail.me/download/>
>     On December 7, 2025, at 22:03, sunfish62 at yahoo.com
>     <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>     Under normal circumstances, users can disregard the starting
>>     balance in reconciliation, so long as the ending balances match.
>>
>>     With GnuCash, the starting balance in reconciliation is a
>>     calculation of *all* reconciled transactions in the account--
>>     past, present and future-- so if you have any reconciled
>>     transactions that come after the starting date of your
>>     reconciliation, they will throw off the starting balance. What
>>     matters is that the closing balances match.
>>
>>     My general suggestion for anyone trying to reconciled a long
>>     period of time, or to correct an error in the past (reconciled)
>>     books, is first to try reconciling the entire period to the last
>>     date available, selecting everything that either appears on the
>>     last statement or predates it. If that works, then your cleanup
>>     is done. If it doesn't, then cancel out, clear all reconcile
>>     transactions after the last good reconciliation, and work through
>>     statement by statement.
>>
>>     However, your comments that this has happened before and that
>>     you've had to create balancing entries suggests a problem with
>>     either your data or your procedures. Perhaps you could provide
>>     more detail?
>>
>>     David T.
>>     On Dec 8, 2025, at 8:17 AM, Richard Fochtmann via gnucash-user
>>     <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>>
>>         Current statement 9880+
>>
>>         Reconcile popup 12457+
>>
>>         Checkng off all items in popup except for two future items leaves 8000+
>>
>>         Remove previous balancing entry leaving 4000+ and no way to finish the rec process
>>