How to reconcile your accounts
Reconciliation is the process of verifying that the balance in Aspire matches your actual bank balance. It’s how you catch missing transactions, duplicate entries, and data entry errors before they snowball.
Why reconcile?
If your Aspire balance doesn’t match your bank, something is off — a forgotten transaction, a typo in an amount, or a pending charge that finally cleared for a different number. Reconciling regularly (weekly is ideal) keeps discrepancies small and easy to find.
How to reconcile
Step 1: Check your bank balance
Log into your bank or credit card account and note the current cleared balance. This means only transactions that have fully settled — ignore anything still pending on the bank’s side.
Step 2: Compare to Aspire
Open the Transactions tab and look at the account balance shown for that account (visible on the Dashboard’s Accounts sidebar or the Balances tab). Make sure you’re comparing settled transactions only — any 🅿️ Pending transactions in Aspire should be excluded from your comparison.
Step 3: Find discrepancies
If the balances match → great, skip to Step 4.
If they don’t match, work through these common causes:
| Mismatch type | How to fix |
|---|---|
| Missing transaction | Check your recent bank statement for transactions you forgot to log. Add them. |
| Wrong amount | Compare recent transactions side by side. Fix any typos. |
| Duplicate entry | Look for transactions entered twice (common with CSV Import overlapping manual entries). Delete the duplicate. |
| Pending → Settled amount changed | Some transactions (gas stations, restaurants with tips) clear for a different amount than originally authorized. Update the amount in Aspire. |
| Starting balance was wrong | If you’re off by the same amount every time, your initial starting balance may have been incorrect. Adjust it. |
Step 4: Mark the reconciliation point
Once the balance matches:
- In the Transactions tab, find the area for reconciliation points.
- Add today’s date and a ✳️ Reconciliation Point for that account.
This creates a historical marker. Next time you reconcile, you only need to review transactions added since your last reconciliation point — everything before it has already been verified.
How often to reconcile
| Frequency | Best for |
|---|---|
| Daily | People who log transactions in real time and want perfect accuracy |
| Weekly | Most users — good balance of effort and accuracy |
| Bi-weekly | Users who do CSV imports every paycheck |
| Monthly | Minimum recommended — any less and discrepancies are hard to track down |
The more frequently you reconcile, the fewer transactions you need to review each time and the easier mismatches are to spot.
Tips
- Reconcile one account at a time. Don’t try to check all accounts at once — it’s easier to find issues when you’re focused on a single account.
- Use the Running Balance. The Balances tab shows a running balance for each account — scan it for unexpected jumps that might indicate an error.
- Don’t stress about pending transactions. Only compare settled/cleared transactions. Pending amounts are estimates and will resolve on their own.
- If you can’t find the discrepancy, and the difference is very small (under $1), it may be a rounding issue from a currency conversion or cash-back reward. You can add a small adjustment transaction to true up the balance and move on.
Credit card reconciliation
Credit cards work the same way — compare your cleared credit card balance (the amount you owe) to the balance shown in Aspire for that credit card account. A negative balance in a credit card account means you owe money, which is normal.