On the QuickBooks Online banking page, the bank balance is the figure your bank sent with its last download, and the QuickBooks balance is the total of everything in that account's register. The two differ whenever lines wait in For review, checks have not cleared or entries are wrong. A gap is normal; an unexplained one is not.
What does the bank balance on the account tile count?
The bank balance on an account tile is the balance your bank reported the last time QuickBooks Online downloaded from it. QuickBooks does not calculate it. It is a copy of the bank's own number, so it includes everything the bank has posted, whether or not you have reviewed those lines in QuickBooks.
That number is only as fresh as the last download. Intuit's page on downloading recent bank and credit card transactions says most accounts update every night, starting around 10 PM Pacific. Some banks send new data only every other day or weekly, and QuickBooks cannot update during a bank's scheduled maintenance. So the bank balance on a Monday morning may describe Friday.
Three things the bank balance does not tell you:
- It does not include a check you wrote that the payee has not cashed.
- It does not include a deposit you recorded but have not yet taken to the bank.
- It says nothing about whether your books are right. It is the bank's view, not a check on yours.
What does the In QuickBooks balance count?
The In QuickBooks balance is the running total of the account's register: every deposit, payment, transfer, check and journal entry posted to that account in your books. It counts entries you typed by hand and lines you added from the feed. It does not count downloaded lines still waiting in For review.
So the QuickBooks figure moves when you work, not when the bank does. Add twenty lines from For review and it changes. Enter a check you just wrote and it drops, even though the bank has not seen the check.
A business with several accounts sees one pair of numbers per tile. Each pair is about that account alone. Connecting multiple bank accounts to QuickBooks Online covers keeping each account on its own tile and register, which is what makes these comparisons meaningful.
Credit card tiles read the other way
On a credit card tile, both figures are amounts you owe, not money you hold. A higher bank balance means the issuer has posted more charges than your register has. The same timing logic applies in reverse: an unreviewed purchase makes the issuer's figure larger, and a card payment you recorded from checking before the issuer posted it makes the QuickBooks figure smaller. If the two numbers move apart by the size of one payment, look for a payment recorded twice, once as a transfer from checking and once again from the card feed.
Everyday reasons the bank and QuickBooks balances differ
Most gaps between the bank and QuickBooks balances come from timing, not errors. One side has recorded something the other has not yet seen. Each cause below moves the balances in a predictable direction, so you can usually explain a gap before you look at a single transaction.
| Cause | Bank balance | QuickBooks balance |
|---|---|---|
| Lines waiting in For review | Includes them | Leaves them out |
| Check written but not yet cashed | Leaves it out | Includes it |
| Deposit recorded but not yet at the bank | Leaves it out | Includes it |
| Bank fee or interest not yet reviewed | Includes it | Leaves it out |
| Payment entered by hand and also added from the feed | Counts it once | Counts it twice |
| Line excluded by mistake | Includes it | Leaves it out |
| Wrong opening balance | Not affected | Off by a fixed amount |
The first four are timing. They resolve themselves as you review the feed and as checks and deposits clear. The last three are mistakes. They never resolve on their own, which is how you tell them apart.
A worked bank balance gap traced to the cent
A bank balance gap can be explained line by line by starting from the bank figure and adding or removing each timing item until you reach the QuickBooks figure. If you land exactly on it, the gap is all timing. If you are left with a remainder, that remainder is the error to find.
The figures below are examples. Suppose the checking tile shows:
- Bank balance: $12,480.00
- In QuickBooks: $9,365.20
That is a gap of $3,114.80. Work from the bank's number:
| Step | Item | Change | Running figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Bank balance | $12,480.00 | |
| 1 | Customer deposit in For review, not yet added | − $1,500.00 | $10,980.00 |
| 2 | Monthly fee in For review, not yet added | + $45.20 | $11,025.20 |
| 3 | Check 1042 written, not yet cashed | − $2,300.00 | $8,725.20 |
| 4 | Deposit recorded in QuickBooks, not yet at the bank | + $640.00 | $9,365.20 |
| End | Matches In QuickBooks | $9,365.20 |
Steps 1 and 2 take out lines the bank counts but QuickBooks does not yet have. Steps 3 and 4 add in entries QuickBooks has but the bank has not seen. Every item is explained, so the books are fine. Reviewing For review today closes steps 1 and 2, and the check and the deposit clear on their own.
Had the end figure been $9,465.20, there would be $100.00 unexplained. That is the amount to search for: a duplicate, a typo or a line excluded by mistake.
When is the gap between the two balances a real problem?
The gap is a real problem when timing items cannot explain it, or when it lasts after the feed is fully reviewed and old checks have cleared. A gap that stays the same for weeks, or one that equals a single transaction, usually points to a mistake rather than to timing.
Warning signs:
- For review is empty and the gap is still there. Nothing is waiting, so some entry in QuickBooks must differ from the bank.
- The gap is a round, fixed amount month after month. That suggests an opening balance entered wrong or missing.
- The gap equals one transaction exactly. Look for a payment entered by hand and also added from the feed.
- The gap is twice one transaction. Look for a line added where it should have been matched, or one recorded in the wrong direction.
- The gap grows each month by a similar amount. A recurring fee or transfer is probably being excluded every time.
Missing lines cause gaps too. If the feed skipped a few days, the bank balance includes transactions QuickBooks never received. Importing missing bank transactions into QuickBooks Online shows how to find the dates and bring in only those.
Proving the QuickBooks balance with a reconciliation
The tile comparison is a quick health check, but the bank statement is the real test of the QuickBooks balance. A reconciliation compares your register with the statement's closing balance for a fixed date. When the difference is zero, your books agree with the bank for that period, whatever the tile shows today.
Intuit's guide to reconciling an account in QuickBooks Online asks you to enter the ending balance and ending date from the statement, then match transactions until the difference is $0.00. If you cannot find the cause, it lets you finish and accept the difference, and both the page and its video say to talk to your accountant first. Treat that as a last resort.
A reconciliation also fixes the timing problem with the tile. A tile compares two moving numbers at different moments. A statement freezes the bank's side at one date, so every check and deposit is either on it or not.
Statements come from your bank, as PDFs or downloads. Some banks offer a QBO file for the same period, which makes it easy to fill a gap found during reconciliation; downloading a QBO file from Chase shows the screens most banks follow.
A bank balance that stops moving when the feed stalls
A bank balance that has not changed for days usually means the feed has stopped downloading, not that the account is quiet. The tile keeps showing the bank's last reported figure, so the gap with QuickBooks can look strange simply because one side is out of date.
Check the date of the newest downloaded line in For review or in the register. If it is several days old on an account that normally moves daily, select Update on the Bank transactions page. Intuit notes that if you still see old data after an automatic update, a manual update may be needed. If that fails, the connection needs fixing before the balances can be compared at all.
Some accounts never get a live bank balance because the bank cannot connect. When your bank is missing from the search, read what to do when your bank is not listed in QuickBooks Online. Those accounts are kept up to date with file uploads, and the statement becomes the only bank balance to compare against. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn a PDF statement into a CSV or QBO file for that upload, so the register and the statement can be reconciled the same way.