Byron:
On 2026-03-02 17:41, Byron Bray wrote:
Very basically, my problem is that, once having imported the data from Quicken
into GnuCash, the Starting Balance in the reconciliation window is almost
$1,000. I cannot get the account to reconcile (the Finish button is disabled)
unless I create a balancing transaction. If I create that transaction, the
running balance, from that transaction onward, is discrepant from my actual
balance by that ≈$1,000.
My current understanding is that can GnuCash derives that reconciliation
Starting Balance by summing the reconciled transactions in the register
regardless of date.
Correct, that is how GnuCash behaves.
If that is correct, it takes into account transactions months or years after
that opening-date transaction.
Here's a question. Why are you performing a reconciliation in GnuCash,
on an account which has transactions after the reconciliation period
which are already marked "reconciled"? This is an unusual situation.
GnuCash's reconciliation tool is based on the assumption that you
reconcile in chronological order, that you will reconcile January before
you reconcile February.
So, unless I am missing some better alternative (which I would be DELIGHTED to
find out about), I am faced with with either:
1) Accepting that the reconciliation numbers will never look right, even
thought the running balance in the account is accurate OR
2) Accepting that the running balance will always be discrepant by the amount
of the balancing transaction that the reconciliation process requires to
complete OR
1) and 2) should not be necessary. You should be able to get GnuCash
reconciliation to work without these compromises.
3) Going through eh hundreds of extant transactions trying to find the
transaction(s) that total this sum and are causing this discrepancy OR
3) might be a good idea, because the whole point of reconciliation is to
discover differences between your records and the bank's records. They
should match. If they don't, there is a discrepancy. If there is a
discrepancy, to a first approximation that is wrong and should get fixed.
4) Un-reconciling the Quicken transactions, exporting from Quicken, importing
to GnuCash and then reconciling.
Are the transactions marked "reconciled" when you import them from the
QIF data? If so, then why do you need to reconcile them again?
But if you are going to reconcile them again, then mark all transactions
from the period in question forward in time as unreconciled in GnuCash
before attempting to reconcile.
Again, I would be so delighted to find that I was missing something, obvious or
not, that would make a smother, quicker process possible. Please let me know if
that is the case.
Consider what you are trying to do with this reconciliation operation.
Are you trying to identify errors? If so, the reconciliation discrepancy
is trying to tell you that errors exist. Or, is the data you are
importing already reconciled? If so, then why do you need to reconcile
it again? Don't you trust the data to be correct already?
One thing I have not heard said out loud is that the "opening balance"
transaction in your GnuCash account is the summary of all activity in
that account before the start of the transactions in GnuCash, and that
this opening balance transaction should itself be reconciled.
Suppose that you are importing QIF data starting with January 2025, but
the other bookkeeping program has reconcile records of transactions from
2024 and earlier. The amount of the opening balance transaction in
GnuCash should be the value of that account as of just before the first
transaction in your January 2025 records. And that transaction should be
marked as "reconciled".
I hope this helps, —Jim DeLaHunt
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