QuickBooks Bank Reconciliation Report: Find and Read It

Quick Answer: In QuickBooks Online, finished reconciliations are listed under All apps > Accounting > Reconcile > History by account, or you can run Reports > Standard reports, search "Reconciliation Report", pick the account and period, and select View report. In QuickBooks Desktop, use Reports > Banking > Previous Reconciliation. QuickBooks does not produce bank statements; those come from your bank.

A QuickBooks bank reconciliation report is the record QuickBooks saves each time you finish reconciling an account: the statement's beginning and ending balances, the transactions you marked as cleared, and the ones still outstanding. QuickBooks Online creates one automatically at every Finish now, and it never changes afterward. It is the document accountants and auditors ask for as proof that the books agreed with the bank.

Where do you find bank reconciliations in QuickBooks Online?

There are two doors into the same set of reports.

From the Reconcile page. Go to All apps > Accounting > Reconcile and select History by account. Choose the account and a date range, and every finished reconciliation for that account appears in a list with its statement ending date. Open one with View report. This list is also where accountant users find the Undo action and where attached statements live, in the Statements column.

From Reports. Intuit's article on viewing, printing or exporting a reconciliation report gives this route:

1. Go to Reports and select Standard reports.
2. Type "Reconciliation Report" in the search bar and select Reconciliation Reports.
3. Choose the Account.
4. Pick the reconcile dates from the Report period dropdown.
5. Select View report.

The Reports route is handier when you want one specific period; the History route is better for scanning a year to see whether any month was skipped.

What does each part of the report tell you?

The report is a snapshot of one reconciliation session. Read it top to bottom as a story about the cash balance.

Two details from Intuit's notes matter when you rely on this report. First, it is static: if someone edits a transaction after you finish, the report still shows the original. Second, it reflects transactions with the R status from that session, not every transaction posted to the account. QuickBooks also creates a new report each time you finish, even if you reconcile the same month twice, so a period that was undone and redone can have more than one report in its history.

Why "changes after reconciliation" matter

Because the Online report is frozen, the way to see later changes is a different report: the Reconcile Discrepancy Report that appears when the beginning balance no longer matches. It lists each reconciled transaction that was edited, deleted or voided, with the amount at last reconciliation, the amount now, and who made the change. If your reconciliation report and the current register disagree, that discrepancy report is where the explanation lives. Fixing those items is covered in how to unreconcile or correct a past reconciliation.

Can you export a QuickBooks Online reconciliation report to Excel?

Printing is direct: select the Print icon in the upper right of the report, and choose a PDF printer if you want a file. Excel is the awkward one. Intuit states that the reconciliation report is one of the few reports that cannot be exported to Excel directly. The workaround:

1. Highlight the report contents.
2. Right-click and copy.
3. Paste into a blank Excel sheet.
4. Adjust column widths and save.

For year-end files, a PDF per month is usually enough. Save each one as you finish rather than at audit time; the bank audit report guide explains what reviewers typically expect to see alongside it.

Where is the report in QuickBooks Desktop?

QuickBooks Desktop keeps reconciliation history under Reports > Banking > Previous Reconciliation, per Intuit's Desktop article on previous reconciliation reports. Choose the account and a Statement Ending Date, then decide on two options:

• Report type: Detail or Both. Intuit recommends Detail when you are fixing a reconciliation.
• Transactions to include: "Transactions cleared at the time of reconciliation" shows the snapshot, while "Transactions cleared plus any changes made to those transactions" shows their current state. Running both and comparing them is the Desktop way to see changes after reconciliation.

Edition matters. Premier, Accountant and Enterprise keep reports for the last 120 reconciliations. QuickBooks Desktop Pro shows only the most recent one, which is why Pro users should save a PDF or Excel copy every month. Desktop can export the report to Excel, unlike the Online version. For the full Desktop procedure, see how to reconcile in QuickBooks Desktop.

What should you check on each report before filing it?

A report that exists is not the same as a report that proves anything. Before you file a month's PDF, a quick review catches the problems that otherwise surface at year end:

1. The chain of balances. This report's beginning balance should equal last month's ending balance. A gap means something reconciled was changed in between.
2. A zero difference. If the cleared balance and the statement ending balance differ, an adjustment was posted. Find out why before the next month is reconciled on top of it.
3. The age of uncleared items. A check from four months ago that still has not cleared is either lost, voided, or recorded twice. Deal with it now rather than carrying it.
4. Who reconciled it and when. If several people work in the file, note this on the PDF so questions go to the right person.
5. The attached statement. Confirm the statement attached to the session is the right month for the right account.

Can you get a bank statement out of QuickBooks Online?

Not in the sense of generating one. A bank statement is the bank's record; QuickBooks holds your record. A register or transaction report from QuickBooks can look similar, but it is not accepted as a statement by lenders or auditors because it shows your entries, not the bank's.

What QuickBooks Online can do:

• Show statements your bank supplies. For some connected banks, a View statements option appears on the Reconcile page after you choose the account. Intuit lists it for the Essentials, Plus, Advanced and Accountant plans; if you do not see it, your bank does not offer it through QuickBooks yet.
• Return statements you attached. If you selected Attach statement when finishing a reconciliation, it is stored with that session. Find it under History by account in the Statements column.

Otherwise, download the PDF from your bank's website. If you then need those statement lines as rows, for example to check a reconciliation report against the bank's own totals, QuickBankConvert can turn the PDF into CSV or Excel. Files up to 4.4 MB are accepted, and the upload is stored on our servers; you can ask for it to be deleted through the contact page.

Related guides

• How to reconcile in QuickBooks Online
• Undo or correct a past reconciliation in QuickBooks Online
• What is a reconciled bank statement?
• QuickBooks integration