You reconciled March. It balanced. It is now October and March does not balance any more. Nothing was done to March, nobody remembers touching it, and QuickBooks is showing a beginning balance that disagrees with the one it accepted seven months ago.
A reconciliation discrepancy means a transaction that was part of a completed reconciliation has since been edited, deleted or unreconciled. QuickBooks keeps a record of exactly which ones, in the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report. Start there rather than reopening the reconciliation.
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Quick Summary
| Symptom | Likely cause | Where to look |
| Beginning balance wrong | A reconciled transaction was edited or deleted | Reconciliation Discrepancy Report |
| Discrepancy appeared recently | Someone corrected a coding error in an old period | Audit Log, filtered by date changed |
| Amount matches a known entry | Transaction amount was altered after reconciling | That transaction’s history |
| Discrepancy equals a whole transaction | It was deleted or voided | Audit Log, deleted transactions |
| Nothing in the report | Opening balance or an unreconciled starting point | Account setup and first reconciliation |
💡 TaxKitab Tip The fix for this is not finding the discrepancy. It is preventing the next one, and that takes one setting. Both QuickBooks and Xero let you set a closing date that locks earlier periods against editing. Without it, any correction posted today can silently reopen a reconciliation from two years ago, and you will find out at year end rather than at the time. Set the closing date after each month closes. It takes a click and it ends this entire category of problem.
Start With the Discrepancy Report
QuickBooks keeps a Reconciliation Discrepancy Report that lists every transaction which was part of a reconciliation and has since changed.
It names the transaction, the date, the original amount and what it is now. That is usually the whole investigation.
Read it before doing anything else. The instinct is to reopen the reconciliation and work through it line by line, which takes hours and generally recreates the same problem.
What Actually Causes It
A transaction was edited. Someone changed the amount, the date or the account on an entry that had already been reconciled. Common when a coding error is corrected weeks later.
A transaction was deleted or voided. The reconciliation still counts it; the ledger no longer has it. The discrepancy equals the transaction amount exactly, which makes this one easy to spot.
A transaction was manually unreconciled. Someone unticked the reconciled flag, usually while looking for something else.
The opening balance was wrong from the start. If the discrepancy has existed since the account was set up, no work on recent months will resolve it. Check the opening balance against the statement for that date.
Using the Audit Log
Where the discrepancy report does not explain it, the Audit Log will.
Filter by date changed rather than transaction date, and look at the period around when the discrepancy first appeared. It shows who changed what and when, including deletions.
This is also where you find out that the change was deliberate and correct — someone fixed a genuine error, and the reconciliation simply needs updating to match.
Fixing It
Where the change was wrong, reverse it. The transaction goes back to what it was and the reconciliation balances again.
Where the change was right, the earlier reconciliation was based on incorrect data and needs redoing for that period. That is more work, and it is the correct answer.
What you do not do is post an adjusting entry to make the numbers agree. QuickBooks will offer to do exactly that when you finish a reconciliation that does not balance, and accepting it creates a reconciliation discrepancy account entry that explains nothing and sits on your books permanently.
When It Is Several Months Deep
Work forward from the earliest affected month rather than backwards from today.
Fix the earliest discrepancy, confirm that month balances, then move to the next. Each month depends on the closing balance of the one before it, so starting at the most recent month means fixing the same thing repeatedly.
If the books have drifted far enough that this becomes a project, it is usually faster to treat it as catch-up work for the affected period than to patch month by month.
Preventing the Next One
Set a closing date after each month closes, so prior periods cannot be edited.
Limit who can edit reconciled transactions. In QuickBooks this follows from user permissions rather than being a separate setting, which is a reason not to give everyone full access.
And where a prior-period correction genuinely is needed, make it deliberately — reverse the original and repost in the current period, rather than editing history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a reconciliation discrepancy? A transaction that formed part of a completed reconciliation and has since been edited, deleted or unreconciled, so the reconciliation no longer balances.
Where do I find what changed? The Reconciliation Discrepancy Report lists the affected transactions. The Audit Log shows who changed them and when.
Should I just post an adjustment? No. QuickBooks offers to, and it creates an entry that explains nothing and never resolves. Find the cause instead.
The discrepancy has existed since we started using QuickBooks. That points to the opening balance rather than to any later transaction. Check it against the statement for the setup date.
Can I stop this happening again? Yes. Set a closing date so earlier periods cannot be edited, and review who has permission to change reconciled transactions.
Several months are affected. Where do I start? With the earliest one. Each month’s beginning balance depends on the previous month closing correctly.
References
- QuickBooks Online documentation on reconciliation, the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report and the Audit Log
- QuickBooks Online guidance on closing the books and setting a closing date
⚠️ Report names, available settings and permission levels differ by QuickBooks plan and region and change with releases. Check current guidance for your own file.
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