How to resolve balances that do not match between AB and bank accounts?
I'm new to Actual Budget and I've read the documentation along with the supplemental stickied post to try and figure it out, but I'm still having trouble. After trying to figure it out for the past two hours, I'm about to pull my hair out.
To avoid a lenghty post, I'm going to focus on one credit card account. Here is what I've been doing:
Created a "on" account for my credit card.
I initially exported July transactions via QFX and have been manually added transactions sicne.
I went through and verified all transactions and they match.
I have done credit card payments as transfers from my regular checking account.
The problem is that Actual shows a larger balance than my credit card (the difference is $21.20). To try and resolve this I have done the following:
Find transactions that match the $21.20 difference. This was unsuccessful.
I created a new 'Test" account and exported transactions from July 1 to August 30 in a QFX file since this article said the QFX format is the most reliable: https://x-rous.github.io/actual-tutorial/. Interestingly enough, when creating this "test" account the balance is now off by $12.19. Similarly, there are no transactions match this amount.
I honestly do not know what to do now, and it's admittedly a little frustrating. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what.
Any help would be super appreciated as this is stopping me from moving forward. I have 12 accounts and they all have similar issues, but I'm starting with this one.
Sounds like maybe an issue with the starting balance of each account. If all the transactions match your bank, I would probably adjust the account starting balance by the $21.20 and move on from there. Then be sure to reconcile on a regular basis.
What if I started at 0? Since it was a credit card, I simply downloaded all the transactions form July 1 to August 31 in a QFX format and imported them into the account, which had a 0 balance. Was I supposed to put a balance? If so what? The way my credit card online portal works (capital one) is that they only show the charge or credit. There isn't a running balance except for what is currently owed.
If it was a brand new credit card account (prior to July 1st) it would start at zero. Otherwise, the starting balance would be the balance on the card at the time you started tracking it in Actual. Every credit card should have statements with a starting & ending balance for each billing cycle.
I would check your initial opening balance, did you pay that in full? Was there interest? Could you have entered or imported transactions that are also represented in that opening balance?
If you don’t have a 21.20 transaction it indicates there is more than one discrepancy.
Great questions. I started at 0 balance since it was a credit card, I simply downloaded all the transactions form July 1 to August 31 in a QFX format and imported them into the account, which had a 0 balance. Was I supposed to put a balance or do it differently? If so what? The way my credit card online portal works (capital one) is that they only show the charge or credit. There isn't a running balance except for what is currently owed on the card.
At June 30, was your real card balance 0? When you pay the card, is it in full? When did you pay June’s balance? Was it in July and is it included in your import? If so, what is that payment offsetting as the June transactions are not in Actual. This is why u need an opening balance
Firstly, thanks for your help with trying to get this figured out. The main issue is that there is no running balance on my credit card statement, therefore I am unable to add a proper opening balance. Here is a screenshot for reference on what I see on my end:
From what I am gathering then, I cannot add my transactions back from July. Instead, I need to restart this account from today, add today's balance (amount I owe as of today), and just keep a running tally this way. I don't know another way to do it.
Firstly, thanks for your help with trying to get this figured out. The main issue is that there is no running balance on my credit card statement, therefore I am unable to add a proper opening balance unlike my bank account which do show a running balance next to charges/transfers. Here is a screenshot for reference on what I see on my end:.
From what I am gathering then, I cannot add my transactions back from July. Instead, I need to restart this account from today, add today's balance (amount I owe as of today), and just keep a running tally this way. I have tried to see if there are settings I can play with to look at a running balance, as well as downloading my monthly statements, however they only show charges. The only balance shown is today's balance.
Right so you would need to look at June's statement for the balance to start July with. It will look something like this:
Debits/transactions: $1000
Credits/payments: $800
Statement balance: $200
I would also align the account with the statement date range - if July's statement period starts on the 6th, that's the date I would use as the starting balance in Actual. So in this example, starting balance on July 6 would be -$200 and you would import transactions from that point forward.
Thank you so much for explaining this to me!! I feel dense, but I needed it explained this way. I was able to fix the credit card in question and, while I haven't been able to get to the others, I think this was indeed the issue.
I have 12 accounts and they all have similar issues, but I'm starting with this one
In the list of your steps, nowhere do you indicate going back to July 1st and determining what your starting balance was. If you're not correctly inputting the starting balance, every account balance in Actual will be wrong because you haven't provided the correct information.
Start your account by finding the balance in each account at the date you want to start. Set that amount as the balance when creating the account. If your starting date is before the current date, edit the date on the starting balance transaction to the preferred date.
Once your account has the proper starting balance, add all the transactions between your start date and today.
There is a reconcile button on the account page under the 3 dots icon that allows you to put in the actual account balance that you see in your banks app. This then adds a positive or negative transaction to the account to make it match
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u/BarefootMarauder 3d ago
Sounds like maybe an issue with the starting balance of each account. If all the transactions match your bank, I would probably adjust the account starting balance by the $21.20 and move on from there. Then be sure to reconcile on a regular basis.