How do I enter a beginning bank balance?

Music Man

Because I somehow was confused, I first entered a beginning bank balance, then stupidly deleted it. I did, however, successfully download Chase transactions from 12/16/21-8/29/22. When I go to "Reconcile an Account", I don't have a beginning balance. All I have are transactions. How do I get a beginning balance entered into Quicken so I can perform my first bank rec using my new Quicken Starter edition?

Music Man

Thank you

UKR

Look into one of your other account registers and model the missing Opening Balance transaction to look like it.

About the Opening Balance transaction in your register:

Make sure that the "Opening Balance" transaction in your register
- always is the oldest transaction by Date
- occurs only once in your register
- its amount matches the bank statement balance shown on that day
- if you owe money in a credit card account, the Opening Balance transaction as shown in the register must be a negative amount, e.g., $-123.45
- the transaction is marked "R"(reconciled) in the "Clr" column
- uses the same account name, surrounded by [square brackets], as Category as the account it's in (e.g., Opening Balance transaction in your MyChecking account has Category = [MyChecking]) *
 

If the Opening Balance isn't correct, your register balance on any given day will never match the bank's balance on the same date and your register will never reconcile correctly.

* that's called a "transfer back into the same account" and is OK. Quicken uses this method to establish the Opening Balance without making it appear as an Income or Expense in any views or reports.

Music Man

Thank you