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Financial analytics for monthly bookkeeping clients

Although the bank feeds in QuickBooks Online matches entries to the bank or credit card account, it is a best practice to reconcile the accounts monthly using the Reconcile feature. The reconciliation process helps find errors and omissions between QuickBooks and the bank. It also changes the reconcile tag on transactions from C to R, giving you another way to filter reports and helps troubleshoot issues with your bank feeds.

To open the Reconcile screen in QuickBooks Online:

Click the gear icon, Reconcile under the Tools menu. (It is also available in the left navigation bar by clicking Accounting, Reconcile.)
Choose the bank or credit card account to reconcile from the drop-down menu.
Enter the Statement Ending Balance and the Statement Ending Date from the bank statement. Click Start reconciling. (If you see a small screen called “Reconcile like a pro,” click Let’s do it.)
The Reconcile screen in QuickBooks offers many options to make the reconciliation process faster and easier. You will first see that you have the option to reconcile all transactions, by payments only, or by deposits only.

Checks and payments under the Payments tab
Deposits and other credits under the Deposits tab  Both payments and deposits under the All tab
The reconciliation summary box is found at the top of the page and can be hidden by clicking the up arrow on the right-hand side.

If you made a mistake entering the statement ending balance or the date, click the Edit info button in the top right.

The filter option allows you to find and filter transactions by cleared status, transaction type and payee. You can also filter by transaction dates. Bank feed transactions are automatically marked cleared when added or matched to the register. You may also sort by the column headers. There is a column called Cleared Date that allows you to see the date the transaction cleared the bank (via the bank feed info) and identify if it was cleared after your statement period (even if the transaction is dated in your statement period).

To mark a transaction as cleared, click the circle to the right of the transaction. As you clear transactions, QuickBooks tallies the cleared debits and credits in the summary box displaying the difference between your records and the bank.
Once you have verified and checked all the cleared transactions in QuickBooks, the amount in the Difference field is zero. When finished (i.e., when the Difference field displays zero), click Finish Now. This will close the screen.
You can always click Save for later to save your progress and complete your reconciliation later.

Here are some common roadblocks when reconciling an account in QuickBooks Online:

A transaction on the bank statement is not in QuickBooks – To add a transaction not recorded in QuickBooks but appearing on the bank statement, click +New at the top of the left navigation bar to open the appropriate transaction screen. Record the transaction then go back to the Reconcile screen. Mark the new transaction as cleared. You can also go to the Banking Center and classify your transaction if it has not been recorded yet.
Discrepancies: you made the error – If you find a discrepancy in one of your entries, click the transaction from the Reconcile screen to edit it. Save and close the transaction. Resume the reconciliation process.
Discrepancies: bank made the error – If the bank made an error, record a new transaction adjusting your balance. After you resolve the error with your bank, reverse the transaction. Mark the reversing entry cleared during the reconciliation of the period where the correction appears on your statement.
Printing the reconciliation report – To print the reconciliation report, click the Last statement ending date link in the Reconcile screen. It is important to note any changes made to the register after the reconciliation is completed are not included on your reconciliation report. You may also access other reconciled periods by clicking the History by account in the Reconcile screen.
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