Overview
The first time you reconcile an account in Puzzle — whether a bank or credit card — you will be prompted to review the opening balance of that account.
What if my opening balance correctly displays as $0?
That’s great! It means you have a full transaction history in Puzzle. You do not need to change your opening balance.
💡 For bank accounts that have been open for less than 12 months, Puzzle is typically able to access all of your historic bank transactions, including any initial deposits you made after opening the account. As such you should expect your opening balance to be $0.00.
Do I need to input the initial deposit I put in to set up my account?
Nope! Assuming that deposit has already been included in your transaction data, you do not need to change it to reflect any amounts you deposited immediately after opening your account.
Why would I have a non-zero opening balance?
Some financial institutions maintain a limited transaction history in the available API transaction data. Therefore, Puzzle uses all available transactions to calculate an estimated opening balance.
How does Puzzle calculate my estimated opening balance? [Example]
💡 Account balance (from API) at the time of connecting to Puzzle — Sum of all available transactions in the account prior to the connection date
= Puzzle’s estimated opening balance
We calculate an estimated opening balance based on your balance when you connected Puzzle and all of the historical transactions we were able to import. It’s easiest to explain with an example:
Date of connection to Puzzle | 10/20/2022 |
Balance on connection to Puzzle (pulled via API) - 10/20/2022 | $1,500,000 |
Date of earliest Puzzle transaction (limited by API) - aka “Opening balance” date | 10/15/2021 |
Date of bank account opening with Acme Bank | 1/1/2021 |
Total “Cash In” Activity in Puzzle during 10/15/2021-10/20/2022 | $400,000 |
Total “Cash Out” Activity in Puzzle during 10/15/2021-10/20/2022 | ($900,000) |
Puzzle calculation of opening balance | $2,000,000 = current balance of $1,500,000 adjusted for ($500,000) of activity “known” by Puzzle |
What if Puzzle’s estimated opening balance is incorrect?
Please confirm that the Puzzle beginning balance is consistent with your bank balance on that date. If it is not, enter the balance from your bank as of the beginning of that day before any transactions that are included in Puzzle happened. Once you've updated the opening balance, you may need to refresh in order to have the new balance display.
How to go back and edit your opening balance.
Click on "Accounting" and the first page you'll land on is the bank reconciliation screen.
Click the 3 dots to the far right and you will be able to update your opening balance.
Note: You might need to undo or delete any prior bank reconciliation before you can update the opening balance. You can reconcile through any period eg multiple years at once if you need to.
