Splasm Software Discussions

When reconciling Checkbook there are four windows, two for Account and two for Statement. The statement I get from the bank has two basic balances, Beginning Balance and Ending Balance. I transferred my data in from Quicken Essentials and I was able to reconcile to zero each month. In the transfer of data, and my entry of all possible debits and credits, I am not coming up with any number that is close to a Beginning or Ending Balance, and I want to adjust Checkbook so it will come to a zero balance on reconciliation. How do I do this? I appears as though only the Statement Balance can be changed. I think I do not know what the Account Balance represents, nor the Resolved Account Balance. And If I do account for all my entries in a cycle, where should the zero be? Please help.

When Reconciling in CheckBook, all that you need to worry about inputting is the Ending Balance off your statement, as this is the balance you're reconciling to, and that goes in the Statement Balance field. From there, you'll want to get to a point where the Resolved Balance matches the Statement Balance and this is done by looking at your statement and checking-off corresponding items as Resolved aka cleared (the Resolved Balance is the total of the checked items). In the end, what you're looking for is a zero Unreconciled amount (the difference between the Statement and Resolved Balance).

Concerning the Account Balance, that's the overall Balance and so will include some items that aren't relevant to the current Reconciliation, such as Entries that appear on the following statement.

_________________
Allan Woodall
Phosphorescent Phage
Splasm Software
http://www.splasm.com

Since I'm having an issue with this just adding to this topic. I have never been able to get my unreconciled to zero. I finally gave up and let it slide but I have a year and half's world of accounts to reconcile. I'm so frustrated because I never had this problem with my previous program. I only had to switch because of a mac upgrade. I enter my statement ending balance and then check off each transaction, easy right? I should end up with zero. I never do. I make any corrections needed. But I can't get zero and there's no way to force a reconciliation and move on. Help!

When Reconciling in CheckBook, all checked-off aka Resolved items are added up and this is compared to the Statement Balance that's input. If there's a discrepancy, that amount's displayed in the Unreconciled total, which amounts to the difference between the Resolved Balance and Statement Balance. So, anytime you wanted to essentially force a Reconcile, add an Entry in the amount of the Unreconciled total as this'll balance things out such that the Reconcile button becomes available.

Before forcing a Reconcile, since you moved over from another program, something worth checking is that the correct Starting Balance was originally set correctly. To check the Starting Balance of an Account, choose 'Edit Account...' from the Account menu—the Starting Balance should match what the bank shows as the balance at the time just before the first Entry added to CheckBook cleared the bank.

_________________
Allan Woodall
Phosphorescent Phage
Splasm Software
http://www.splasm.com

But if I add an amount to force reconcile that will throw off my balance. I went over my statement twice yesterday and came up with the same amount. I've given up and am just checking off and just making sure entries match. I started with a zero balance that's what's driving me crazy. I finally had it reconciled before I started this time. But each time I try to reconcile something goes wrong.

If the overall Account Balance is correct in CheckBook, then adding an Entry in the amount of the Unreconciled total should indeed be avoided. Now, a forced Reconcile can instead be performed by simply typing what shows in the Resolved Balance into the Statement Balance field—when these match the Reconcile button lights up. Really, it would be a proper Reconciliation to check absolutely everything and then do this as you'd be reconciling to the correct Balance that shows at the bank in the end.

_________________
Allan Woodall
Phosphorescent Phage
Splasm Software
http://www.splasm.com