After you have named your checking account, identified it with a financial institution and given it a description, if desired, Click Next and enter the ending date and balance from your bank statement. **IMPORTANT** If you want a January 1 start date for your records, you will need the December bank statement for this checking account. When the program asks for the balance to begin the account with, you will enter the ending balance on the December statement and the beginning date for the account will be the statement ending date. Click Done when you have entered the required information.
To get your checking account(s) to reconcile properly with the bank statements as you start to use the program, you will need to enter into the checking account register all the outstanding checks and deposits that are not shown on the December bank statement making sure to enter the correct check number and dollar amount of the checks and any deposits. You will also then need to enter all checks and deposits between the date of the December bank statement and January 1. All these transactions will be dated prior to January 1, but will not show up on the following year’s reports dated January 1 through December 31.
If you have entered all the previous transactions into the checking account register you should be able to reconcile this checking account with your January bank statement. If you cannot reconcile the January bank statement with your computer records, review this section and the entries you have made. To start your checking account(s) properly, you must be able to reconcile with the first bank statement.
See theSetting Up Your First Checking Account example later in this chapter for the procedure to properly set up your checking account so it will reconcile correctly with your first bank statement.