Handling transfers before the beginning of the accounting system?

[François Beausoleil]

Hi all!

In an existing business, when you first setup your accounting system, what happens with bank transactions? Should I reconcile all the way back to the start of the account (years!), or can I arbitrarily choose a date and simply reconcile up to this date, and ignore anything before then?

The specific case that's causing me issues is a transfer on September 3rd. I transferred money from Bank Account 1 to Bank Account 2. The bank statement for Bank Account 2 includes the transaction, because it's statements run from the 1st to the last day of the month. On Bank Account 1, the transaction will not appear because it's statements run from the 4th to the 3rd of the following month.

Should I add transactions going backwards in time until I hit a period where I have no transfers pending reconciliation between accounts? Or should I arbitrarily choose a cutoff date and make sure that my books match my bank records?

Note that this is for my family, not a real business. My family is a "business" that has revenues (salaries) and expenses (mortgages, groceries, etc).

Thanks for any pointers!
François Beausoleil

 

[kirby]

Just use the method you mentioned of arbitrarily using a cutoff date. It is faster and still works for what you are doing.

 

[François Beausoleil]

Thank you, @kirby. I will do as you say.