Balance checking account

About

Balancing a budget space's checking account is the monthly process of comparing the entries in the budget space's transaction register with the transactions on a monthly checking account statement from the bank or credit union. Balancing your monthly checking account statement is how you:

  • find unexpected fees,
  • identify fraud,
  • avoid overdrafts,
  • find errors made by either you or the bank, and
  • generally keep a budget space's transaction register in sync with the bank.

Doing this monthly task is strongly encouraged. Failing to balance a budget space's transaction register once a month opens the possibility of occasional errors, fees and omissions that can bring your budget space's ledgers out of balance with the the managed checking account. Using inaccurate amounts in your financial planning could eventually result in overdrafts and other rejected withdrawals as well as weakening, if not destroying, your spending plan.

Balancing a budget space's checking account once a month takes a few minutes. Not balancing could become very expensive, frustrating and self-defeating.

Interruptions

While balancing your checking account, you can exit the "Balance Checking Account" window at any time. When the window is closed during balancing by any means other than clicking on the "Balance" or "OK" button, all entered values and checked items are saved. This lets you exit the "Balance Checking Account" window before you are done so you can fix any problems. After making corrections, reopen the "Balance Checking Account" window to continue where you left off.

Once you start balancing a checkng account statement, do not close A Real Budget until you have finished balancing the statement.