QuickBooks Bank Reconciliation Report, How to Read It and Fix a Difference

Menu names in QuickBooks Online move between releases, so look for the closest match if a label differs on your screen.

• Step 1. Open the reconcile page from the accounting or transactions area of the left menu.
• Step 2. Look for the history by account or the reconciliation reports link on that page.
• Step 3. Choose the bank or credit card account and the period you want to review.
• Step 4. Open the report for the statement ending date you are checking.
• Step 5. Compare the beginning balance with the opening balance on the bank statement for that period.
• Step 6. Compare the statement ending balance on the report with the closing balance on the statement.
• Step 7. Scan the uncleared list for old items and for amounts that look like duplicates of cleared ones.

You can also search the reports area for reconciliation reports. Save or print the report as a PDF when you close a month, so the client file has a copy that will not change if someone edits a transaction later.

A difference means the cleared transactions in QuickBooks do not explain the movement on the bank statement. Work through the checks below in order, because the early ones are quick and catch most problems.

• Step 1. Check the beginning balance. If it does not match the statement opening balance, a previously reconciled transaction was changed, deleted or added. Review the changes section of the last report and the audit log for edits to cleared items.
• Step 2. Check the statement ending balance you typed. A single wrong digit here creates a difference that no amount of ticking will fix.
• Step 3. Check the statement ending date. A date set a few days off pulls in or leaves out transactions near the cutoff.
• Step 4. Compare counts. Count the deposits and the payments on the bank statement and compare them with the number of cleared items on each side in QuickBooks.
• Step 5. Search for the exact difference amount. A transaction of that size is often missing or cleared by mistake.
• Step 6. Search for half the difference. An item entered as a deposit instead of a payment, or the other way around, creates a difference of twice its amount.
• Step 7. Test whether the difference divides evenly by nine. If it does, a transposed number such as 54 typed as 45 is the likely cause.
• Step 8. Look for duplicates. When a bank feed and a manual upload cover the same days, the same transaction can exist twice, with one copy cleared and one left hanging.
• Step 9. Look for missing rows. A statement retyped by hand or a feed that dropped a day leaves transactions that the bank shows and QuickBooks does not.
• Step 10. Fix the cause, not the symptom. Add, correct or delete the transaction, then reconcile again until the difference reaches zero.

QuickBooks lets you finish with a difference by posting an adjustment. Treat that as a last resort. An adjustment hides the real cause, and the same gap often reappears in the next period.

Take a computed example with simple assumptions. The statement opening balance is 12,400.00, cleared deposits total 8,150.00, cleared payments total 9,325.00, and the statement closing balance is 11,180.00.

Opening balance plus deposits minus payments gives 11,225.00, which leaves a difference of 45.00 against the closing balance. The amount divides evenly by nine, so the first place to look is a transposition, for example a payment recorded as 27.00 that should have been 72.00, or a 45.00 fee on the statement that was never entered.

Many reconciliation problems start before QuickBooks. When a statement is retyped or copied from a PDF by hand, a line can be skipped, a sign flipped or two digits swapped, and nothing complains until the reconciliation report shows a difference weeks later.

StatementsConverter checks every converted statement against its printed opening and closing balances. If the extracted rows do not add up to the closing balance, the statement is flagged before you import anything, so missing or misread rows get fixed in the converter instead of in QuickBooks.

• The opening balance, total credits, total debits and closing balance are compared for each statement.
• Statements that do not reconcile are marked for review, with the rows in an editable table.
• The export goes to QuickBooks only after the balances agree, so the cleared total in the reconciliation matches the bank from the start.

For firms handling many clients, our bank statement converter for bookkeepers page describes batches by client and workspaces. If you import into QuickBooks Desktop or Online, the pdf to qbo converter produces Web Connect files that carry the statement ending balance.

• Reconcile every account monthly, in order, and never skip a period.
• Save each reconciliation report as a PDF in the client file when you close the month.
• Avoid editing cleared transactions, and when you must, note why in the memo.
• Use one source per period, either the bank feed or an uploaded file, so the same days are never imported twice.
• Review uncleared items older than two statement periods at every close.