How to balance a checkbook

With the popularity of online banking and budgeting apps, balancing your checkbook has become a lost art.

If you’ve never balanced a checkbook or it’s been a long time since you had to, it’s a basic financial skill you should know. Here’s our quick guide to the art of checkbook balancing.

Reasons you should balance a checkbook

You should make balancing your checkbook part of your routine. It may be old-fashioned, but it can help:

• Verify your financial records.
• Catch the mistakes you’ve made.
• Track your spending.
• Notice the mistakes your financial institution has made.
• Catch fraudulent charges.
• Track bank fees.

How to balance your checkbook

You can keep track of your transactions either in a checkbook register, a notebook, or a spreadsheet. The list includes purchases, withdrawals, deposits, and bank charges.

1. Gather your account transactions for the past month, receipts, and your most recent bank statement. Make sure to hold on to any transaction receipts until you’ve balanced your checkbook.
2. Reconcile your bank account by adding up the deposits and withdrawals you list in your register through the bank statement date. Don’t include any transactions that happen after the statement was generated.
3. See if the deposit and withdrawal amounts in your register match your statement.
4. If the amounts do match, your checkbook is balanced.
5. If the amounts don’t match, double check your match and review your receipts. Dispute any errors or unauthorized charges with your financial institution. Contact your local Adirondack Bank branch or Client Services Department to get it corrected.

Writing a check

If you’ve never written a check or it’s been a long time since you filled one out, it’s important to complete it correctly. Check our quick guide to the art of check writing for a step-by-step process.

The information in this article was obtained from various sources not associated with Adirondack Bank. While we believe it to be reliable and accurate, we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information. Adirondack Bank is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the information provided or the content of any third-party sites that might be hyperlinked from this page. The information is not intended to replace manuals, instructions or information provided by a manufacturer or the advice of a qualified professional, or to affect coverage under any applicable insurance policy. These suggestions are not a complete list of every loss control measure. Adirondack Bank makes no guarantees of results from use of this information.