Electronic reconciliation

Walking through every step of the manual reconciliation process, I could hear your protest, "I stopped getting paper statements in the mail a long time ago". This is why:

• The paper statement takes too long to reach me by snail mail.

• I get enough junk mail anyway.

• I don't want to kill more trees, if I can help it.

• If I get a paper statement, I will have to shred it when I am done, so that it doesn't fall in the hands of the dumpster divers and I end up being a victim of identity theft.

OK, OK, OK, I get the message. That section on manual reconciliation was written for those unfortunate people who are still living in the ancient paper age. Have pity on the poor souls. We are now ready to address the needs of the digital generation, like you.

If your bank provides a service to allow you to log in and download your monthly statement in OFX/QFX format, you are in luck. GnuCash has a feature that lets you import that statement and do the reconciliation electronically.