Subtitles of the Movie

Quicken has made the reconciliation process wonderfully easy. You will find that it is identical to the process we use in reconciling a normal checkbook. When I select the Reconcile button at the top of the screen, it'll bring me to a Statement Summary. The last statement ending date will be noted on top. Now, this is the first time I am reconciling this account; therefore the last statement date will default to the current date. All I need to do is put the ending balance as it's shown on my statement. I can also put in a new statement balance on the bottom of the screen. If there are any service charges, you can enter them right here. You will need to have a category that it'll be charged to. If you are unsure of what category to use, your pull-down for all of the accounts that you have listed will come up automatically. You can even add the category at exactly the same time. When you're finished, just simply make your selection and return to the screen. This same procedure will hold true for interest. I have earned interest, I will list my account and I will add the category to which I want it recorded. When I'm complete, I'll say OK and I'll be brought right to the reconciliation screen. At this point you will note that each of the items from the account is present. Any item that is cleared will be in bold with a check mark next to it. I will simply go item by item noting what's cleared and noting the difference on the bottom. If I would like to mark all of the items at one time, the Mark Item Book will actually go through each individual item. Now, you will note; the first time you're actually going through this reconciliation process and any time you have a high number of transactions, this can take a little bit of time. You will notice that in the background it's going through every individual payment and check, putting the green check mark next to it and finally listing the item in bold. When it has completed, you will note that the difference on the bottom of the screen will automatically change to show what has been selected on top. If an incorrect entry has been selected, I can simply click on it and you'll notice that it removes it. At the same time you'll notice that the difference in the reconciliation has changed accordingly. I can continue this process until, of course, the difference equals zero. Now, there are times when we'll look at a transaction and we're not sure what it is. We'll want to go ahead and find out further information. Simply double click on the transaction itself. You will note that this takes me right to the exact transaction in the register. I can now edit or make any changes necessary. When I'm ready to return to the Statement Screen again, I simply go to the bottom of the screen, there's my Statement Summary. When I click on it, I'm returned right to the Statement Summary itself. Now, if I find that my balance is not zero, I can simply hit Finish Later and at any given time I can go back into the reconciliation. You will also note on the screen for the reconciliation of the checking account there is a column that is C-L-R. That stands for Cleared Status. You will see two abbreviations in this column. There will be a C that means you have checked it as being cleared and an R that will mean it's being reconciled. Now, if you noted a moment ago, I didn't actually complete the reconciliation process. Therefore, everything I have checked is going to be noted as C for cleared but not reconciled. When it is totally reconciled, the difference is zero, you will see that it'll change to R to let you know that it's completed. Every account on your Account Bar can be reconciled in exactly the same way. This holds true also for our credit cards. It is important to reconcile each account on a monthly basis. It is recommended to always reconcile credit card accounts, savings accounts and all checking accounts.