{"id":"concept:ending-balance","kind":"concept","label":"Ending Balance","synonyms":["closing balance","statement ending balance"],"definition":"The ending balance is the closing figure a bank or card statement reports for a period, entered into BalanceMCP in the ledger's own signed convention rather than however the statement prints it.","summary":"The number a statement ends on — used both when importing (checked against beginning balance plus every transaction) and when reconciling (checked against the ledger's own running total). For a credit card, it has to be entered negative, since it represents money owed.","explanation":["The ending balance is the figure a bank or credit-card statement reports as an account's balance at the close of its period — the number both a statement import and a reconciliation are ultimately checked against.","During a statement import, the ending balance is what the beginning balance plus every transaction's amount is expected to equal; a mismatch flags the import as likely missing or duplicating a row. During reconciliation, it's compared directly against whatever the ledger's own running total works out to as of that date, with any gap reported as a reconciliation difference.","The convention that matters most here: an ending balance is entered in the ledger's own signed convention, not necessarily as the statement literally prints it. A checking or savings ending balance is entered as a normal positive figure. A credit card's ending balance — printed on the statement as something like \"New Balance: $500.00\" — needs to be entered as -500.00, since the ledger records money owed as negative.","Getting this sign backwards produces a specific, recognizable pattern: a discrepancy exactly double what would otherwise be expected. BalanceMCP checks for that exact signature during reconciliation and names it directly, rather than leaving a confusing doubled-looking gap unexplained."],"commonMistakes":["Entering a credit card's ending balance exactly as printed (positive) instead of translating it to the ledger's negative convention for money owed.","Confusing the ending balance used for an import (checked against beginning balance plus transactions) with the one used for reconciliation (checked against the ledger's running total) — same concept, two different comparisons.","Assuming a flagged import or a reconciliation gap always means a missing transaction, rather than checking the sign convention first."],"category":"banking","questions":[{"question":"Why does my credit card's ending balance need to be negative?","answer":"Because the ledger records money owed as a negative number, regardless of how the statement prints \"New Balance.\" Entering it as positive produces a discrepancy exactly double what's expected."},{"question":"Is the ending balance used the same way for imports and reconciliation?","answer":"The concept is the same — a statement's closing figure — but imports check it against beginning balance plus transactions, while reconciliation checks it against the ledger's own running total."}],"url":"/glossary/ending-balance","relatedTo":[{"id":"concept:opening-balance","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Aopening-balance"},{"id":"concept:reconciliation","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Areconciliation"},{"id":"concept:statement-import","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Astatement-import"},{"id":"concept:credit-card-account","relationship":"related","weight":0.9,"api":"/api/knowledge/concept%3Acredit-card-account"},{"id":"tool:reconcile_account","relationship":"references","weight":0.7,"api":"/api/knowledge/tool%3Areconcile_account"},{"id":"tool:import_statement","relationship":"references","weight":0.7,"api":"/api/knowledge/tool%3Aimport_statement"}],"referencedBy":[{"id":"concept:opening-balance","label":"Opening Balance","url":"/glossary/opening-balance"},{"id":"concept:reconciliation-difference","label":"Reconciliation Difference","url":"/glossary/reconciliation-difference"},{"id":"concept:bank-statement","label":"Bank Statement","url":"/glossary/bank-statement"},{"id":"concept:statement-import","label":"Statement Import","url":"/glossary/statement-import"},{"id":"concept:reconciliation","label":"Reconciliation","url":"/glossary/reconciliation"}],"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"BalanceMCP — https://balancemcp.com"}