Browsing Category: "Balance Your Checkbook"
On my post, Do You Balance Your Checkbook, there is a comment from Rattan that asks “what is the best way to balance a checkbook that has never been reconciled”. This is a really great question and one many may have, so I have decided to answer Rattan’s question in a new post so that I might cover it in a more complete manner than a responding comment would allow.
The simplest way to begin reconciling a bank account is to do so from the beginning when the account is first opened. However, you may have an account that has been open for a while and have now decided that it is time to reconcile it.
Lets start with the basic meaning of the word reconcile. According to the Free Online Dictionary, it means to become compatible or consistent. In terms of balancing your chequebook or bank account, this is a bit vague for most people. Basically the intent behind reconciling a bank account is to balance your understanding of what amount of money is available in your account with the bank’s at a given point in time. This is why I like to use the last day of the month. Personally I like to use the phrase balance as opposed to reconcile as it is one most people can relate to better.
If you have been keeping track of your monetary transactions, you are able to easily see which of those transactions have cleared your bank account and which remain outstanding. If you have also been keeping a paper or spreadsheet ledger of your transactions, you will be able to zero in on a specific balance on a specific date.
OK, confession time, do you balance your checkbook? Do you wait until the money runs out or do you wait until the end of the year? Or are you a weekly or monthly balancing type?
I confess that I really hate having to balance my checkbook. Not that it is as scary these days as it was several years ago when I became a single parent of three and there was always more month than money. When my kids were home, I only had to say that I was balancing the checkbook and they knew to give me a wide berth.
In those days, I didn’t have a computer, not that having a computer equals a new abiding love for the task, in fact, that is a love affair that is destined to never happen. But, in those days it was a daily, rather than a weekly or monthly chore, just to keep a tight rein on my finances. Instead of the computer, I used a columnar accounting book and noted each and every receipt. Not the sexiest way to keep track of finances, but it did the job.
