How do problem solve a download reconciliation that won't balance?

Question

First time downloading a credit card account. Now I can't reconcile by over $1,200. All my entries from the last reconciliation indicate manual entry (were NOT) and have nothing to match. Don't even know where to start to resolve.

NotACPA · Answer

"Recon after downloading" means  Reconciling to  the Online  Balance, which is unreliable.Stick  with your paper  statements.And a  transaction  that downloads from your bank/card/etc  is, by definition "cleared" ... as  in it has "cleared  the bank".

narthur · Answer

Perfect reconciliations of prior manual /paper statements.

Recon after downloading did NOT show prior balance so had to manually enter. Thought that strange and unlike manual recons.

The Download also re-entered 3 months of existing manual entries on previously reconciled and marked those random entries as ‘cleared.’ That is one of the terminology issues.

I finally manually marked them as reconciled to hopefully get back to even.

Throughout the study of what was wrong I got varying imbalances from $150 to the current $1,200. Pretty bizarre and what I feared and why I have waited years to do this. So much for time-saving!

FYI, I’m no longer at the desk and trying to respond by text. Will have to test your suggestions tmr or Monday.

I keep thinking there are false or dupe entries somewhere but can’t find yet.

Thanks for the help.

thecreator · Answer

Hi @"narthur ,
If you are doing a Paper Statement, uncheck all cleared transactions and rechecked Beginning Balance and Ending Balance. Then cleared the transactions, one at a time. Did the Previous Reconcile Balance?