To fix a reconciliation discrepancy in QuickBooks Online, open the Reconcile page, follow the alert that says your beginning balance is off, and work through the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report. It lists each reconciled transaction that was edited, deleted or voided since you finished. Restore or correct each one until the total difference reaches $0.00.
Why does QuickBooks Online show a reconciliation discrepancy?
QuickBooks Online (QBO) shows a discrepancy when the transactions marked reconciled no longer add up to the beginning balance it recorded when you finished the last reconciliation. Something changed a reconciled line after the fact: an edit, a deletion, a void, or a reversed reconciled mark.
The beginning balance of your next reconciliation is simply the total of everything already reconciled. If a $1,200.00 payment is later edited to $1,020.00, the total moves by $180.00 and the next reconciliation opens $180.00 away from the statement. You will see a message like "Your account isn't ready to reconcile yet. Your beginning balance is off by..." with a link to help you fix it.
Common causes:
- Someone edited the amount or date of a reconciled transaction.
- A reconciled transaction was deleted, often as a suspected duplicate.
- A reconciled transaction was voided.
- A bank feed transaction was undone, so it went back to pending.
- An opening balance entry was changed after reconciling began.
The cause matters more than the number. A difference of $180.00 might be one edit or two edits in opposite directions, and you only find out by reading the report.
Two edits that cancel each other
A single combined difference can hide two unrelated changes. One reconciled payment edited up by $75.00 and another edited down by $75.00 would leave the beginning balance untouched, so no alert appears at all. The reconciliation then looks sound while two lines no longer match the statement. If a month matters to a reviewer, compare the reconciled list in the register with the saved report for that month, line by line, and not just the totals.
Running the reconciliation discrepancy report in QuickBooks Online
The Reconciliation Discrepancy Report is the screen that lists every change to reconciled transactions since your last completed reconciliation. It shows what changed, when, and who changed it, and it tracks a running total difference that must reach zero.
Intuit describes the route in Fix issues for accounts you've reconciled in the past. The steps:
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Reconcile.
- Choose the account in the dropdown. If you have several accounts at one bank, confirm it is the right one.
- Find the alert that your beginning balance is off, and select We can help you fix it.
- Read the What happened column for each row.
- Select Review in tray on a row. QuickBooks pre-fills the original details.
- Apply the suggested fix, or correct the transaction from your records.
Each fixed row drops off the report and the total difference shrinks. You are done when it reads $0.00. If you have not yet done a normal reconciliation this month, the basic procedure is covered under ticking transactions on the reconcile screen.
When the report is empty but the balance is still off
Sometimes the report does not show the cause. Intuit suggests two further checks. First, open Settings, then Audit log, filter to the account and to the period since your last completed reconciliation, and look for deleted or voided transactions. Second, open the account register from the Chart of accounts, filter by reconcile status, and look for R-marked transactions dated after your last reconciliation. Those were marked reconciled outside a normal reconciliation.
You need admin access to see and edit reconciliations. If you do not have it, ask your primary admin or accountant.
Which changed transactions caused the QuickBooks discrepancy?
Each row on the report is one change, and the type of change tells you the fix. The wording of the types varies, but Intuit's article describes the cases below, and the table maps each symptom to a cause, a place to look and a repair.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Where to look | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginning balance off by one transaction's difference | Amount of a reconciled transaction was changed | Discrepancy report, What happened column | Review in tray; save the original if it was right, or edit and reconcile it if the change was intended |
| Beginning balance off by a full transaction amount | Reconciled expense deleted | Discrepancy report | Review in tray, then Restore |
| Deleted row that shows Go to register | Reconciled transaction deleted | Account register | Recreate the transaction in the register |
| Row for a voided reconciled transaction | Void after reconciliation | Discrepancy report | Review in tray and reverse the void; if the void was intended, adjust the register status |
| Transaction shows R that you never ticked | Status changed by mistake | Register filtered by reconcile status | Review in tray and save the pre-filled original |
| Bank feed line back in Pending | Feed transaction undone | Banking page | Post it again, then mark it R in the register |
| Transaction moved or split edited | Account or split changed | Discrepancy report | Edit and correct the transaction |
| Opening balance equity row you did not touch | Opening balance entry shows up | Discrepancy report | Intuit says this can be ignored |
Not every change is a mistake. Intuit says some changes are intentional and the suggested fix assumes an error. Use View History from the dropdown next to Review in tray to see the audit trail and compare it with the bank statement before you reverse anything.
Reading edits, deletions and voids
An edit leaves the transaction in place with different numbers, so the difference is the gap between old and new amounts. A deletion removes the whole amount, so the difference equals the transaction. A void keeps a record of the transaction at zero, which is easy to miss in the register. In every case, the original value is the one that agreed to the statement, so that is the one to restore unless you can show the statement was wrong.
Fixing a discrepancy from a deleted or edited reconciled transaction
Restoring the original is nearly always the correct repair. If someone deleted a reconciled expense, restore it; if someone edited an amount, put the original amount back. The beginning balance then matches the figure that agreed to the old statement.
How you mark the repaired item matters. Intuit notes that for a fix that says to reconcile a transaction, you can mark it R in the register or reconcile again with the same ending date and balance. Both correct the beginning balance, but only reconciling again records the change on a reconciliation report. For work that someone else will review, choose the second route so the correction leaves a trail.
A worked example, using made-up numbers: your March reconciliation closed with a reconciled total of $48,320.10. In April the beginning balance shows $48,070.10. The discrepancy report lists one row: a $250.00 check deleted on April 3. Select Review in tray, then restore it. The total returns to $48,320.10 and the difference falls to $0.00.
If the deletion was a duplicate that you removed on purpose, the deletion may be right and the earlier reconciliation wrong, because both copies were ticked. Finding such pairs before you delete them is easier with a method; spotting duplicate lines on a bank statement describes the checks.
When not to accept a QuickBooks reconciliation adjustment
Do not accept the automatic adjustment unless you know what the gap is made of. QuickBooks offers to create a journal entry for the difference at the end of a reconciliation, but that entry only makes the screen read zero. It does not find the missing, doubled or edited transaction.
Intuit's Reconcile an account article says you can finish and accept the difference, and that QuickBooks will create a journal entry for the amount. It also advises talking to your accountant first and resolving differences where you can. Taking the entry is defensible only for a small, understood amount, such as a bank fee you will record properly.
An adjustment is a plug, and a plug can hide a real error for years. The reasoning is covered in why plugs hide errors. Before you accept one, ask:
- Is the amount below your own threshold for a rounding or fee difference?
- Can you name the transaction or fee behind it?
- Would you be comfortable showing a reviewer the journal entry and its memo?
- Is the adjustment going to an account that fits, not to a catch-all?
If any answer is no, keep looking. Check the statement ending balance first, then manually entered transactions, then the discrepancy report.
Keeping it from coming back
Agree one rule with everyone who has access: a reconciled transaction is never edited or deleted without a note saying why. If a line really must change, unreconcile it first, make the change, and reconcile again so the report records it. A few minutes at that point saves an hour of reading the audit log later.
The same problem on a credit card or in Desktop
Card accounts get discrepancies for the same reasons, plus payment timing, covered in reconciling a credit card in QuickBooks. QuickBooks Desktop has its own reports, described in reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop.
PreciseBankFlow is built to flag differences and duplicates against the statement instead of adjusting them away, and the homepage describes how its exception reports work. It is opening to firms in small groups.