How to Fix Errors in a Checkbook

"Hi, this is Doug Benson on behalf of Expert Village. I'm going to show you how to balance your checkbook and as a result become a better manager of household finances. We've been balancing our transaction register to a paper statement and then finally to an online banking statement. But here's a different scenario. What if I hadn't kept my transaction register up to date? I have no idea how off my guesses were, about how much money I had to work with. There is no time like the present to get caught up but you have to start somewhere. If your transaction register is blank or has large gaps in the data there is still a way for you to get back on track. Start today by entering today's transactions when you receive your bank statement go ahead and do the procedure for balancing the check register. When you get to the end of process you won't be able to spot the mistakes because your data is incomplete. Simply make a balance adjustment transaction that equals the amount of the difference. Continue to enter your transactions each day and log in to online banking frequently to check off transactions that clear. If you don't have the transactions that are cleared each day in your register enter them. By the time you get the statement at the end of the next month you should be pretty well caught up. You may have to make a second balance at that time if you continue to maintain your transaction register you'll grow in your skill as a good manager of your household finances. Watch my next segment as we continue to learn more about balancing your checkbook and becoming a better manager of household finances."