Balancing Accounts Using the Reconcile Tool

1. Overview 

The purpose of reconciling an account is to ensure that neither the user nor the bank have mad a mistake in recording transactions. Just as many people balance their checkbooks by comparing entries in the book to entries on their bank statement, Moneydance has a Reconcile tool which can be used to "check off" transactions as they appear on your official bank statement. 


You can also reconcile transaction individually, though this shortcut is less informative than using the Reconcile tool. Each transaction has a reconciled status, marked in the transaction register by a symbol in the column labeled "C". When you are editing a transaction, the reconcile status field toggles between diamond, checkbox, and blank when clicking in the square. You can also toggle the cleared status of any selected transaction or multiple transactions by right-clicking (or command-clicking on a Mac) it in the register and selecting "Mark as Uncleared," "Mark as Reconciling," or "Mark as Cleared." 


2. Preparing to Reconcile/Troubleshooting
To use the Reconcile tool, select Reconcile from the Actions drop-down menu. You will be asked to enter a Ending Statement balance. Most likely you will want this to be the balance listed on your most recent bank statement. You will also be shown a non-editable Beginning Statement balance. This will be the current Cleared balance of your account as Moneydance sees it.

The "as of" date is only enabled if you download transactions for that account online. If this box is enabled and selected then all transactions that were downloaded online on or before that date will be marked as reconciling when the reconciliation window appears. In many cases, when people download transactions this will quickly show if the online balance matches the local balance, and if so requires no further effort.

If the starting Balance is not the same as what is on your official statement, then there is some discrepancy between your recorded activity and what the financial institution believes your balance was. You may wish to fix this by canceling your Reconcile attempt and entering additional transactions or changing the Cleared status of some transactions before beginning your Reconcile. Also note that you can add, edit, and delete transactions from within the Reconcile tool itself. Once you are satisfied with your starting and ending balance amounts, click Reconcile from the Actions drop-down menu.

3. Reconciling
The Reconcile Accounts window lists all transactions not currently labeled Cleared (green check) in your transaction register. Just as in your account register, those transactions labeled Reconciling will display with a diamond, while those labeled Uncleared will have a blank C field.

Payments are listed in the left-hand column, while Deposits are listed in the right-hand column. Each will show a cleared and Uncleared balance, which will change as you left-click on individual transactions to toggle them between Reconciling and Uncleared.

Reconcile your account by left-clicking on transactions which appear in both your official statement and the Reconcile window.

If a transaction in Moneydance does not seem to match, the error may be in your entry: you can left-click on it and use the Edit button to change its value in Moneydance. If you suspect the error is on the bank's end, you'll need to contact them to change their records instead.

If a transaction appears in your statement but not in Moneydance, you can add it using the New button. This will change focus to the account register so you can add a new transaction. Come back to the Reconcile window after clicking Record.

If you see a transaction in Moneydance that you want to remove (such as something which accidentally got entered twice), then you can click on it and click the Delete button to remove it.

Moneydance will display the Beginning Balance and Target Balance as unchanging values. 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 your Difference reads as zero, you have successfully reconciled your account! Your Current Balance and Target Balance are now the same. Click Done to complete the Reconcile process. All transactions labeled Reconciling will convert automatically to Cleared when you click Done. If you click Finish Later they will stay marked as Reconciling, and display an orange diamond in your account register. If you click Unmark All, then the effects of your Reconcile attempt will be wiped out and all transactions will return to Uncleared status, allowing you to start over or Finish Later.