If you have a backup prior to the problem and can use Excel, there's an
"easy" way to find extra or missing transactions. Open the backup file, run
an Account Transactions report, and export the result to Excel. Then do the
same with the current file. With some cut and paste operations in Excel you
can compare the reports and identify differences in the two files.
Bill Becker


"mg" wrote:

- quote -

Aha! Now there's a possible cause. I did inactivate (not delete) a few
accounts recently, but over the last couple years it's possible I deleted a
credit card account. That should show up when I compare an older backup
file.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.


- quote -

You guys are funny. [LOL] I probably fall somewhere in between losing sleep
until I find it and just writing it off to balance. But I must plead guilty
to laziness with regard to my account balancing duties.

I like the idea of looking at an older backup file...


"William R Wood" <secret[at]???.net> wrote in message
news:O6OcQAv8GHA.4568[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Don't know about Mg but lack of motivation at the time had nothing to do
with me not formally reconciling bank statements for months/years. My
problem was the opposite. I reconcile my account balances several times a
week, often daily in my head or on a scrap of paper. So I know that my
balances are correct at all times and I slacked off on formal
reconciliations because I already knew that my register was perfect.

Then, suddenly, I would discover that my register was off and could not be
reconciled. Since I had not formally reconciled in months/years, I had to
go way back to the last reconciliation and do a month by month formal
reconciliation to find the problem. I'm pretty sure that the problem was
always missing transactions way back in time that somehow got deleted by
mistake. I have always been able to find them using old backups that were
made before the missing transactions went up in smoke.

If Mg is like me he will have to go back because he won't be able to sleep
knowing his records are wrong.

Regards

Bill Wood


"Steve" <sjcohen730[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:1161186593.483007.36750[at]m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 06:52:53 -0400, "mg" <mglenn_1[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

Even just a few months of skipping balancing caused me problems a
couple years back. I ended up applying a correction one month, then
the next month it required a reverse correction and so on for several
months. I don't think the underlying problem was deleted
transactions. If there are no missing transactions, or corruption,
and you are sure the file is not corrupt, this is a rather inelegant
solution that did work for me.

I did however once make a big boo boo. I deleted a credit card
account because it had been closed (didn't just make it inactive).
Because the account name matched the payee field in the checking
account exactly, all of those payments from 7 years earlier
disappeared from the checking register!!! Could you have done
something similarly? As I recall, somehow, I had paper statements
available to renter about 18 months of credit card payments and
rebalance the checking account.

Jim

Why don't you just start over with your latest reconciled balance. In
my opinion it is just a waste of your time to go back years when you
didn't have the motivation to do it THEN. Good luck. Steve

I have been in your exact situation several times. Never again will I delay
reconciling for a long period. Plus I make regular backups so I can restore
one if my current file gets messed up with stuff like 9,000 errors.

Luckily I always found the reason for the wacky opening balances when I
tried to reconcile after a delay of many months (years). I think (not
positive) the error was always back in the older previously reconciled part
of the register. I cannot remember any specific examples because it was too
long ago that it happened and my memory is bad anyway. I am pretty sure the
main cause of the error was missing transactions that probably got deleted
by mistake. Sometimes my #$%^& cat steps on the wrong keys when I ain't
looking. Or maybe my wife did it!

I never fixed the opening balance problem with file repair or
export/import - the error was always missing or otherwise incorrect
transactions. Wouldn't hurt to try file repair, however. Export/import
probably would not help since the transaction gap would just be repeated in
the new file. The data gap in your register for 91-93 sounds like the
culprit.

Do not archive under any circumstances. Useless and confusing.

I would look for the problem a little harder. If it is the 91-93
transaction gap, I guess you are screwed and will have to enter a correcting
balance transaction and forget it. I assume that you don't have statements
going back that far. If I had them I would still hesitate typing them in
since you would not know what half the stuff was and couldn't categorize it
anyway.

Regards

Bill Wood




"mg" <mglenn_1[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7-Wdncby-dQYmqvYnZ2dnUVZ_sednZ2d[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

Me bad boy. Haven't balanced my checking account since March 2004. But
everything through March had been balanced/reconciled.

Now I go in with my April 2004 bank statement to start balancing April 04
and find the opening balance is too high by about $9,000! I have
transactions going all the way back to the early 1990's, but 91-93 looks
weird. A $150 monthly transfer is the only transaction in the register for
those years. I don't recall seeing that before, but it's been years since I
looked that far back. At this point my choices seem to be:

1. Enter a correcting balance transaction while balancing April and chalk it
up to a mystery.
2. Archive everything prior to say 2000 (I need to research how to do this
and would appreciate any tips).
3. Do the export/import thing to clean up possible corruption in the MNY
file and check the balance again.
4. A combination of all the above.
5. Keep looking for the needle in the haystack. (BTW, I've already looked
for single transaction that matches or comes close to the amount the account
is off, but no such luck.)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
mg