[GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?

[Jediator]

Monthly reconciliation isn't the only way.  I found it more less 
time-consuming to do quarterly or semi-annually reconciliation instead 
of monthly, if most of your account transactions are in-sync with the 
banks' (and you don't have any monthly audit requirement). In the recon 
window, just enter the date of your latest bank statement, enter the 
ending balance amount, and go through the rest of the recon steps.  In 
most cases, the transactions should be reconciled without problems.  In 
case of any discrepancies and you couldn't find the missing 
transactions, you can go back to a statement with shorter timeline and 
go through the recon process...

I've been dreaming of an AI-enabled GnuCash that imports OFX files 
monthly from your bank, maps accounts using machine learning, and 
generates reconciliation report without a single human touch, if I could 
only get less sleep and find that $1M funding...

-- ND
On 1/19/25 10:55 AM, John Morris wrote:
> I do an honest-to-god reconciliation to a statement every month for 
> many of our accounts. The main reason I do this is it gives me a 
> recent touch point where I can prove that the bank and I really did 
> agree. While I also look at our most active accounts almost daily, 
> those looks are useless in the case of a discrepancy. If I have to 
> call the bank about an error, the representative on the other end of 
> that call will put little credence in "It looked fine yesterday." I 
> agree that a bank error is rare, but they are not unheard of.
>
>   I do have to admit that my situation is somewhat more complex than 
> the one Ken describes. My GnuCash books are home to several hundred 
> different asset and liability accounts grouped into five different 
> "business" areas to track our personal, extended family, and 
> self-employed finances. A typical month sees two or three hundred 
> transactions added to the general ledger. Also, while I went paperless 
> decades ago, the world around me stubbornly refuses to join me. About 
> 10% of those new transactions represent paper checks, most ordered 
> through my bank. Some of those paper checks went uncashed for as much 
> as six months in the last year.
>
>   So, while a daily look at the really active accounts keeps me 
> abreast of our financial situation, the monthly reconciliation is 
> another important part of my routine.
>
> Best,
> John
>
> On 2025-01-19 12:51 AM, R Losey wrote:
>
>> It is the habit in our household to put all paper receipts in a 
>> drawer, and
>> I have a set time (each week) to enter those transactions (because so 
>> much
>> is done online, I also go through email looking for electronic 
>> receipts).
>> Please note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; sometimes, I enter
>> transactions shortly after they occur, if I happen to feel like it.
>>
>> But I still reconcile with the bank balance (not statement) each month;
>> yes, I could do it weekly, but monthly is working for me. However, this
>> helps me to ensure that no one in the household forgot to put a 
>> receipt in
>> the drawer; various ones of us have forgotten (receipts found to have 
>> been
>> languishing in a wallet or purse -- or worse, someone lost a receipt).
>> Moreover, there are some charges that occur for which I get no 
>> notification
>> -- for example, the Amazon Prime membership, or Amazon's "Subscribe & 
>> Save"
>> items -- those just occur with no notification. A regular reconciliation
>> helps me to find these things.
>>
>> Maybe this is not considered an "old-fashioned monthly bank
>> reconciliation", since I am reconciling to current balance, not to some
>> statement.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM Ken Pyzik <pyz01 at outlook.com> wrote:
>>
>>> All — First, I want to apologize for the length of this rant.  We will
>>> always agree to disagree on this subject.  Please understand, I am a
>>> retired 30 year bank auditor.  I know the purpose of what a 
>>> reconciliation
>>> is.  But what I don't understand is this obsession with doing monthly
>>> reconciliations for personal accounts on your computer.
>>>
>>> First, I have not received a "paper" statement from my bank in over 20
>>> years.  My statements are all online.  Second, I sign-in to my 
>>> (checking
>>> and credit card) accounts almost daily.  So I know exactly when every
>>> deposit or charge hits my accounts.  Third, in this day and age, I 
>>> write,
>>> maybe, one check a month, to my landscaper who does not have direct
>>> deport.  Other than that, my 20-30 transactions per month are all
>>> electronic.  Also, I charge almost everything on my charge card.  So 
>>> any
>>> money I spend is on my charge card statement.
>>>
>>> Fourth, I enter transactions in GnuCash whenever I feel I have a few 
>>> spare
>>> moments and my GnuCash balances nearly always match my online account
>>> balances except for when my landscaper takes too long to cash his 
>>> check, or
>>> an electronic transaction takes more than a day or two to clear. 
>>> Fifth, the
>>> whole purpose of the reconciliation process is to identify transactions
>>> that you either know to be coming or that you think will be coming that
>>> have not been reflected on your current bank balance so you don't 
>>> overdraw
>>> your account or so that an unauthorized charge does not slip by.
>>>
>>> With that backdrop — as you can probably tell,  I have not done an
>>> old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation in eons. Technically, since I
>>> sign-in almost every day, I guess you can say I do a 
>>> mini-reconciliation of
>>> my accounts daily (or almost daily!) and because of that, I know 
>>> exactly
>>> what my balance is almost all the time.  Additionally, if I see any 
>>> unknown
>>> transaction online (which is like never!), I can call my bank almost
>>> anytime and discuss with them what the transaction is and usually 
>>> get it
>>> rectified rather quickly.  And the benefits of looking at my account
>>> everyday is that I can see it hit that day!
>>>
>>> So, with all that being said, can someone please explain to me why 
>>> people
>>> are wasting their time doing manual C/N reconciliations on a bunch of
>>> transactions on their computer?  I would think they could use their 
>>> time
>>> much more effectively doing something else.  You see, the reason for
>>> reconciliations in the past were that you did not have the access, 
>>> as you
>>> do today, to go and see exactly what the balance is or what 
>>> transactions
>>> have cleared in your account, anytime, anywhere, 24-hours a day!
>>>
>>> Reconciliations are vital for a business so they have documented 
>>> proof of
>>> their transactions.  Also, they sometimes are required by government
>>> regulations or company policies.  So I get their need in the business
>>> world.  But reconciliations for your personal accounts are a thing 
>>> of the
>>> past.  In this day and age, transactions clear pretty quickly.  The 
>>> longest
>>> it takes for a transaction to clear is usually a manual check - and 
>>> that's
>>> only dependent on how long it takes for someone to deposit it into 
>>> their
>>> account.  Hell, I have had some transactions clear in as quick as 10
>>> seconds (for internal transfers or internal payments to a bank CC).
>>>
>>> Again — there will be many who will totally disagree with me, and 
>>> that's
>>> OK, but I still don't see the reason for a monthly reconciliation 
>>> process
>>> to true up your personal accounts.  Waiting until you get a 
>>> statement in 30
>>> days to see if your GNUCash balance matches the bank is crazy to me 
>>> when I
>>> can see it and balance it every day!
>>>
>>> In the end - I guess my 1 minute per day is probably someone else's 30
>>> minutes at the end of the month or whenever they get their electronic
>>> statement.   But in today's electronic banking environment, why would
>>> someone wait 30 days to get a statement from the bank to reconcile 
>>> their
>>> personal accounts, when they can see the balance on their own, any 
>>> day and
>>> anytime and balance it daily?  Seems counter-intuitive and
>>> counter-productive to me.  But I guess that's just my preference.
>>>
>>> Ken
>>>
>>> PS - by the way — this is also exactly why banks charge for paper 
>>> monthly
>>> statements now.  They are required by law to give you a statement - 
>>> but if
>>> you want it on paper - they are allowed to charge for that paper 
>>> since it
>>> is available electronically all the time - everyday after they 
>>> generate it.
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