Tracking Writing Income and Expense and Checkbook Reconciliation

One of the best things I’ve ever done for myself is to track all my numbers. I actually record, in QuickBooks, every cent I spend. I have a personal checking account and a business checking account for my writing income/expense which makes tax time easier and helps me really understand what’s going on in my business.

Reconciling checkbooks has always been, well, almost an anathema to me. A couple of months ago I wondered why we reconcile monthly. I mean, who made up that rule? I suspect it happened when the banks decided to issue monthly statements. But with automatic downloads, I decided to do it more often. My thinking was it would be much easier to find errors if I was looking at fewer entries. I kept getting closer to actually balancing and am now reconciling weekly.

It’s really amazing how, usually, easy it is. Sunday mornings I download my transactions and go through the process. Up until three weeks ago I was finding both my checking accounts balanced to the penny, and that’s a lovely feeling.

About three weeks ago I picked up an error… the bank is showing I have almost $750 more than I think I do in my personal account.

First of all, I don’t believe it. I’d love to just adjust, but it doesn’t ‘feel’ right. The error has been consistent for three weeks, but I haven’t yet found it, so I’ve been operating on the lower number just to be safe. Later today I’ll go through the account again and see if I can spot the problem. If I don’t, I let it ride one more week, and if it’s still there, call the bank and see if they can help.

At some point I suppose, if I don’t figure out what went wrong, I’ll hit the adjust button. Meanwhile, even with the error, I’m delighted to be mostly out of vagueness about my income and expenses.

Write well and often,

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