How to Edit an incorrect Opening Balance in QuickBooks?

You may have this question that boggle your mind: why would anyone need to edit or change the opening balance when it gets calculated automatically. Whenever you open an account, the opening balance is usually zero. If you have an existing one, then, the last remaining balance is treated as another opening balance for the fresh month cycle. Learn how to Edit and incorrect opening balance in QuickBooks.

Yes, it is correct that the online opening balance often gets entered automatically, whenever you choose to download the statement of transactions from your bank’s website or through net banking.

There might be a possibility that you may need to change the opening balance in QuickBooks online or the QuickBooks desktop versions. This precise step can be completed just by accessing the chart of accounts within QuickBooks account. For the proper calculation, the opening balance must be correct and error free. Otherwise, your detailed statements and account reports would not give you accurate records. Once the corrections have been done to the opening balance in your account, you should try to reconcile your accounts and sync them with your bank statement to ensure that all the transactions were processed correctly.

Steps to Edit or Change the Incorrect Opening Balance:

Although it can be a situation that you will not come across very often, but in case you do, you should know the steps to be taken, which are as follows:

• Login to your QuickBooks account.
• Click on the Gear icon at the top corner, then, click on the Chart of Accounts.
• Look up the account, then click on the Action column and choose View register (or the Account history).
• Search the opening balance entry.

Tip: For this, you need to sort the Date column from newest to oldest. The opening balance entry must be at the bottom or at the end of the list.

• Click on the opening balance entry once it is located.
• Edit the amount and enter the correct one.

Tip: If you are not getting the option to edit the amount directly on this QuickBooks screen, then you should select the edit button as in some cases, this option works for editing.

Click on the Save button. Please note that the required and recent changes will not be saved automatically, if you move away from the register without saving them.

QuickBooks Automatically Records following Transactions into the Opening Balance Equity account:

Before you start with the process of mapping accounts opening balance to your QuickBooks account, you may also want to know which accounts can or cannot be recorded. Here is the enclosed list of accounts:

• The closing statement of your bank balance transaction when a very new bank account is set up.
• Opening balances for other Balance Sheets of financial accounts created in the Add New Account dialog box.
• When New Customers or Vendors are set up, then also Opening balances are entered.
• Inventory of the total value balances are entered in the New Item dialog.
• Adjustments of Bank reconciliation for QuickBooks versions 2005 or earlier than that.

Once the opening balance has been successfully updated. It is important to ensure that your record entries are not repeated to avoid any mistake in terms of accuracy. For ensuing this, another must do step is to Mark the journal entry as reconciled.

If you have never reconciled the account yet, then, you may need to reconcile the journal entries. This specific steps prevents it from showing up in a future process:

• Sign in QuickBooks account.
• Click on the Accounting menu.
• Choose the Chart of Accounts.
• Locate the account and select the Account history from the Action tab.
• Look up the journal entry you have recently created. Click on the entry to get the expanded view.
• Tick the checkbox in the column and after this you will see an R for reconciliation. This will reconcile the journal entry.
• When you have successfully completed the steps, choose Save action.

After this process, you will have a journal entry for your account’s opening balance. It is reconciled so the QuickBooks will not count it twice. This will balance your accounts with accurate figures.

Should an opening Balance be Entered in QuickBooks?

You are allowed to enter the specific Opening Balances of the account using one or more documents, which may have been captured from the Balance Sheet for the previous financial year. If you do not have an opening balance prior to the QuickBooks start date, then you must not enter it.

Few things to do if your Reconciliation on the Account doesn’t Balance?

Here are a few steps to take in case you face this particular issue.

● You need to verify whether or not you’re working with the right account.
● Check the specific transactions that the bank has recorded but are missing from your books.
● Also you need to check for the reversed transactions.
● You can check transactions that tallies from the available difference such as transactions that are equal to half the difference or that’s equal to the difference.

Why did my Opening Balance Change in QuickBooks?

At times, your opening balance can also be changed due to these following reasons:

• Either you have no balance or an incorrect balance was entered at the time of the account creation.
• Or there are previously cleared and reconciled transactions present that were voided, deleted, or modified.
• It is also another possibility that the transaction file was converted from a very different version of QuickBooks account.

QuickBooks can be the best platform which can make your financial reports very easier and of top notch which are error free. The best part is the support availability of the product which can be availed from anywhere and by anyone. This trust of our people is backed by years of expertise and technical advancement. All you need to do is to give us a call or fill out the requisition form given. Our team experts will understand your business requirements and will design a best suited resolution for you.

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