Reconcilliation Suggestion

[Jaywalker]

Reconcilliation should be a simple procedure, simply clicking the reconcile button for each credit and debit. In real life, however, we have to "postpone" and "edit" transactions as we find problems. In my case, I reconcile the deposits first as it's a smaller number of transactions, then the witdrawals.

It's more difficult than it should be to determine when the deposits and the withdrawals are both accurate, but this is necessary in order to determine whether any error is in the deposits or withdrawals.

In my case, on the Reconcile tab, I show "Unreconciled," then "Deposits." Unfortunely, there is no dollar total for the displayed values - it shows only the difference between the beginning and ending balances for the bank's month, a useless figure at this point. As I click the deposits, this difference changes; when I'm complete, I manually add or subtract the new difference to the old difference to determine the amount of deposits for the month. Then I compare that figure to the bank's Deposits amount. Having to do that is absurd for a figure that could be calculated quickly by a computer.

I recommend you display the total amounts of any sort or display commanded, both in Checkbook and in Reconcile. How much did I deposit this month? How much did I write checks for? That would be a useful feature.

[mthadm]

Hello,

Wouldn't having a second running total (one of deposits and one for withdrawals) confuse even more? We can certainly add a tally of deposits and withdrawals, but the concern is that more information will make the process more difficult, not simpler.


Thanks,

[Jaywalker]

There's several ways to do it. Totaling whatever is showing in the "View" selection box appears easiest during Reconcile operations. If you've selected for "Show Deposits and Credits" there's only one total showing. Same for "Show withdrawals and Credits," but it's a different dollar value, of course.

Here's an example with three deposits: $500, $100, and $150. Since we're in Reconcile status and are Viewing "Unreconciled," and "Deposits and Credits," it will show the three deposits, and the running total for the view would show $300, the amount of your deposits during the bank's month, a useful piece of info. It can also be bounced up against the bank statement to ensure that everything entered is the same as the bank's total. (Not everyone chooses to trust the bank by downloading statements from the bank.) Finally, as you click reconcile, the you may want (or not) the unreconciled amount to drop to zero. If it doesn't, then there's a problem with the deposit side of the reconcilliation. Repeat for Withdrawals and Debits.

This can be carried over to the Checkbook page, not during reconcilliation: it might be useful to know the value of checks vs. ATM withdrawals, particularly if ATM is a non-definitive Category, such as "Cash," which seldom is tracked accurately for budgeting. When I discovered the amount of cash we were using, we went back to checks when possible.

Still, my suggestion is to have a value assigned for whatever View that's showing - smaller font than the running total so that there's no confusing the two.