How To Reconcile Credit Card Accounts in QuickBooks Online

We’ll walk you through what to input in the credit card reconciliation screen’s fields below.

A. Account: Select the credit card account that you’re reconciling.

B. Last statement ending date: QuickBooks indicates the date of the last statement reconciled for this credit card account. There will be no date if this is the first reconciliation of the credit card.

C. Beginning balance: QuickBooks shows the ending balance of the prior statement reconciled, which must be the beginning balance of the current statement. This amount will be zero if this is the first time the credit card is being reconciled.

D. Ending balance: Input the ending balance from your credit card statement.

E. Finance charge: If you haven’t already done so in a separate transaction, input the finance charge (if any) from your credit card statement. Indicate the date the charge was assessed and the expense account, or category, to track the expense. QuickBooks will record this expense automatically when the reconciliation is complete.

After entering all your statement information, click the green Start reconciling button.

After completing the previous step, QuickBooks will display a screen with a summary of the reconciliation in the top half and detailed transactions in the bottom half.

A. Statement ending balance: The statement balance carries over from your input in the prior screen and should match the ending balance on your credit card statement.

B. Cleared balance: QuickBooks calculates the cleared balance as the beginning balance from the prior screen plus charges you mark as cleared, minus payments you mark as cleared.

C. Difference: The difference between the statement ending balance and cleared balance must be zero before you can finalize a reconciliation. You’ll see an exclamation point if the difference isn’t zero, meaning you’ll have to reconcile those entries.

D. Radial buttons for cleared transactions: Click the radial button in the right-most column for each transaction if that transaction appears on your credit card statement. After you click the radial button, the transaction will be included in the cleared balance (item B).

What To Do if Credit Card Transactions Don’t Match QuickBooks Entries

Matching transactions between QuickBooks and your credit card statement consists of tracing transactions from the platform to your statement and then investigating unmarked transactions on your statement.

Trace Transactions From QuickBooks to Your Statement

Start by looking at each transaction listed in the QuickBooks screen above and finding it on your credit card statement. If you find it, click the radial button for the transaction (item D) and place a checkmark next to the transaction on your statement.

You need to investigate any transaction in QuickBooks that isn’t on your bank statement. While the most likely cause is an error in your QuickBooks accounting, don’t delete the transaction because it may affect other accounts or periods.

Here are some of the most common errors that will cause incorrect QuickBooks credit card transactions to appear:

• Duplicate transactions: You may have inadvertently created a duplicate transaction and while the original transaction will be shown on the statement, the duplicate won’t. For instance, if the credit card activity is imported from the bank, you may have added a new transaction instead of matching it to an existing transaction. If so, you should delete the duplicate transaction.
• Wrong account: The suspect transaction may have been a charge on a different credit card and incorrectly recorded on this account. If so, edit the transaction and assign it to the correct account.
• Wrong date: If you enter the wrong statement date, you may run into some issues during reconciliation. For instance, if the statement date is too early, some necessary transactions might be missing; and if it’s too late, some additional transactions might be included in your statement. Always ensure that the statement date you enter in QuickBooks matches your bank statement.

Investigate Unmarked Transactions on Your Statement

When tracing from QuickBooks to your statement, you placed a mark next to each transaction on your statement that was shown in QuickBooks. Now, look for any transactions on your statement that don’t have a mark. If unmarked transactions are legitimate, they need to be added to QuickBooks. Once added, mark the transaction as cleared by clicking the radial button in the right-most column.

Once all the selected transactions in QuickBooks match the transactions on your credit card statement, the difference between your statement ending balance and cleared balance should be zero. If it isn’t, then review our troubleshooting tips to locate discrepancies either on your statements or in QuickBooks.

Here’s a sample reconciliation with all of the transactions matched to a credit card statement.

When your reconciliation is complete, click the green Finish now button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

QuickBooks will display a message to confirm the reconciliation is complete and to ask if you want to make a payment towards this credit card balance.

You don’t have to select an option at this point as you can write a check or enter a bill later by going to the Write Check or Create Bill screens directly. But if you want to make a payment now, then do one of the following:

A. Click Pay all or a portion of the bill now to go to the Write Check screen, where you can create a check for the credit card balance you wish to pay. The category should default to the credit card account you just reconciled, and you shouldn’t change it.

B. Click on Enter a bill to pay later to go to the Create Bill screen, where you can enter a bill for the balance you wish to pay by the due date shown on the credit card statement. Make sure the category is the credit card you just reconciled, the bill date is the statement date, and the due date agrees with the due date on the credit card statement.

When you’re finished setting up your payment or have decided to wait until later, hit the green Done button.