How would you deal with an error?

[fin]

This is strange to me for sure.

I have printed statements and pdf files and then I have
a csv file which has a transaction on a specific date but
that does not appear on either the statement or the pdf
version.

Of course I don't know how to account for this since I'm
rather new to the whole idea of double entry accounting
but also I now have to call up the financial institution
and ask them for more details as to why it is there and
what it means and perhaps they can give me a clue as to
where it came from or if it is just a mistake that happened
later and was somehow fixed some other place and I can
ignore it (likely since it was a long enough time ago
that I won't get a correction but also it was long enough
ago I have no memory of that time frame or if I deposited
the money or what).

Anyways, it was an odd amount of money for me to deposit
if I really did that (I have no receipt for it).

So what do you do? Set up a special Error Account?

For the moment I put a note on it and also commented it
out so it doesn't mess up any further attempts at comparing
the statements to the electronic versions of things and
that is what I'm doing now working through all the
transactions and making sure they're properly classified.

The funny thing is, had I not dumped out the CSV file
to being with I'd have never seen this at all and the fact
that I didn't have a problem with the statement at the
time I got it in the mail also likely means this is an
error that happened later and one not consequential to me.
I'm still going to call them next week because I have to
change a few things anyways so it will be a part of that
conversation. Plus it lets them know I'm watching them a
bit more closely now... ;)

I have a few other errors from long ago that were never
tracked down (off by a penny, sometimes a 5 dollar mistake,
once a 10 dollar but nothing like the above (which is
several hundred).

Any similar experiences by anyone else here? Did you
ever find such a thing stuck in your account after the
fact and no mention to you what happened? Or?


Fin

[Martin Blais]

Lots of strange things to figure out indeed, and to some extent, one of the reasons for the method is to bring those up to your attention, ideally soon thereafter.

I think if the error is not reflected in the balance I'd probably just comment it out and move on.

If it is, like you I'd call - I'm one of those annoying people calling financial institutions with strange and sometimes too detailed questions - or find a way to categorize to a special account.

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