Hi,

If you have [ ] Hide Corrections checked, un-check that.

Try un-clearing everything (DON'T SAVE THIS RECONCILIATION) and put in the same Ending Balance that is showing as your Beginning Balance.  

The Unresolved should be Zero.    

(If the beginning and ending balances are the same, there is no difference to 'resolve')

If Unresolved is NOT zero:

There may be something wrong with the data.  Very occasionally, the bank reconciliation data in Sage 50 can get scrambled.

If Unresolved shows ZERO:

Close the reconciliation, and open it again.    Somewhere, there is possibly an entry that is opposite, or a large amount that was entered twice.  

If you're working from a bank statement:

- Unclear (uncheck) all the transactions

- Set the Ending Balance at zero.  The Unresolved should now equal the negative of the opening balance.

- Clear them one at a time, watching the 'Unresolved'.  

- After each item is cleared, the balance should be the opposite of the statement balance at that point in time.

(i.e. if your bank balance is a positive $6,363.25, it will show '-6,363.25'.  After clearing a $5,000 withdrawal, it should show '-1,363.25')

I hope that helps, please post back.

Thanks for replying... I did as you suggested cleared all checkmarks and entered the same ending balance as the beginning balance: there is now a resolved amount of 1761.68, an outstanding balance of -76629.98 and an unresolved amount of -1711.68.

I close the reconciliation window and re-open: Now there is 0 resolved, -74868.30 outstanding and 50.00 unresolved.

Entering 0.00 ending balance produced: 1768.61 resolved, 76629.98 outstanding and -219087.46 unresolved.

No matter which way I look at this, it makes no sense. I've been using this program since it was called Bedford (a dos based program in the early 80's) and continue to use it for our own construction business. All other data files are correct and reconcile perfectly with no discrepancies or unresolved amounts.

This file belongs to a law firm and in the past was reconciled manually - ie: copy of G/L matched with Bank Statement. I reconciled it using the Bank Reconciliation function for the first time for the June 30/14 month end. It reconciled with an unresolved amount of $8000 some odd dollars which I directed to an account used for this purpose only - nothing else is posted to this account. My thinking is that there must be cheques that have not cleared but since a manual reconciliation was done, they could easily be missed and no longer showing as outstanding. When a cheque clears that is not on the current bank rec, I record it crediting the specified account and debiting the bank. This can be done until all the $8000 is accounted for.

There are many quirky procedures set up by the previous bookkeeper, possibly causing issues when correct procedures are followed. Unfortunately, I have no idea how or why some entries were made prior to June.

I apologize for the ramble - very frustrated. This is ONE bank account. I have 21 to reconcile each month!

If you unchecked *everything*, there should be a 'resolved' of zero, even if there are transactions in the 'Income' or 'Expenses' tab(s).

I feel your pain, I once worked for a group of companies, that did business in 3 currencies.  

If you un-check everything, and there are no Expense or Income amounts, 

your reconciliation has to look like this, or it will never work:

The only non-zero amount should be 'Outsanding', which is the net of all the un-cleared book transactions recorded up to the end of the statement date.

You may have to 'clear' the transaction history and start over, possibly there was an adjustment transaction that was partly cleared ages ago, and never sorted out.  (by this I mean you have to re-set the bank reconciliation)

http://sagecity.na.sage.com/support_communities/sage_50_accounting_ca/f/161/p/60179/208514.aspx#208514

My reconciliation does NOT look like yours - it looks exactly as I've explained. What do you mean by 'clear transaction history'? 'Start Over' from where? There is no way I can determine which entries make up the Unresolved amount - or even which scenario is correct.

My reconciliation does NOT look like yours - it looks exactly as I've explained

That image is two parts of the screen, the top part showing that nothing is 'hidden', the bottom part showing how the numbers should look, after un-checking all the items.   It sounds like you did that, then ignored the part about 'if it's not zero', closed the reconciliation and did some other things.  Again, if it's not zero, it won't work.  

Starting with a reconciliation that's out of balance before any transactions have been cleared will not work.

What do you mean by 'clear transaction history'? 'Start Over' from where?  
I should have said 'clear the reconciliation data, meaning to re-set up bank reconciliations.  This post explains how:

http://sagecity.na.sage.com/support_communities/sage_50_accounting_ca/f/161/p/60179/208514.aspx#208514

There is no way I can determine which entries make up the Unresolved amount

The Unresolved amount is a calculated total the difference between beginning ane ending statement balance, minus the amount that's "resolved", meaning the total of everything you've checked off.   If you start off with nothing resolved (checked as cleared), and it shows an 'unresolved amount', the reconciliation data that the reconciliation program works from, is broken.  Kaput.  Foo-bar.  Unusable.  Out of order.   Wrong.  

I went through all the steps again - just to be sure: When I enter the same opening/closing balance ($217,375.78), clear all the checkmarks and remove the Bank Charges Expense amount ($50.00), it is as you say. Resolved is zero, Outstanding is -74,868.30, Unresolved is Zero.

Now I change the Statement End Balance to zero. The Resolved is zero, Outstanding is -74,868.30, and unresolved is -217,375.78.

It is now clear that the outstanding balance of -74868.30 is incorrect. Any idea where I might look for this?

This is not the 'live' file but a copy. No transactions have been posted to this 'copy' since my original post.

It is now clear that the outstanding balance of -74868.30 is incorrect. Any idea where I might look for this?

Nowhere.  Ignore it for now, it is a meaningless number until the reconciliation is completed to the end of the month. 

Keep the ending balance at zero as well.  Do the reconciliation methodically, one day at a time:

Focus on the 'unresolved' balance!

1. Start with the first day on the statement and mark just those statement items as cleared.  

2. Compare the statement balance from the end of the first day, to the 'unresolved' balance.    The two numbers should add up to zero if the reconciliation is still in balance.

     *alternative method, put each day end balance in, as the statement end balance, and the unreconciled should be zero.

3.  If it's still in balance, check off the first day and save the reconciliation (DO NOT POST, SAVE!).   Repeat for each day through to the end of the statement.

      *alternative method, put in the next day's ending balance as the statement end balance, as you finish each day.

When you reach the end of the statement, put in the ending balance and any comments, save, and post.   ( I prefer to save, then back up, then post.) 

You can now run any reconciliation reports for your files.

As you come across bank charges or credits, put them into the Expense or Income tabs.   Alternatively, keep the reconciliation open, enter them in the General Journal and refresh the transactions in the reconciliation.

Hello, Randy. As you may have guessed, I am new to this forum - this is a forum, is it not? I appear to communicating with you one on one.

Are you a Sage user or tech support? Where do I browse other questions and answers that may be relevant?

I will try your suggestions again this weekend and post back on Monday. Thanks for all your help. Have a good weekend!

Hi Eva,

I'm a Sage user, mostly of the Windows versions from this century.  (I have worked for years in tech support, but not for Sage, or Accpac, or Bedford.)

The methodical, one-day-at-a-time, step-by-step approach described above always works, and is much better on longer bank statements.

On really short statements, it might take a bit more time to do it that way, but you'll get that time back with interest when there is an error to find.

Randy

I didn't have a chance to reconcile this weekend, but am in the process now. I seem to be having a problem with adjustments and reversals - as soon as I doubleclick a transaction to see the detail, Sage insists on automatically checking (clearing) adjustments and reversals. How do I deal with this? It's impossible to locate a discrepancy if the numbers keep changing!

If you double-click in the 'Source' column, you should get the journal entry.

It will only mark the item as 'cleared' if you press the space-bar on that item, or click in the check mark column.