The Fastest and Easiest Way to Balance a Checking Account Register

I'm not a money person, so my checkbook sits for months without being touched. Tax season seems to be the only time I look back and try to reconcile the damage that I did to my checkbook. How do you go back over months of unbalanced checking account entries and come up with a reliable record?

I keep all my records in Quicken. It's a simple $30 solution to the hand-writing system. The best part is that the more I use my debit card to make purchases, the more accurate my record stays. All the transactions download into Quicken for free. (I wonder if I can get a free upgrade for that commercial.)

But when entries must be made manually, mahem creeps in...

Here's the Fastest and Easiest Way to Balance a Checking Account

This method is so simple, it barely needs a screenshot.

Date	Bank	Me	Difference	Change in Diff
05/14/13	$276.52	-$15.58	$292.10	$0.00
01/02/13	$102.90	-$189.20	$292.10	$0.00
11/30/12	$518.59	$226.49	$292.10	$188.91
11/15/12	$427.42	$324.23	$103.19

Simply compare the end-of-day balance for any day in both your own register and the bank's statement. The difference between the two shows by how much your record is off.

Then pick another date and do the same. If the difference between the two balances is the same, then there are no additional errors or outstanding items between the two dates. Subtract the differences between two dates, and you'll see by how the difference changed. That shows you that there is at least one error or uncleared item of that amount betweent the two dates, or more than one error that add up to that amount. Pick a date in between the two dates to isolate the problem even more. Soon you'll be right on top of the problem!

In this example, there is a mistake of, or several totalling, $292.10 that go back farther than 11/15/12. But at least one mistake was actually found between 11/15/12 and 11/30/12, totalling $188.91. Now I can either check the entries one by one from 11/15 to 11/30, or I can compare the balances of a date in between the two to see on which side the error lies.

That's it! You can balance months, or years of statements and find all the discrepancies without back and forth guesswork. Thanks for reading! I hope this helps.

I can't find this anywhere online. Can we call it the Graves method?

Can I please get a donation? I need it. Thanks!