How To Adjust the Opening Balance of a Statement

Here are some possible reasons for the difference:

• If you're reconciling for the first time
  Quicken uses the amount of the opening balance transaction in your checking register as the Bank Statement Opening Balance in the Reconcile Bank Statement window. When you set up the account, you may have entered a balance that was different from the actual amount in your bank account. There are probably transactions missing from your Quicken account that affect the balance.
• If you've reconciled at least once before
  For example, say it's July. You started recording transactions in May and subsequently reconciled your account for May/June. Then you went back and recorded transactions starting in January. After entering these transactions, you noticed that the ending balance in the register was incorrect. So you updated the date and amount of the original opening balance transaction that Quicken recorded in your register when you set up your account in May.
• If you skipped previous months' statements

  You may have started reconciling with a current statement, but you didn't reconcile statements of each of the previous months.

  You should reconcile one month at a time, starting with the earliest month. If you don't have time for this, allow Quicken to enter an adjustment for you.

• If you changed a previously reconciled transaction

  You may have inadvertently changed or deleted a transaction that already had an R in the Clr field.

  Quicken always asks to confirm a change to a previously reconciled transaction. If you have already ruled out other possible errors, you probably should continue with reconciliation and have Quicken record an adjustment transaction when reconciliation is complete.