Q - Why does the balance for my checking account in the chart of accounts listing not equal the correct balance on my bank register and Balance Sheet?
A - This is a common question we get and the source of the problem can be related to several factors. The first thing you want to do is run the Balance Sheet with a date range of "All" to ensure we are getting all transactions that make up the balance. Many times post dated transactions are in your data file that will cause this scenario.
Assuming the error is still present I would recommend you run a data verification to see if there is data corruption. The result we are looking for is "QuickBooks detected no problems with your data." You run this utility as follows:
File > Utilities > Verify Data
Even if the verification comes back with this message it is still a good idea to run the Rebuild anyway since not all errors are detected with this verification. You run the Rebuild as follows:
File > Utilities > Rebuild Data
If the error still exists try re-sorting the Chart of Accounts. Display the Chart of Accounts and click on the "Account" button on the bottom left. Then choose the "Re-sort List" option.
Finally, if the error remains then I would recommend creating a new Bank Account with the same name but put an additional character at the end such as an "a." Once this is complete edit the original bank account to the new name and merge the two accounts. When the merge is complete you can edit the new named account and remove the extra letter we placed on the end earlier.
In the vast majority of cases this will solve the problem. Corruption of some sort has invaded the original bank account and by merging with a new bank account the corruption (or broken links) is corrected. I hope this has been helpful.
