Reconciling

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.

Reconcile Status -

In the "C" column of a transaction, you can view the reconciliation (cleared) status -

• A blank space indicates the transaction is uncleared (i.e. not reconciled)
• An orange diamond indicates it is reconciling
  
• A green circle means the transaction is cleared (i.e. reconciled)

How to Reconcile -

To begin, select the account in the sidebar.
Then select Account > Reconcile.
 

You will be shown a non-editable Beginning Statement Balance.

The Beginning Statement Balance on the reconcile window is a calculated value.
It is calculated using the formula below -

Initial Balance of the Account + Cleared Deposits - Cleared Payments
 

You should enter an Ending Statement Balance.
This is 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 next window lists all transactions in the account which are either uncleared or reconciling.

You can change the order of transactions in this window, as you would in an account register.
Click on any of the column headings to amend the sort order -
Date, Check#, Description, C (cleared status), or Amount.

Payments are listed in the panel on the left.
Deposits are listed in the panel on the right.

Each panel displays a Cleared and Uncleared balance at the bottom of the transaction list.
The balances will change as you click on transactions and change them between Reconciling and Uncleared.

At the bottom right of the window, you can view a number of different balances -
Beginning balance, Current balance, Target balance, and Difference.

The Current balance displays the effects of your reconciling thus far on the Beginning Balance.

The difference between the Current and Target balance is calculated as the Difference.
 
 

Reconcile your account and check your transactions.
Then mark the transactions as Reconciling (displaying an orange diamond).

Once you have completed this, you should see that the Current balance and Target balance match.
Then you have successfully reconciled your account.

Click "Done" to exit the reconcile window.
The transactions marked as Reconciling will then display as Cleared in the account register.
 

If you select "Finish Later", you will return to the account register.
All transactions marked as Reconciling will display this status in the account.

Select "Unmark All" to set transactions as Uncleared.

Automatically Reconcile -

To automatically reconcile downloaded transactions -

Navigate to File > Preferences > Network.
(On a Mac, choose Moneydance > Preferences > Network).

Enable the option -
Mark Transactions as Cleared When Confirmed

When this is enabled, transactions will be set as Cleared once they are confirmed.

You can find information about how to confirm transactions in this article.

This only applies to transactions that have been downloaded or imported.

Balances don't match -

If a transaction in Moneydance does not match your bank’s records, the error may be in your entry.

To fix this, you can select the appropriate transaction and use the "Edit" button (at the bottom right of the window) 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.
 

If you reconciled successfully last month, but this month the beginning statement balance does not match the ending statement balance, there are a limited number of possible causes.

Is it possible that you have actioned any of the following since you last reconciled? -

• Modified the amount of a transaction that was already marked as cleared.
• Deleted a transaction that was already marked as cleared.
• Manually cleared a transaction in the intervening time.
• Deleted a category that contained cleared transactions.
• Deleted an account that had transfers to or from the account you are reconciling.
• Changed the "Initial balance" on the account (via Account > Edit Account).
• Manually marked a cleared transaction as uncleared.

If you have actioned anything from the list above, it can be quite tricky to track down the cause of the change in the cleared balance.

The only way to fix such a problem is to go over the account register and your old bank statements, to see if you can find anything that has changed.

Some customers find it helpful to enter a dummy transaction with a zero amount. Then enter a description stating what the cleared balance was on this date, as a marker they can refer back to later.
 

If the discrepancy is relatively small it might be simpler to enter a new transaction.
You can create a category called something like "Reconcile Discrepancy".
Use this category in the new transaction, and then mark the transaction as Cleared.
To manually do this, right-click (or press Ctrl and click) on the transaction to view the context menu, and select "Mark as Cleared".