Reconciliation Reports in QuickBooks Online

A reconciliation report is the record that your books were matched to an outside statement. Each time you reconcile a bank or credit-card account against its monthly statement in QuickBooks, the company saves a reconciliation report for that account and statement period: the statement's beginning and ending balances, the transactions that cleared, and confirmation that the two agree. It is the proof that what your books say about an account ties to what the bank or card company says, which is why it is one of the records an auditor or a buyer looks for first.

What a reconciliation report shows

For a given account and statement period, the report lists the transactions that cleared against the statement, the beginning and ending balances from the statement, any transactions still uncleared as of that reconciliation, and the difference between the two, which should be zero on a completed reconciliation. QuickBooks saves a report for every reconciliation you finish, so over the life of the company there is one report per account for each statement period you reconciled. Read together, they are a month-by-month trail showing the cash and card balances in your books were checked against the bank and agreed.

A reconciliation compares your recorded transactions to a bank or credit-card statement, so it is tied to a specific account and statement period rather than to cash or accrual basis. It does not toggle by accounting method.

Why a CPA or auditor asks for it

Reconciliations are the everyday proof that the books tie to the bank. A CPA or auditor reviewing the books treats reconciled accounts as a sign the numbers are supported by an independent record rather than only entered by hand, and a clean run of monthly reconciliation reports shows the cash and card lines on the Balance Sheet were confirmed against statements. In a sale or a financing review, a buyer or lender reads reconciled books as far more credible, and the reconciliation reports are the evidence behind that. They also help trace a discrepancy: when a balance does not look right, the reconciliation reports point to the period where the books and the statement last agreed, and the General Ledger shows the transactions on either side of it.

How to find and save reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Online

1. Open Settings (the gear icon) and choose Reconcile, then select the account and open the History by account view. You can also type "Reconciliation Reports" into the report search box under the Reports menu.
2. Choose a past reconciliation to open its report for that account and statement period.
3. Use the print or export control on the report to save it, usually as a PDF, so the file downloads to your computer.
4. Repeat for each account and each statement period you want to keep, since every reconciliation is stored as its own report.

Because there is one report per account per statement period, a complete set can be many files. Keeping them is what proves the books tied to the bank across the whole period rather than at a single point.

Keeping reconciliation reports after you cancel

Reconciliation reports are part of your Books Backup archive. They matter because a cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company goes read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days, and the reconciliation history is deleted along with everything else. Since the IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and longer in some cases, and rebuilding proof that the books matched the bank after both the company and the reports are gone is close to impossible, the reconciliation reports belong in a copy you keep outside QuickBooks.

Frequently asked questions

Where does QuickBooks keep past reconciliation reports?

Under Settings, in the Reconcile area, each account has a History by account view listing every reconciliation you have completed, and you can open the saved report for any of them. The Reports menu also lists Reconciliation Reports. Each completed reconciliation is stored as its own report for that account and statement period.

What does a reconciliation report actually prove?

That the cleared transactions and ending balance in your books matched the bank or credit-card statement for that period, with a zero difference on a completed reconciliation. It is the documented tie between your records and the outside statement, which is what makes reconciled books credible to an auditor or a buyer.

Do reconciliation reports change with cash versus accrual basis?

No. A reconciliation compares recorded transactions to a statement for a specific account and period, so the report does not toggle by accounting method the way the ledger and the financial statements do. Keeping the reports for each account and period preserves that proof before the company is deleted.