How to Reconcile in QuickBooks Online, Step by Step

Quick Answer: In QuickBooks Online, go to All apps > Accounting > Reconcile, pick the account, type the ending balance and ending date from your bank statement, then select Start reconciling. Tick each transaction that also appears on the statement until the Difference reads $0.00, then choose Finish now and Done. QuickBooks saves a report you can reopen under History by account.

Reconciling a bank account in QuickBooks Online means telling QuickBooks which of its recorded transactions the bank has actually processed, using one statement at a time. You enter the statement's closing figures, tick matching lines, and the software keeps a running difference. When that difference hits zero, the books and the bank agree for that period, and QuickBooks locks the result in a saved report.

The steps below follow Intuit's own help article, Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online, screen by screen. If you have never reconciled the account before, read the first-time reconciliation guide instead, because the opening balance needs checking before any of this works.

What should be done before you click Reconcile?

Intuit's one prerequisite is that every transaction for the statement period is already in QuickBooks and categorized. For a connected bank account that means working through the downloaded items waiting in the bank feed first: match or add each one. A reconciliation run against a half-reviewed feed will show items missing that are really just sitting unposted.

Have three things open side by side:

• The bank or card statement for the month you are closing, as a PDF or paper copy.
• The ending date of the last reconciliation you finished (QuickBooks shows it, but it helps to know it).
• Any deposit slips or check stubs for items you expect to be outstanding.

If the bank feed was disconnected for part of the month, or the account was never connected, you will have gaps to fill before you reconcile. QuickBooks Online accepts CSV uploads through its bank upload screen, and QuickBankConvert can turn the statement PDF into that CSV, or into a QBO file on the Plus plan, so you are not keying fifty lines by hand. Our QuickBooks integration page covers which file suits which situation.

The reconciliation, step by step

1. Open the Reconcile page. Select All apps, then Accounting, then Reconcile. The first time you visit, the button reads Get started; after that it reads Reconcile.
2. Choose the account. Use the Account dropdown to pick the checking, savings or credit card account that matches your statement.
3. Check the last statement ending date. QuickBooks shows the date of your previous reconciliation. The statement you are about to use should begin the day after it. If you skipped a month, go back and do the missing statement first, because each reconciliation's ending balance becomes the next one's beginning balance.
4. Compare the beginning balance. QuickBooks fills it in from the last reconciliation. It must equal the opening balance printed on your statement. If it does not, stop here and see the section on beginning-balance alerts below.
5. Enter the ending balance and ending date. Copy both from the statement exactly, including cents. A credit card statement's ending balance is the new balance owed.
6. Upload the statement (optional). Some plans offer an AI-assisted reconciliation that reads an uploaded statement. Intuit notes verification can take up to an hour; you can skip this and tick manually.
7. Select Start reconciling. You now see the list of transactions QuickBooks holds for the account up to the ending date.
8. Tick what the bank shows. Work down the statement, line by line, and check the box beside each matching QuickBooks entry. The Cleared balance updates as you go.
9. Watch the Difference. Keep going until it reads $0.00.
10. Finish. Select Finish now, then Done. QuickBooks saves the reconciliation report automatically.

Which items do you tick, and which do you leave?

The rule is simple: tick only what appears on this statement. Everything else stays unticked and carries forward to next month. In practice a few cases confuse people, so here they are side by side.

Match on amounts rather than descriptions. Bank descriptions are often truncated or coded, while the amount is exact. Sorting the QuickBooks list by amount and running down the statement in the same order is the quickest way through a busy month.

Why won't the Difference reach $0.00?

When you have ticked every line on the statement and a figure remains, work through these in order. Each one takes a minute and they account for most stubborn differences.

1. Recheck what you typed. Select Edit info and confirm the ending balance and ending date against the statement. A wrong date hides transactions; a wrong balance creates a phantom difference.
2. Compare totals, not lines. Add up the statement's deposits and its withdrawals and compare each total with the cleared deposits and payments in QuickBooks. Whichever side is off tells you where to look.
3. Search for the exact difference. If the difference is $45.10, look for a $45.10 item on the statement that you missed, or one ticked in QuickBooks that is not on the statement.
4. Try half the difference. A $90.20 difference with a single error often means a $45.10 item was entered as a deposit instead of a payment, or the reverse.
5. Look for duplicates. Manually entered expenses that the bank feed later added again are a common source of double-counting.
6. Open the items themselves. You can select a transaction from the reconcile list to see its detail and edit it if the amount or account is wrong.

For a longer diagnostic, including transposed digits and changes to past periods, see why a bank reconciliation doesn't balance.

What does a beginning-balance alert mean?

If someone edited, deleted or voided a transaction that was already reconciled, the beginning balance no longer matches last month's ending balance. QuickBooks then shows a message that the account is not ready to reconcile because the beginning balance is off, with a link to help you fix it. That link opens the Reconcile Discrepancy Report, which lists each changed transaction, who changed it, its amount at the last reconciliation and its amount now. Intuit's beginning-balance help page walks through restoring or correcting each item. Fix those before reconciling the new month; a clean prior period is the only stable starting point.

Can you finish with a difference?

QuickBooks will let you finish while a difference remains. If you do, it records an adjusting entry for the amount so the cleared balance matches the statement. Intuit recommends talking to your accountant before doing this, and that advice is sound: the adjustment hides the real cause, and it sits in your books until someone traces it. A small, documented bank rounding issue might justify it. An unexplained $300 never does. If you finished with an adjustment by mistake, the guide to correcting a past reconciliation in QuickBooks Online explains how to reverse it.

How is QuickBooks Desktop different?

QuickBooks Desktop reconciles from Banking > Reconcile, enters service charges and interest in the opening window rather than as separate transactions, and keeps its history under Reports > Banking > Previous Reconciliation. Its reports and its options for undoing a finished reconciliation also work differently. If you work in Desktop, follow the QuickBooks Desktop reconciliation guide instead of the steps above.

Keeping it to fifteen minutes a month

The reconciliations that drag on are the ones left for a quarter. A few habits keep each one short:

• Reconcile within a week of the statement arriving, while you still remember the odd items.
• Review the bank feed weekly so downloaded items never pile up unposted.
• Attach the statement PDF when you finish, so the evidence lives next to the report.
• Note outstanding items over 60 days old and chase them; old uncleared checks distort the cash balance.

When you need to catch up on older months whose transactions never reached QuickBooks, start with a CSV or Excel version of each statement. A free QuickBankConvert account handles 3 statements a month in those formats; see pricing for larger batches.

Related guides

• Bank statement reconciliation guide, the software-agnostic method
• How to reconcile in QuickBooks Desktop
• Reconciling in QuickBooks Online for the first time
• QuickBooks bank reconciliation report