Reconciling in small increment might be better if for example month end statements are available rather than doing so all in one shot... I am of the opinion that divide and conquer ultimately leads to less effort overall.
-----Original Message----- From: David T. <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2026 5:41 AM To: [email protected]; Byron Bray <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [GNC] Banking Account - Imported QIF data and Opening Balances Byron, I'm jumping in late here, but... you say the Starting balance is off by $1000. What about the *ending* balance? If the ending balance is correct, what happens when you proceed and attempt to complete the reconciliation? As noted in these lists and in the documentation, the starting balance is calculated-- and is not as important as the ending balance. If you can get the data to finish reconciliation without a balancing transaction, then you're clear. Before you go out and restart, take a look at whether you can complete reconciliation anyways. (Indeed, my recommendation to anyone trying to straighten out this kind of historic discrepancy is to take the most recent statement available, enter the closing balance from that statement and see whether you can complete this process with the data present. Many times it is possible to do this-- and you save yourself a lot of headache if it does) David T. On March 3, 2026 7:11:28 AM GMT+05:30, Byron Bray <[email protected]> wrote: >Hello, Paul, > >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. If that is correct, it takes into account transactions >months or years after that opening-date transaction. 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 >3) Going through eh hundreds of extant transactions trying to find the >transaction(s) that total this sum and are causing this discrepancy OR >4) Un-reconciling the Quicken transactions, exporting from Quicken, importing >to GnuCash and then reconciling. > >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. > >Thanks, Paul, for your interest, time and energy. I appreciate it. > >- Byron > >=================== > >> On Mar 2, 2026, at 5:18 PM, Paul Kroitor <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Although I consider myself quite experienced in both Gnucash (8+ years) and >> Quicken (25+ years), I find myself somewhat baffled by this thread. Perhaps >> senility has arrived. >> >> Firstly, just in case I've got totally the wrong end of the stick, we are >> talking about the "Opening Balance" transaction that's (generally) the first >> transaction in any asset or liability account, right? I thought maybe you >> were somehow talking about the beginning balance of a recon process, but >> that's quite sensibly called "Starting Balance" to avoid confusion. >> >> My bafflement stems from the fact that I've never considered an opening >> balance line (in either package) to be anything special at all (although >> Quicken confusingly pretends to book it back against the same account, >> Gnucash normally puts the other side against Equity, where it belongs). It's >> just basic transaction at the top of a ledger to move the sum of everything >> that happened before into Equity. >> >> But in Gnucash, isn't it simply a transaction like any other? Some of the >> dialogs / wizards may helpfully create it for you, but once it's there, I've >> always thought of it as mutable in any way you like: change the description, >> move it to later in the register, or change the amounts and it all works. So >> if you don't like the opening balance it created, just change it. Or delete >> it and add a new one! >> >> Of course, this assumes one knows what the balance should be at the time the >> books commence. >> >> Or am I missing something? Is there some special or magic processing of >> opening balance transactions I've never appreciated? >> >> Paul >> >> >> On 2026-03-02 7:34 p.m., Byron Bray wrote: >>> David, >>> >>> Thanks for pointing that out; I should have been more specific. I had noted >>> that GnuCash does allow entry of an opening balance, when creating an >>> account; as you suggest, though, GnuCash creates the account during import >>> and, apparently, derives the opening balance as David T. points out, by >>> summing the import’s reconciled transactions. It does not provide, as far >>> as I have been able to see, any mechanism for adjusting or setting the >>> opening balance in that situation. >>> >>> I am going to try un-reconciling the account in Quicken, exporting it, >>> importing it into GnuCash and recycling to see how will work. >>> >>> Thanks again, >>> >>> - Byron >>> >>>> On Mar 2, 2026, at 1:01 PM, David Cousens <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> You definitiely can enetr a starting balance for an account Using >>>> the New Account dialogue. It allows you to set the account >>>> paraeters an set an opening balance. I'm not sure but it may be >>>> that the QIF import creates accounts where necessary if they don't >>>> already exist in which case there is no mechanism to set the opening >>>> balance. >>>> >>>> The process of manually creating an opening balance is described in >>>> the giuide >>>> https://code.gnucash.org/website/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/txns_put >>>> toget1.html >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, 2026-03-02 at 10:22 -0800, Byron Bray wrote: >>>>> First, my thanks to you both for your replies; I very much >>>>> appreciate your help. >>>>> >>>>> David Cousens wrote: >>>>>> If there are no transactions dated prior to the start date of the >>>>>> reconciliation other than your opening balance entry, then the >>>>>> starting balance when you reconcile the first month of entered >>>>>> data should be that opening balance. >>>>> Thanks for that tip. I checked the filter, making sure that ”Show >>>>> All” and all “Status" options were selected. I had performed the >>>>> export from Quicken with transactions starting on January 1st for >>>>> the year in question; double-checking showed that there were no >>>>> prior transactions. Nonetheless, the Reconcile Information window >>>>> shows a starting balance of almost $1,000. >>>>> >>>>> It seems so odd to me that you cannot simply enter an opening >>>>> balance for an account. Then all subsequent reconciliations could >>>>> proceed normally. I can see the logic behind the design; it was >>>>> created on the premise that the user would be starting at the >>>>> beginning, with no transactions and thus a zero balance. But that >>>>> is not the case with imported data. >>>>> >>>>> At present, I can see no way to arrive at an accurate opening >>>>> balance and reconciliation (and thus with accurate running >>>>> balances, since a “balancing transaction” unbalances the running >>>>> balance for all subsequent transactions) other than to go back to >>>>> Quicken, un- reconcile all the transactions in the account, export >>>>> the account, import it into GnuCash and, starting with an opening >>>>> balance transaction, reconcile them all. I have many accounts; >>>>> this was just the first, so it looks like a very long slog to make this >>>>> transition. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> David T. wrote: >>>>>> One correction: the opening balance in the Reconcile window >>>>>> includes EVERY reconciled transaction in the register, regardless >>>>>> of transaction date. >>>>> >>>>> I observed and was puzzled by this. I was also puzzled by the fact >>>>> that the Reconcile window, when invoked for a particular month, >>>>> shows unreconciled transactions for all dates subsequent to the >>>>> reconciliation’s Beginning Date, including those after the >>>>> Statement Date. I had intended to ask, at some point, whether >>>>> there was a way to cause GnuCash to show only the transactions >>>>> prior to the Statement Date. Based upon your reply, I doubt it. >>>>> >>>>> I am no accountant and that behaviour seems strange to me. After >>>>> all, by definition, reconciliation takes place for a finite >>>>> period; there may be transactions which pre-date that period >>>>> (e.g., a check written months ago that has still not been cashed) >>>>> but I can see no reason to include transactions subsequent to the >>>>> Statement Date since they, by definition, have not occurred during that >>>>> period. >>>>> >>>>> It also creates a real problem in a situation like mine. If the >>>>> opening balance is the sum of all reconciled transactions, the >>>>> discrepancy in these cases can only be found by going through >>>>> months or years of transactions trying to ferret out that >>>>> transaction (or combination of transactions) has caused it. Again, >>>>> it points to the idea of unreconciling all transactions in >>>>> Quicken, exporting, importing into GnuCash and reconciling. >>>>> >>>>> I had another question: I found that, in un-reconciling the >>>>> transactions for that month, I could not un-reconcile more than >>>>> one transaction at a time. The documentation, and many videos, >>>>> etc., indicate that I should be able to Ctrl-click (Windows) or >>>>> Cmd-click >>>>> (MacOS) multiple transactions in the register to create a >>>>> selection to perform operations on but I could not do so. I tried >>>>> doing so on both Basic Ledger and Transaction Journal views; >>>>> nothing I have tried has allowed me to select more than one record >>>>> at a time. If the Reconciliation window displayed both reconciled >>>>> and unreconciled transactions for the reconciliation period, I >>>>> could use the “Reconcile Selection” and “Unreconcile Selection” >>>>> buttons to do this but, as mentioned earlier, the window only >>>>> displays any unreconciled entries.What am I missing? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Again, thanks to you both. >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >>>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >>>>> ----- >>>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >>>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >>>> -- >>>> David Cousens >>> _______________________________________________ >>> gnucash-user mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >>> ----- >>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> [email protected] >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> ----- >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > >_______________________________________________ >gnucash-user mailing list >[email protected] >To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >----- >Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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