Discrepancy/Unresolved amount the same, can't clear

SOLVED

I am doing my first reconciliation which is for January 2014.  Fiscal year started January 1 and is the opening date for my file.  As I had outstanding items from December that were processed in January, I followed a suggestion found in here in the forums to enter those manually.  They totaled $2940.72.  After going through the transactions for the account, I ended with a discrepancy of -$2940.72 and an unresolved amount of $2940.72. 

I have no idea how to clear both of these.  Obviously it has something to do with the outstanding items.  I have made sure my opening and ending balances are entered correctly.  Insights would be greatly appreciated. Smile

  • 0

    Hi Cheryl S.

    The following KB article may be able to help you with your issue:

    Discrepancy and Unresolved are even. One is a positive and one is a negative - KB10037

    Hope this helps.

  • 0 in reply to Keith L

    Hi Keith,

    Unfortunately, even after following all of the recommended fixes, the problem still exists.  I have tried doing the reconciliation again without entering the outstanding items which results in my discrepancy being $0, but gave me rather skewed numbers for resolved and unresolved. :)

  • 0 in reply to Cheryl S.

    Hi Cheryl S.

    The resolved amount is for the cleared items.  It means the item shows up in both your book and the bank statement that you want to reconcile with.  That is OK.  

    The number that you have to pay more attention is the unresolved amount.  You will need to figure out where this unresolved amount comes from.  It can be something that shows up in the bank statement but not yetentered in your book.  For example, bank charges or bounced cheques. 

    As written in the KB10237 - My bank reconciliation has a discrepancy and/or an unresolved amount. (Link at the bottom from the first KB link I sent you), unresolved amount is based on the following equation:

    Statement Ending Balance = Outstanding + Book Ending Balance

    If they are not equal, the difference is the unresolved amount.  One of number in the equation must be incorrect.  Suggestion is to reprint the GL report of the account as of the reconciliation month.  Place it side by side with your bank statement and cross out those items that show up in both the bank statement and the report.  

    Hope this gives you more direction. 

  • 0 in reply to Keith L

    Most of the time when there is an unresolved amount, and almost always when there is a discrepancy, the only answer is to rebuild the bank rec.

    Despite the information generally provided above and in the KB article, which occasionally do work, my experience has been that there is a corruption of some sort in the bank rec. Deleting the account from the bank rec system and re-adding it, rebuilding the rec and then continuing is frequently the only answer.

    You can also attempt to "fix bank rec" - this is a "back door" area that Sage's Tech Support can get you to. It may, or may not, work. If it doesn't rebuild the bank rec accurately (and it does on occasion) you will likely have to rebuild as above.

  • 0 in reply to Cheryl S.

    Cheryl - if you are able to verify that the Stmt Opening balance is the correct balance when you open the bank reconciliation then leave the statement end balance as blank. Also leave the 'Do not show corrections' box as unticked as you want to see all the adjustments.

    Now your 'unresolved' amount at the bottom should be exactly the same as the statement opening balance.

    If so then that is good. If not then most likely there was an adjustment made and only one side of the adjustment was checked off - go thru any adjustments in the journal and verify that both sides are ticked off.

    After that if the 2 amounts are still not the same then take the difference between the 2 amounts and see if there are any entry (or entries) that is the same amount - if so then maybe that entry is a duplicate entry.

    Let us know how you make out.

  • 0 in reply to Smith and Co
    verified answer

    Thank you, everyone, for the help and suggestions.  The fix that finally worked was ridiculously simple and I don't know why I didn't try it in the first place.

    I was convinced I had to enter the outstanding balances from Dec. 2013 manually during the reconciliation.  I finally abandoned this and decided to try a general ledger adjustment.  I credited my current account and debited my retained earnings account by the outstanding amount that had cleared in January.  I then used my statement opening balance, which I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was correct and voila!  Everything balanced easy peasy.

    Now I'm going to do February's.  Wish me luck! :D

  • 0 in reply to Cheryl S.

    Hi Cheryl,

    If any suggestions provided in this thread is able to help you resolving your issue, would you please click the 'Yes' button to the question - 'Did this answer the question?'  The thread will be marked as answered, which will benefit other users who have the same issue.  Thanks a lot.