Troubleshooting balance issues

If you've noticed that the current or historic balance is incorrect for an account, then check out this user guide to discover the most common balance issues and how to correct them!

Incorrect balance for a Bank feed account

Current balance showing incorrectly

If the current balance for a bank feed account is showing incorrectly, this may be due to the wrong balance option being selected for your account. 

Luckily, this is easy to fix! Check out the balance settings for your account, and choose the correct option as outlined here: Balance options for an account

Bank feeds often provide different types of balance options for you to select. You may prefer to select the Available balance, Current or Running balance, or Cash balance of an account, depending on your needs. 

Historic balance showing incorrectly whilst the current balance is correct

Missing or duplicate transactions ❌👯

If the current balance for your bank feed account is showing correctly, but you notice that your historic balances are not accurate, this is likely to be due to missing or duplicate transactions. 

Historical balances for bank feed accounts are calculated using the current balance as a starting point, with transaction data added and subtracted to determine any closing balances. This means that, usually, if the current balance for a bank account is correct, any incorrect historic balances are due to missing or, duplicate transactions.

How to identify and resolve missing or duplicate transactions

To learn how to identify duplicate or missing transactions, and what to do if you find them, please see: Duplicate, missing, or incorrect transactions in bank feed accounts

Historic balance incorrect due to balance calculation error 🧮

If you notice that your historic balance is incorrect, and there are no transactions that account for this change, this may be due to a rare balance calculation error. If you notice this happening, please contact support with a screenshot showing the balance change (on the Calendar or Transactions page), and we'll get this sorted for you!

Incorrect balance for an Offline account

Current and historic balance showing incorrectly

For offline accounts using the  Calculated Closing Balance option, the current and historic closing balances are calculated by adding and subtracting any transaction data from the starting balance for the account. 

If both the current and historic balances for an Offline account are showing incorrectly, this may be due to:

• the starting balance not being entered when the account was created
• missing or duplicate transactions

Starting balance not being entered when the account was created ⚖️📝

When creating an offline account, you're able to enter a current balance. If this step was missed, then PocketSmith's will add a starting balance of 0.00 for the account, which may not be correct.

Luckily this is easy to fix! To add a starting balance for an offline account see: Steps to add a starting balance for an Offline account

Missing or duplicate transactions ❌👯

If the starting balance for an offline account is correct, then it's likely that the incorrect balance is caused by missing or duplicate transactions.

To find these, we recommend comparing the closing balances within the account in PocketSmith to your online banking, using the date of your starting balance as your starting point, and then moving forward from your oldest transactions to your more recent transactions, until you see where the balances diverge from those within your online banking.

If you notice a point where the balances diverge, you can check and compare the transactions in your PocketSmith account to your online banking. 

You're also able to use the  Find duplicates tool to identify any potential duplicate transactions. The Find duplicates tool is located in the toolbar on the Transactions page :

If you discover a true duplicate transaction then you can learn how to delete this here: Deleting transactions

If you notice missing transactions, you can learn how to add these manually here: Manually add transactions to my account

What causes missing or duplicate transactions in offline accounts?

Missing or duplicate transactions can be a result of choosing the wrong overlap option when importing bank files with an overlapping date range.

If you have only one or two, follow the above options to add the missing transactions or remove the duplicates. However, if this is a frequent issue for you, then please feel free to get in touch and we'll be able to advise further.

Historic balance showing incorrectly whilst current balance is correct

Historic balance incorrect due to balance calculation error 🧮

If you notice that your historic balance is incorrect, and there are no transactions that account for this change, this may be due to a rare balance calculation error. If you notice this happening, please contact support with a screenshot showing the balance change (on the Calendar or Transactions page) and we'll get this sorted for you! 

Steps to add a starting balance for an Offline account

If the starting balance was entered incorrectly, or not entered at all when setting up an offline account, you can learn how to add or edit this here.

1. Go to the Account Summary page ( Manage > Account Summary)
2. Navigate to the account you'd like to edit and click MANAGE ACCOUNT

3. Select Balances

   

4. Enter the correct closing balance for a past date of your choosing. 

   

Your closing balances will now be calculated using the correct balance on this date as a starting point.