Bank recs

The root cause is the transactions that have been miscategorized or posted to the wrong account, payments recorded as deposits or vice versa, which causes them to appear on the wrong side of the reconciliation and creates that perfectly offsetting difference you're seeing. The fix is to identify those mismatched transactions, correct their type or accounting posting, and then re-run the reconciliation.

The reconciliation window separates transactions into two columns: Checks & Payments (debits) and Deposits & Credits (credits). When a transaction is posted to the wrong side (for example, a deposit accidentally recorded as a payment, or a payment coded to an account that makes it appear as a credit), QuickBooks places it in the wrong column. Because the dollar amounts are still in the register, they don't show as missing, but they land on the wrong side of the ledger. That's exactly why your difference between Total Cleared and Ending Balance equals the difference between the misclassified items, and they're canceling each other out rather than adding up correctly.

Here are the steps to resolve this:

1. Print the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report. This highlights transactions that have changed since your last reconciliation.
2. Run the Missing Check Report. This will help you see if any checks or payments have been miscoded or are missing.
3. Review uncleared transactions on the wrong side. In the reconciliation window, look closely at the items appearing as Uncleared on the wrong side. Open each one and verify. Check the transaction type and the account it's hitting.
4. Look for Journal Entries (JE) or General Journal transactions. Journal entries involving the bank account can appear as deposits or payments, depending on how they were entered.
5. Check for transfers recorded incorrectly. Ensure transfers are properly coded. Sometimes a transfer can be mistaken for a deposit or payment.

Once you correct any misclassified transactions, you can finish reconciling. The cleared total should now match your ending balance.

It's actually a positive sign that the difference is offsetting so neatly. This means nothing is missing, just recorded incorrectly.

If you have other concerns in QuickBooks, leave your reply below.