It is the habit in our household to put all paper receipts in a drawer, and I have a set time (each week) to enter those transactions (because so much is done online, I also go through email looking for electronic receipts). Please note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; sometimes, I enter transactions shortly after they occur, if I happen to feel like it.
But I still reconcile with the bank balance (not statement) each month; yes, I could do it weekly, but monthly is working for me. However, this helps me to ensure that no one in the household forgot to put a receipt in the drawer; various ones of us have forgotten (receipts found to have been languishing in a wallet or purse -- or worse, someone lost a receipt). Moreover, there are some charges that occur for which I get no notification -- for example, the Amazon Prime membership, or Amazon's "Subscribe & Save" items -- those just occur with no notification. A regular reconciliation helps me to find these things. Maybe this is not considered an "old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation", since I am reconciling to current balance, not to some statement. On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM Ken Pyzik <py...@outlook.com> wrote: > All — First, I want to apologize for the length of this rant. We will > always agree to disagree on this subject. Please understand, I am a > retired 30 year bank auditor. I know the purpose of what a reconciliation > is. But what I don't understand is this obsession with doing monthly > reconciliations for personal accounts on your computer. > > First, I have not received a "paper" statement from my bank in over 20 > years. My statements are all online. Second, I sign-in to my (checking > and credit card) accounts almost daily. So I know exactly when every > deposit or charge hits my accounts. Third, in this day and age, I write, > maybe, one check a month, to my landscaper who does not have direct > deport. Other than that, my 20-30 transactions per month are all > electronic. Also, I charge almost everything on my charge card. So any > money I spend is on my charge card statement. > > Fourth, I enter transactions in GnuCash whenever I feel I have a few spare > moments and my GnuCash balances nearly always match my online account > balances except for when my landscaper takes too long to cash his check, or > an electronic transaction takes more than a day or two to clear. Fifth, the > whole purpose of the reconciliation process is to identify transactions > that you either know to be coming or that you think will be coming that > have not been reflected on your current bank balance so you don't overdraw > your account or so that an unauthorized charge does not slip by. > > With that backdrop — as you can probably tell, I have not done an > old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation in eons. Technically, since I > sign-in almost every day, I guess you can say I do a mini-reconciliation of > my accounts daily (or almost daily!) and because of that, I know exactly > what my balance is almost all the time. Additionally, if I see any unknown > transaction online (which is like never!), I can call my bank almost > anytime and discuss with them what the transaction is and usually get it > rectified rather quickly. And the benefits of looking at my account > everyday is that I can see it hit that day! > > So, with all that being said, can someone please explain to me why people > are wasting their time doing manual C/N reconciliations on a bunch of > transactions on their computer? I would think they could use their time > much more effectively doing something else. You see, the reason for > reconciliations in the past were that you did not have the access, as you > do today, to go and see exactly what the balance is or what transactions > have cleared in your account, anytime, anywhere, 24-hours a day! > > Reconciliations are vital for a business so they have documented proof of > their transactions. Also, they sometimes are required by government > regulations or company policies. So I get their need in the business > world. But reconciliations for your personal accounts are a thing of the > past. In this day and age, transactions clear pretty quickly. The longest > it takes for a transaction to clear is usually a manual check - and that's > only dependent on how long it takes for someone to deposit it into their > account. Hell, I have had some transactions clear in as quick as 10 > seconds (for internal transfers or internal payments to a bank CC). > > Again — there will be many who will totally disagree with me, and that's > OK, but I still don't see the reason for a monthly reconciliation process > to true up your personal accounts. Waiting until you get a statement in 30 > days to see if your GNUCash balance matches the bank is crazy to me when I > can see it and balance it every day! > > In the end - I guess my 1 minute per day is probably someone else's 30 > minutes at the end of the month or whenever they get their electronic > statement. But in today's electronic banking environment, why would > someone wait 30 days to get a statement from the bank to reconcile their > personal accounts, when they can see the balance on their own, any day and > anytime and balance it daily? Seems counter-intuitive and > counter-productive to me. But I guess that's just my preference. > > Ken > > PS - by the way — this is also exactly why banks charge for paper monthly > statements now. They are required by law to give you a statement - but if > you want it on paper - they are allowed to charge for that paper since it > is available electronically all the time - everyday after they generate it. > > > > ________________________________ > From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook....@gnucash.org> > on behalf of Jim DeLaHunt <list+gnuc...@jdlh.com> > Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2025 4:56 PM > To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> > Subject: Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure? > > Arthur: > > On 2025-01-18 13:06, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote: > > i just keep personal books for the family. > > my update and reconcile procedure works but is a bit tedious. I can't > think of any better way and I doubt there is one but i thought it might be > good to ask. > > At sort of almost random times I decide to update the books. So I > download from CBA transactions from the bank accounts. > > then I put them in a spreadsheet. in date order. > > then I inspect and compare with a transaction report from gnu cash - one > for each account - and identify transactions not yet in gnu cash. > > delete all but those from the spreadsheet. > > sort on description. > > attach a fourth column for target account. > > import to gnu cash. > > that's the update > > balances should agree. that's the reconcile. > > all that downloading, spreadsheeting, sorting blah, blah..... any > better way or that's just it? > > Are you familiar with the Reconciliation feature of GnuCash? > > It is described in sections 2.9.4. Reconciliation and 5.4. Reconciling > Your Accounts of the GnuCash Tutorial and Guide > <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=guide>, as well as > sections 4.5. Reconcile Window and 5.8. Reconciling an Account to a > Statement of the GnuCash Manual > <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=help>. > > I won't repeat all of that here. > > I collect receipts or emails for all transactions. Every week or so, I > go through them and enter all transactions. When the statement arrives, > it is usually in the form of a PDF file from my bank or credit card > company. I hope the statement in one window on my computer. I open > GnuCash, and the tab for that account, in another window. I push the > Reconcile button to start the process, and confirm that starting and > ending balances for the statement. The Reconcile Window appears. The > Reconcile Window has an entry for each unreconciled transaction in that > account. Next to each entry is an unchecked checkbox. > > I hold a pencil or pointer next to each line of the statement, in the > one window, in turn. For each line of the statement, I find the > corresponding transaction in the Reconcile Window. I check the checkbox. > Sometimes I need to add or correct a transaction. For that, I go to the > account's register window, and make the change. The result appears > immediately in the Reconcile Window. Then I check the checkbox, and move > my pointer to the next line of the statement. > > When I have gone through the statement, the Reconcile Window should have > an Difference value of zero in the bottom-right corner. I click the > Finish button. The Reconcile Window disappears. I close the window with > the statement PDF. > > From your description of downloading transactions, putting them in a > spreadsheet, and deleting from the spreadsheet, it sounds like you are > reproducing in a less convenient way what the Reconcile feature already > gives you. Or maybe you are importing transactions — but that is not > reconciliation, that is data entry. > > Does this help? Best regards, > —Jim DeLaHunt > > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > 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 > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > 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. > -- _________________________________ Richard Losey rlo...@gmail.com Micah 6:8 _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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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