Bookkeeping › Reconciliation
Account reconciliation that fixes the cause.
Published range $850–$2,000
A reconciliation difference is the sum of specific entries. We find which ones, account by account and month by month, correct each where it started, and leave a written record of every change.
Reviewed before delivery means a documented check runs before anything reaches you: every bank and card account tied to its statement, open items listed in writing. How the review works.
No balancing plugs. One fixed fee, set in writing before the work starts.
Quick answer
Before changing anything, compare this month's difference with last month's. If it is unchanged, treat that as a diagnostic clue pointing to an earlier period — an edited reconciled item or a wrong opening balance — confirm it by testing transactions and the opening balance. A new one points to this month's activity: duplicates, one-sided transfers, feed gaps, uncashed checks.
A one-time reconciliation of a single account is one fixed fee in the published $850–$2,000 range; several accounts, or errors across the ledger, are scoped as a cleanup ($1,800–$6,000). What the range covers.
Arrived by symptom? The pages for a bank account that will not reconcile and accounts left unreconciled start there. Errors spread across the whole file rather than one account? That's a whole-ledger cleanup. Diagnosing one yourself? Our guide to failed bank reconciliations maps each difference to what to check and how it resolves.
Why it won't reconcile
Trace the difference to what went wrong.
Work down the questions in order. Each yes points at a cause with a known check; each no sends you to the next question. It's the path we follow on every account in scope.
Is the difference the same as last month's?
Yes: the break is in an earlier period. A reconciled item was edited, deleted or unmarked after the fact, or the opening balance never matched the first statement. Compare the saved reconciliation report with today's register for that month. No: go to question 2.
Does the difference equal one transaction?
Yes: a duplicate (a feed import plus a manual entry of the same item) or an item missing from the books. Search the ledger and the statement for that exact amount. No: go to question 3.
Is it exactly twice one transaction?
Yes: something was entered in the wrong direction, such as a deposit recorded as a payment. Reversing it corrects both halves at once. No: go to question 4.
Does it divide evenly by 9?
Yes: look for transposed digits, such as 540 keyed as 450. Swapping two digits produces a difference divisible by 9. No: go to question 5.
Is a transfer between your own accounts involved?
Yes: a one-sided transfer, recorded in one account but not the other, or booked as income or expense instead of a transfer. No: go to question 6.
Are dates missing from the bank feed?
Yes: a feed drop. Disconnections, reconnections that re-import old activity and connections that quietly stopped updating all leave gaps or doubles. Compare the feed's date range with the statement's. No: go to question 7.
Does it clear on next month's statement?
Yes: timing, not an error. Deposits in transit and checks not yet cashed are listed as reconciling items and left alone. No: it is an error after all; split it into individual items and restart at question 2.
A stubborn difference can be two or three of these causes stacked together, which is why the path is worked item by item until nothing unexplained is left. Each cause has its own entry in the reconciliation exception library, with the report line it leaves behind and the entry that clears it.
Account by account
Each account type breaks in its own way.
The outside record changes from one account to the next, and so do the faults it exposes. Which of these are in scope is written into the scope once the free review is done.
Checking and savings
Tied to the bank statement for each month. Deposits in transit and checks not yet cashed are listed as reconciling items, not adjusted away.
Credit cards
Reconciled to the card's own statement closing date, which is rarely the last day of the month, so charges and payments land in the right cycle.
Loans and credit lines
The balance agreed to the lender's statement, with each payment split so interest reaches the P&L and principal reduces the liability.
Card processors and platforms
Stripe, Square and PayPal payouts arrive net. We gross each one up into sales, fees, refunds and chargebacks so the deposit and the revenue both agree.
Transfers between your accounts
Money moving from checking to savings, or from checking to a card, has to appear once on each side. Record only one side and the other account can't reconcile, because its statement shows money the books never recorded.
Payroll and clearing accounts
Net pay, tax deposits and processor clearing accounts should empty out every cycle. A balance that lingers points straight at the entry that went astray.
Customer payments stuck in a holding account inside QuickBooks are a file-mechanics problem as much as a reconciliation one; QuickBooks cleanup covers how that account works.
No plugs
Why a forced zero makes next month harder.
When a difference won't budge, it's tempting to post an adjustment and move on. The screen then reads zero, but the error hasn't gone anywhere. It now sits in a discrepancy or opening-balance equity account that nobody checks, and it resurfaces when a CPA reads the balance sheet.
If the file already contains plugs, each one is treated as a pointer: find what it was covering, correct that entry, then reverse the plug so the account agrees on its own.
Cause first
An adjustment is posted only when it is the right entry for a known cause, and the cause is written down beside it.
Old plugs reversed
Earlier forced entries are traced and unwound, so the balance they disguised can be explained.
Figure data as a table
| What does the difference look like? | Then | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Same as last month | An earlier period changed | An edited reconciled item or a wrong opening balance |
| Equals one transaction | A duplicate or missing item | Search the ledger and the statement for that amount |
| Twice one transaction | Entered in the wrong direction | Reversing it corrects both halves at once |
| Divides evenly by 9 | Transposed digits | Two digits swapped when the amount was keyed |
What you receive
The record left behind for every account in scope.
A balance that agrees is only half the result. The other half is being able to show why it agrees, month by month, to anyone who asks.
- A reconciliation report for each account and month.
- Every correction listed with the cause that produced it.
- Outstanding reconciling items, dated, so next month knows what should clear.
- Questions that need your answer, in writing rather than parked in a suspense account.
Bigger than one account?
When the fault tree points past the accounts themselves.
Coding and balances wrong too
If categories, equity and liabilities are also off, the ledger needs rebuilding layer by layer.
Whole-ledger cleanupMonths never entered
There is nothing to reconcile until the missing months exist. Those get built from records first.
Catch-up bookkeepingKeeping them tied out
Once every account agrees, a monthly close reconciles them again each period before differences can pile up.
Monthly bookkeepingStatements and records gone altogether? Nothing can be tied to source until it is collected again, from the copies banks and processors kept: that's a records reconstruction.
An unexplained difference is a list of entries nobody has found yet. Find them, and the account agrees because it is right, not because it was told to.
Reconciliation questions
What owners ask when an account won't agree.
Doing it yourself first? The QuickBooks Online reconciliation guide walks through the screens. More symptoms are on the problems hub.
Get a free books review
Tell us which accounts won't tie.
Send the file and name the accounts that won't agree with their statements. We trace the first differences and tell you what sits behind them. The free books review closes with a written scope and one fixed fee; no price is guessed on the call.