Archive - Getting Started - Clearing Transactions and Reconciling your Accounts

This is an archived document. Please refer to the more recent knowledge base articles on this page

Why should I Reconcile my accounts?

The purpose of reconciling an account is to ensure that neither you nor your bank have made a mistake in recording transactions. Reconciling accounts in Moneydance is akin to balancing a paper checkbook.

You can also choose to reconcile your account manually, or have all transactions which you have downloaded/imported from your bank automatically marked as cleared. To do this, click File → Preferences → Network, and select “Mark Transactions as Cleared When Confirmed”.

How do I Reconcile my accounts?

To begin, select Reconcile from the Account menu. You will be shown a non-editable Beginning Statement Balance. The Beginning Statement Balance on the reconcile window is a calculated value, which is Initial - Balance of the Account + Cleared Deposits - Cleared Payments

You will be asked to enter an Ending Statement Balance, usually the balance listed on your most recent bank statement, or on your bank’s website.

The "As of" date is only enabled if you download transactions for that account online. If this box is selected, then all transactions that were downloaded/imported on or before the date chosen will be marked as reconciling.

The Reconcile Accounts window lists all transactions in the account which are not Cleared. You can change the order of transactions in this window by clicking on any of the column headings - Date, Check#, Description, C (cleared), and Amount.

Payments are listed in the left-hand column and deposits are listed in the right-hand column. Each column shows a Cleared and Uncleared balance, which will change as you click on transactions to toggle them between Reconciling and Uncleared.

The Current Balance displays the effects of your reconciling thus far on the Beginning Balance, and the difference between Current and Target Balance as Difference.

If you have marked all the transactions from your statement as Reconciling and the Current Balance and Target Balance are now the same, you have successfully reconciled your account.

Click Done to exit the reconcile window. The transactions marked as Reconciling will now be displayed as Cleared in the account register.

If you select Finish Later, transaction which are marked as Reconciling will display this status in the account register. Select Unmark All mark all transactions as Uncleared and return to the account register.

What do I do when I have Reconciled my accounts but my balance does not match?

If you reconciled your account last month and this month you came to reconcile and the beginning statement balance this month does not match the ending statement balance from last month there are a limited number of possible causes, which you can read about in this article.

If a transaction in Moneydance does not seem to match with your bank’s records, the error may be in your entry. Click on the appropriate transaction and use the Edit button to change its value in your account’s register. If you suspect the error is on the bank’s end, you'll need to contact them to change their records.