Can I reconcile out of order?

joenspa

Due to cancer treatment in 2019 I am WAY behind updating things. I am working on catching things up though. Is it ok or even possible to reconcile out of order? Meaning can I reconcile my 2019 and 2020 checking account and then go back and polish off 2018. Horrible I know but that's my situation.

GeoffG

That's not really possible. The ending balance of month 1 becomes the beginning balance to month 2, so working backwards is not possible. If you've been diligent on updating the transactions, you should find most months easily falling into place.

Frankx

Hi @joenspa,

Unfortunately, You are not going to be able to take that approach because each reconciliation process builds on the last one.  So, if you were to attempt a current reconciliation you will be presented with all transactions (deposits, checks, cash withdrawals, service charges, etc.) that have been recorded from the last reconciliation you performed up to the date of the "current reconciliation" and you will need to deal with all of them to complete the "current reconciliation".

As an alternative, I would suggest that you not perform monthly reconciliations for the period of time you have missed, but rather break the time period that the account hasn't been reconciled into blocks.  In your case, I would suggest that you do either quarterly, or semiannual reconciliations, starting with end dates of 3/31/2018 or 6/30/2018 and moving forward from there.  The decision on how long each "block" should be should probably be based on the number of transactions in the account - the more transactions the more blocks and vice versa.

Get back to me if you have any followups.

Frankx

Chris_QPW

One thought I had is you could create another account (manual entry), move the transactions you don't want to reconcile right away to that account.  Then update the opening balance in the first account and reconcile from there.  Then later reconcile the second account, and move the transactions back adjusting the opening balance.

GeoffG

That's not really possible. The ending balance of month 1 becomes the beginning balance to month 2, so working backwards is not possible. If you've been diligent on updating the transactions, you should find most months easily falling into place.

UKR

Do you have all your monthly statements, as hardcopy or PDF file available?
Going backwards in time, does each monthly statement's Ending Balance match the account register's Running Balance on that day or are there discrepancies?
If you're lucky, last month's statement might match your register balance and then you can reconcile all transactions, sight unseen ... case closed.
If there are discrepancies, work your way forward in chronological order, month after month, from the oldest unreconciled month, until you have eliminated all discrepancies and statement balance matches running balance.

Frankx

Hi @joenspa,

Unfortunately, You are not going to be able to take that approach because each reconciliation process builds on the last one.  So, if you were to attempt a current reconciliation you will be presented with all transactions (deposits, checks, cash withdrawals, service charges, etc.) that have been recorded from the last reconciliation you performed up to the date of the "current reconciliation" and you will need to deal with all of them to complete the "current reconciliation".

As an alternative, I would suggest that you not perform monthly reconciliations for the period of time you have missed, but rather break the time period that the account hasn't been reconciled into blocks.  In your case, I would suggest that you do either quarterly, or semiannual reconciliations, starting with end dates of 3/31/2018 or 6/30/2018 and moving forward from there.  The decision on how long each "block" should be should probably be based on the number of transactions in the account - the more transactions the more blocks and vice versa.

Get back to me if you have any followups.

Frankx

joenspa

Thanks everyone. Most but not all transactions are downloaded. Unfortunately some months have quite a few transactions that need inputted. I'll keep plugging along.

Chris_QPW

One thought I had is you could create another account (manual entry), move the transactions you don't want to reconcile right away to that account.  Then update the opening balance in the first account and reconcile from there.  Then later reconcile the second account, and move the transactions back adjusting the opening balance.