Catchup Reconciliation of checking acct

DavidPat7209

I track only ONE checking account. I want to start reconciling with 1/1/2021 and going forward. The account has never been reconciled so there are thousands of unreconciled checks & deposits. When I try reconciliation, Q shows I have to reconcile the thousands of past transactions. This is WAY too painful. I have tried to filter the date range to only the year 2021 and going forward. But "reconciliation" still shows all the thousands of unreconciled transactions. How can I EXCLUDE all the old transactions and start reconciling as of a given date (1/1/2021) and going forward? I can find no link or info on-line. In QB, it is called a "catch-up" reconciliation - but even that seems to require clicking all the past transactions. Is there no solution? Do I get an email if there is a reply?

Frankx

Hi @DavidPat7209

The question I would ask is "how close to balancing" is the current Quicken register's balance as compared with the amount of your bank's current online balance?  Its it within a reasonable amount (i.e. one that you can live with)?  If so, you can follow UKR's suggestion that you accept (Mark All) all transactions and make whatever adjustment is necessary so that your account at this point in time is reconciled with your bank's balance.

If taking the above approach is either, not within your tolerance or not an acceptable approach, I would suggest that you perform a series of "periodic" prior period reconciliations (e.g. on a quarterly, semi-annual, yearly basis) starting with the oldest period and moving forward in time until you reach today.  This approach would have the effect of allowing you to decide whether each adjustment that needs to be made for the period to balance is reasonable or not (in your view).  If reasonable, you move forward.  If not, you have a shorter period within which you can try to determine the potential cause and make an informed entry to fix.

Hope this helps.

Frankx

DavidPat7209

Thanks to all!

UKR

Does the account register balance on 12/31/21 match the bank statement Ending Balance on 12/31/21?

If it does, you can reconcile your account to 12/31/21 and click the "Mark all" transactions button to mark them all as reconciled in one go without having to individually mark thousands of transactions.

You need to have all old transactions marked reconciled before you can do monthly reconciliations of new transactions for 2022.

Boatnmaniac

Since you do not appear to be concerned with the account balance prior to 2021:  The initial reconciliation process (12/31/2020 and earlier) will calculate and enter an account balancing adjustment if you wish.  Here's a little more detail of the specific process:

• If you have your checking account set up for downloading from your bank:  Go to your Account Register:  Upper right Gear icon > Edit Account Details > Online Services tab > make sure the box for Reconcile using online balance is unchecked.
• Click on the upper right Gear icon > Reconcile.
  
• Since you have never reconciled the account before, the reconciliation process will use the account opening balance as the previous statement balance. 
  
• Enter 12/31/2020 as your new statement date and enter the ending balance from your 12/31/2020 paper (or digital) statement or from your online account register. 
  
• Don't worry about entering service charges or interest earned.
  
• Click on OK.
• You will get a popup showing all of the transactions from the opening balance transaction through 12/31/2020 that have not been reconciled.
• Since you don't seem to be concerned with how accurate your pre-2021 account balance is, I suggest you then click on Mark All.  The reconcile popup will then show if the account is in balance or if  there is an account balance issue (and how much it is).  Don't worry about any balance issue.
  
• Click on Done.
  
• If there is a balance issue, Quicken will prompt you to enter a balance adjustment...make sure you enter 12/31/2020 as the date and click on Adjust.
• Quicken will then mark all those transactions up through 12/31/2020 as reconciled, enter the balance adjustment transaction and your account will be in balance as of 12/31/2020.

Now you can proceed with reconciling your transactions for 2021.

Frankx

Hi @DavidPat7209

The question I would ask is "how close to balancing" is the current Quicken register's balance as compared with the amount of your bank's current online balance?  Its it within a reasonable amount (i.e. one that you can live with)?  If so, you can follow UKR's suggestion that you accept (Mark All) all transactions and make whatever adjustment is necessary so that your account at this point in time is reconciled with your bank's balance.

If taking the above approach is either, not within your tolerance or not an acceptable approach, I would suggest that you perform a series of "periodic" prior period reconciliations (e.g. on a quarterly, semi-annual, yearly basis) starting with the oldest period and moving forward in time until you reach today.  This approach would have the effect of allowing you to decide whether each adjustment that needs to be made for the period to balance is reasonable or not (in your view).  If reasonable, you move forward.  If not, you have a shorter period within which you can try to determine the potential cause and make an informed entry to fix.

Hope this helps.

Frankx

DavidPat7209

Thanks to all!