[logan176]

For years I have been using Excel to reconcile my monthly checking account statements. Apparently people have different ideas of what it means to reconcile. I do not save receipts. I throw them away once I enter the transaction into my checkbook register. Then when I get my monthly statement I compare the transactions listed to the transactions on my Excel register.

This has worked well and is fairly simple to do. If transactions do not match up or if one of my checks hasn't been cashed I can do a little digging and find every penny to keep my finances in order.

I just wish Excel could do one more thing for me. I wish it could categorize and tally my expences in a way that allows me easily track where my money is going. I don't need a fancy program to tell me how to budget my money, basic math tells me how to do that.

I've been playing around with Quicken 2010. Yeah, I know it is one of those "fancy" programs that I'm not fond of but it does a good job of categorizing my expenses. For now I just have it set up as a "cash" account so the program doesn't link to my bank. Before I try a function that connects to my bank and auto reconciles my checkbook, I'd like to ask a few questions.

1. How well does this function work and are there any pitfalls that I might encounter compared to how I usually reconcile my account?

2. How will I know if I have entered an incorrect amount into my register?

3. What happens when a business or friend doesn't cash a check for a couple months? I've actually had local businesses not finish a transaction for 3-4 months! They probably misplaced the receipt.

Thanks for the help... Logan

[twinkiedooter]

Any banking or checking software is only as good as the person who inputs the figures into it. I've used Quickbooks at work successfully and had no problems with it. I try not to access any banking info online for security reasons. I call up my automated bank number and get the date, amount debited or check cashed and any deposits, write it down and compare to my records accordingly. There should be no reason for you to link up your bank account online unless you write in excess of 50 checks per month for instance.

When I get my monthly paper statement I go over it with a fine tooth comb. You should pay more attention to what you receive from the bank on paper.

[ScottGem]

Ok first, there is only one definition of reconciling a checking account. It means to make sure that all the transactions in your register balance with the transactions on the bank statement so that your respective balances are equal.

Because you may write checks that the bank doesn't know about yet, there is this need to reconcile. Its also to make sure that all your deposits have been correctly recorded by the bank.

So the act of reconciling is to take the opening balance from your bank statement add all the deposits made and recorded and subtract all checks and withdrawals cleared. This should match the closing statement balance. Quicken makes this process easy by giving you a form where you enter the opening a closing statement balance, any fees and then check off the listed transactions against the statement transactions.

However this can be done fairly easily in a spreadsheet. And you can have Excel offer a drop down to select a category for a transaction.

On the other hand, I have been using Quicken for well over 10 years. I find its ease of use and the ability to create reports and graphs detailing my finances to make it worthwhile using. You do not have to link it to your account, but doing so allows you to download cleared transaction making it easier to do a reconcile.

If your balance doesn't reconcile, Quicken will tell you so and show you how much you are off. You may have to go back and review each transaction to see where a mistake was made. But that is true of ANY method used to reconcile.

As you go through the reconciling you check off each transaction you enter your register against the bank statement. These are them marked as cleared items. All uncleared items will remain so until they are cleared. When the account is reconciled, the transactions are marked as reconciled.

[logan176]

I was trying to be sarcastic when I wrote that there's more than one may to reconcile. I was taught the way that you two described. When receiving my monthly statement it's not really the checks that add up (no pun intended) but it's the debit card transactions. I probably have about 150 transactions a month on the debit card so reconciling is a must.

I'll keep working with Quicken for now and see how it goes. Thanks for your input.