Reconciling confirms that what Earmarkr thinks you have matches what the bank thinks you have. Do it monthly, per account, and every number downstream — Ready to Assign, your card gap, your net worth — can be trusted.
How to reconcile
- Open Transactions and click the account.
- Click Reconcile.
- Enter the statement balance and statement date from your bank.
- Tick the cleared box on every transaction that appears on the statement.
- When Difference reads $0.00, click Finish reconciling.
For a connected account, Earmarkr offers the bank's own balance so you can skip step 3.
The arithmetic
cleared balance = sum of every cleared transaction
difference = statement balance − cleared balance
You're aiming for a difference of $0.00. That means every transaction the bank knows about is in Earmarkr, with the same amount, and nothing extra.
When the difference isn't zero
Work through these in order — the cause is almost always one of them.
A missing transaction (difference is negative from your side) Something cleared the bank that isn't in Earmarkr. Add it. Common causes: cash withdrawals, a fee, an automatic payment you forgot.
A duplicate (difference is positive) The same transaction entered twice — usually from importing a file that overlapped an earlier import, or entering something manually that later synced. Delete one.
A wrong amount Tips and adjusted holds are the classic case: a restaurant authorises $40.00 and settles at $48.00. Correct the amount in Earmarkr.
A wrong date A transaction dated after your statement date won't be included. Check it isn't sitting just outside the window.
An off-by-a-transposition amount — if the difference divides evenly by 9, you've likely typed two digits the wrong way round ($54.00 as $45.00). A useful arithmetic trick.
If you can't find it
Rather than hunt indefinitely, record the difference and move on:
- Click Add adjustment.
- Earmarkr creates a transaction for the exact difference, categorized to Reconciliation Adjustment.
This is a legitimate tool, not a defeat — a $2.00 mystery isn't worth an hour. But if you're doing it every month, or the amounts are large, something systematic is wrong. Check for a duplicate import or an account synced twice.
What "reconciled" means afterwards
Reconciled transactions are locked. They show as read-only, and bank sync won't modify them — this protects a verified statement period from being rewritten later.
You can still undo a whole reconciliation if you got it wrong: open the account and choose Undo on the reconciliation record. That unlocks the transactions and removes the reconciliation.
Cleared vs reconciled
Two different things, easy to confuse:
- Cleared — you believe this has actually hit the bank. You set it, and it's reversible.
- Reconciled — this was part of a completed statement match. Locked.
Bank sync marks transactions cleared automatically as they post, so for connected accounts most of the ticking is done for you.
How often
Monthly, when your statement arrives, is the sweet spot. Long enough to be worth doing, short enough that finding a discrepancy is still easy.
For credit cards, reconciling matters more than usual: your card gap is computed against the balance owed, so an unreconciled card produces a gap you can't trust. See closing the gap.