I use QuickBooks to record my companies AR and AP each month. When my customers make payment they either pay by cash, check or credit card. At the end of each month I am reconciling to match my bankstatement but am having to force balance my account in my computer. Nothing ever matches any suggestions as to what could be going on with this account and how to fix the problem?

Your bank balancew and your book balance are not in balance because of timing differences. At the end of the month there may be deposits that have not been posted by the bank, or checks that have not cleared the bank. There also could be checks that are NSF, service fees, or a note receivable that has been posted to your bank balance but not your book balance, and so on.

You need to do a bank reconciliation when you receive your bank statement to bring your bank balance into agreement with your book balance. Things like a deposit that has not been recorded to the bank balance is added to the bank balance, while checks that have not cleared are deducted from your bank balance.

Things like a collection on a note receivable is added to your book balance. The principle is recorded as a Note Receivable and the excess is recorded as Interest Revenue. Things like service charges are deducted to your book balance as an expense. Also there may be recording errors and the like that will either be added or deducted to your book balance.

When you get your two balances into agreement, then you have to do adjusting entries to record the additions and or deductions to your book balance.