If you notice a sudden difference of more than a penny or two between the balances in the accounting system vs. the balances in your actual bank or broker accounts, the first questions to answer when looking for a way to correct the difference will be: Do you know what transaction caused the difference, and do you know what date it’s entered on? If the answer to both of these is yes then the best place to start will be FAQ 1476, on editing and deleting transactions. The direct link to FAQ 476 is:

https://www.myiclub.com/faq/article.aspx?id=476

The FAQ on that page explains how to locate a transaction in the accounting records, and then either edit, or delete that transaction. This is most useful if you already know that a specific transaction was accidentally entered twice, mis-entered, or just not entered at all.

If you aren’t entirely sure about the transaction, or the date, then there are two general options:

• Use the built in Reconcile feature in myICLUB to track down the issue
• Restore a recent backup from before you noticed the issue, and re-enter any missing transactions
• Research the issue using existing reports to find and either correct, or remove the transaction(s) causing the issue.

The Reconcile Feature

The Reconcile Feature is available by going to Accounting > Wizards > Reconcile Accounts, on the site. For a full explanation on using the Reconcile Accounts feature, please see FAQ 754 at: https://www.myiclub.com/faq/article.aspx?id=754

The Backup Manager

The most common reason we see for sudden, otherwise unexplainable differences in account balances is a typo when making an entry. For example, if you meant to enter a dividend on November 1st, 2015, and accidentally type in 11/1/05 instead. In those cases, it can be difficult to find where the transaction ended up, because the accounting system does not store pre-formatted reports. Any time you ask it to display a valuation, cash journal, or any other report, that report is generated when you click Preview, or Submit. That means if you have a transaction that was accidentally back-dated 1, 3, or 5 years, then it will effect any reports that you ask the program to display.

This is why, depending on when your last backup was, it can be quicker to restore from that backup, and then re-do any missing entries, than to track down where the transaction ended up. To Restore a backup, go to Accounting > Utilities > Backup Manager. For more on using the backup manager, please see our FAQ at https://www.myiclub.com/faq/article.aspx?solution_id=1118

If you do not have a recent backup however, you can use the steps listed below, to help track down the transaction(s) in question.

Existing Reports

1. First, make a backup of the records as they are. The balances may be incorrect, but if you do not have any other recent backups, it’s always a good idea to make one before going back through the club records and potentially editing or removing a transaction. In myICLUB.com, go to Accounting > Utilities > Backup Manager, and make a backup.

2. In the accounting system, preview the cash journal report for the affected account, for the current year. If the balance in the accounting system does not match the actual bank or broker, then preview the cash journal report for the previous year. Keep doing this until you find the year where your accounting records balance with the actual bank or broker.

3. Once you find this, then start working your way forward through the year. We suggest to go through the report either a month at a time, or by your statement periods. Check the balances in the accounting system against either your broker’s statements, or older printed reports, until you get to the point where the accounts no longer balance.

4. When you get to this point, print out the cash journal for the month (or statement period) where the ending balance did not match between the accounting system, and your actual bank or broker statements.

5. Go through the printout, one transaction at a time, comparing it against your bank or broker statement, until you find the error.

Once you have found the error, use the information in FAQ 476,
https://www.myiclub.com/faq/article.aspx?id=476 for steps on how to edit or delete the transaction.

If you find that the error was dated for a previous year, we also strongly suggest to re-do the end of year allocations for the year that the error was found in, and any years after that, up to the current year.

In myICLUB.com, this can be done by going to Accounting > Utilities > Allocate Income and Expenses