As a new user, I ran into this problem the FIRST time I reconciled my checkbook. The reconciliation window shows a starting balance of $0.00. I expected it to be my opening balance.  I understand now why it is not, and I think you should modify the paragraph above to read as follows to help first time users.

Note: Sometimes, the opening balance in Gnucash does not match that found on
your statement. This can happen the first time you reconcile your account or when a previously-reconciled transaction is de-reconciled or deleted. 

The first time you reconcile your account, the opening balance will be 0.00, and not the starting balance of your account. When you reconcile the account, the opening balance for the account will be included in the reconciliation, and the result should balance. 

In the case when a previously-reconciled transaction is accidentally de-reconciled, you can simply re-reconcile the
transaction along with the transactions on the current statement, and the
result should balance. 

The case of accidentally deleting a previously-reconciled transaction presents more of a challenge.; if you cannot determine what was
deleted and restore it to the register, you will have to create a dummy
transaction to get the reconciliation to finish.

(In reply to comment #1)
> 
> The case of accidentally deleting a previously-reconciled transaction presents
> more of a challenge.; if you cannot determine what was
> deleted and restore it to the register, you will have to create a dummy
> transaction to get the reconciliation to finish.

This has to be done EVERY time... terrible workaround, especially if you are a new user and are importing and reconciling historical records. 

If one imports earlier records, one MUST de-reconcile all existing reconciled transactions before starting OVER from the beginning. Begs for a bulk update function.

Brad--

A) The normal mode of managing accounts is to move forward in time; the event of retrospective importation of transactions is (or tends to be) an exceptional event. In other words, one imports historical data at a specific point in time--as we begin using the software. Since most people will import all their historical data at once, and then begin reconciling their accounts, it would seem that adding special notation for this circumstance seems unnecessary.

B) It is always possible, given the instructions above, for a user to recover from the circumstance you describe, since you are essentially adding a bunch of de-reconciled transactions to your books. What I mean is this: if you have reconciled your accounts, and then import a bunch of older transactions, these transactions have already been "accounted for" when you did your initial reconciliation. They were simply rolled up into a single Opening Balance transaction. Importing them after this fact should lead to the first situation--i.e., you have a bunch of transactions that have been de-reconciled, which need now to be reconciled.

I think a more appropriate place to note the problems you seek to avoid is in section 3.3 of the Help files.
David

I'm in the process of reviewing the reconciliation section of the concepts guide, so I assign this bug to me. Thanks for the text; I will insert it in the documentation.
I will also add a note for the problem described by Brad Taylor in section 3.3 of the help as suggested by David.

Thank you all for providing some text.

I've committed a patch for this bug in rev.20602. I've also updated the figures and revised the entire section about reconciliation.

I will take a look to section 3.3 of the help to see if there is room for adding a note about the possibility to reconcile the imported txns.

I have read section 4.5.1 of the manual and the above mentioned explanation.  I do not understand.  

I am trying to move from Quicken to Gnucash 2.4.13.  I have imported a brokerage account.  The beginning balance is zero.  I have changed all transactions to be not reconciled in Gnucash.

When I reconcile, the opening balance is not zero, which is incorrect.

(In reply to comment #5)
> I've committed a patch for this bug in rev.20602. I've also updated the figures
> and revised the entire section about reconciliation.
> 
> I will take a look to section 3.3 of the help to see if there is room for
> adding a note about the possibility to reconcile the imported txns.

Cristian, did you ever manage to add this note?

(In reply to comment #7)
> (In reply to comment #5)
> > I've committed a patch for this bug in rev.20602. I've also updated the figures
> > and revised the entire section about reconciliation.
> > 
> > I will take a look to section 3.3 of the help to see if there is room for
> > adding a note about the possibility to reconcile the imported txns.
> 
> Cristian, did you ever manage to add this note?

Not yet, but it's in the "to do before new year" list...

Could you bump it up to "do it before this weekend" so that it's in the doc release?

After further consideration, perhaps it would be better to change the first paragraph of 4.5 to provide a little more clarity. Currently it is:

Transactions are typically checked against bank statements - a process known as reconciliation. GnuCash keeps track of the reconciliation status of each transaction.

We could modify this as follows:

Once transactions have been entered into GnuCash, it is important to verify that they agree with the records of your financial institution. This verification process is known as *reconciliation,* and it is key to determine whether your records are accurate. Most commonly, you will check transactions against bank statements, although you can use this process to verify any transaction. GnuCash keeps track of the reconciliation status of each transaction.

Note: It is important to understand that reconciliation is done for a given date, and when you reconcile an account based on a statement from a given date, you are reconciling *all transactions prior to that date.* Therefore, if you add or modify transactions that predate your last reconciliation, your reconciled balances will be thrown off.

Another patch submitted for this bug with a note in the Help that links to Concepts Guide.

(In reply to comment #6)
> I have read section 4.5.1 of the manual and the above mentioned explanation.  I
> do not understand.  
> 
> I am trying to move from Quicken to Gnucash 2.4.13.  I have imported a
> brokerage account.  The beginning balance is zero.  I have changed all
> transactions to be not reconciled in Gnucash.
> 
> When I reconcile, the opening balance is not zero, which is incorrect.

Are you sure you have not a single transaction marked as reconciled? do you include in the reconciliation the subaccounts (if any)?
I would like to have more info (a test file?) in order to understand if it's a software bug or if I should add a better explanation in the guide.

I close this bug as I've not received an answer to question in comment#11.

As one of the early posters to this bug, I respectfully disagree with closing the bug. I believe the discussion in the comments wandered away from the original topic of the bug. The purpose, and subject, of the bug was " Add information in Concepts 4.5 to Explain Starting Balance in Reconcile window". Comment #11 may indeed be a bug and warrant a test file. But that has nothing to do with expanding the documentation with an explanation why the opening balance is 0.00 the first time a user reconciles an account. Please reconsider your decision, unless the documentation has been updated.

Thanks,

Mark

It has. See http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/txns-reconcile1.html#txns-reconcile-window2

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