Can I begin to reconcile my checking account without knowing my original starting balance?

Question

HELP! I need to get organized! For the past two years, in Quicken I have logged in my payments, fees, and deposits, but, my banking account is MANY years old.....and I haven't reconciled my checkbook....so I don't know where to start the account balance from. Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Try using the opening balance form the oldest statement you have. I believe Quicken will allow you to adjust the opening balance after you enter the transactions you have. If you can't completely reconstruct the account, at some point you have to accept a balance as correct for a certain date.

Answer 2

No you can't.

However - why bother reconciling - it doesn't serve a huge purpose.

What most people in this situation would do is to open a new account and start over - but again - why reconcile.

The only advantage to reconciling is to know EXACTLY how much is in your account - this is not entirely useful.

If you review every transaction from your bank statement and you write down in the Quicken register EVERY transaction you perform - including transfers and ATM withdrawals you will have your EXACT balance after a few statements.

If you need to know EXACTLY what is in your account so you don't write bad checks - then you are spending too much money and you need to cut back.

Also - you should try to keep a cushion of $100.00 in your checking so you never bounce a check.