[Kmymoney] Reconcile Problems

[Thomas Baumgart]

On Sunday 12 August 2012 19:46:00 Jack wrote:

[...]

> >> However, my suggestion is to save a copy of your file in case of any
> >> problems or if I'm wrong, but try the reconciliation ignoring the
> >> starting balance.  One of the developers would have to say for
> >> certain, but I don't believe the starting balance is actually used
> >> in the reconciliation process.  I know I don't even look at the
> >> starting balance when I do a reconciliation, which I do monthly on
> >> two checking accounts, two savings accounts, and two credit card
> >> accounts, all of which use OFX imports at least some of the time.
> > 
> > Thanks for that suggestion - ignoring the opening balance, the
> > reconciliation went fine. Given the opening balance was wrong, I
> > can't imagine how that could work, but it did. When I start
> > reconciling for next month, the opening balance is correct again.
> 
> Thomas - can you confirm where the opening balance on the reconcile
> dialog comes from (how is it calculated) and whether it is actually
> used in the reconciliation process?  My memory from previous
> discussions (when I was rewriting the manual section on this) is that
> it is not used, and the actual reconciliation assumes that the previous
> reconciliation balance correctly reflects all transactions marked as
> reconciled - and is just therefore checking that adding all the cleared
> transactions brings you to the new "ending" balance.

Hm, good question. This is so long ago that I had to check with the source. It 
contains the following comment:

  // determine the beginning balance and ending balance based on the following
  // forumulas:
  //
  // end balance   = current balance - sum(all non cleared transactions)
  //                                 - sum(all cleared transactions posted
  //                                        after statement date)
  // start balance = end balance - sum(all cleared transactions
  //                                        up to statement date)

The current balance in this is the total of all splits in an account 
containing all entered transaction (incl. those with a future postdate but 
excl. any scheduled transaction). The comment does not match the code to 100% 
and I would write it today as follows:

  // determine the beginning balance and ending balance based on the following
  // forumulas:
  //
  // end balance   = current balance - sum(all non reconciled transactions)
  //                                 - sum(all transactions posted
  //                                        after statement date)
  // start balance = end balance - sum(all cleared transactions
  //                                        up to statement date)

'non reconciled' means no mark, not even cleared. Seeing this, a reconciled 
transaction in the register between start date and end date might cause 
trouble.

Oh, and to answer your question: yes, the opening balance is calculated each 
time your run the reconciliation and even when you change the statement date 
in that dialog.

-- 

Regards

Thomas Baumgart

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