Reconciling your books

Reconciling is confirming that what Swann Retail posted matches what’s actually in your QuickBooks — and that nothing was quietly missed, doubled, or changed. Swann Retail is built so you can prove this, not assume it.

Tie a day out

To check a single day against QuickBooks:

1. On the QuickBooks page, look at Posting evidence — Last posted day tells you sync is current, Open conflicts tells you nothing’s stuck.
2. Open the accounting feed for that day to see the balanced journal — the totals that should be in your books.
3. Post the day (or find its earlier post) to get its reference — e.g. SWANN-2026-05-31 — and use View in QuickBooks to open the exact record. Compare it line for line against the accounting feed — Anatomy of a posted day spells out what each debit and credit on that record should be.

Because every posted day carries a date-based reference, you can always search that reference in QuickBooks to find the day it posted — and re-posting a day never creates a duplicate.

Does the day balance?

Swann Retail will only post a balanced day — debits equal credits. If a day can’t balance (almost always a missing mapping), it’s held, not booked wrong, and listed under Fixing what won’t post as the day didn’t balance. Fix the mapping it points to; the day re-posts on its own at the next sync. See the accounting feed for what a balanced day looks like.

Tie out a whole period

At month-end or before a VAT return, your accountant will want to reconcile a stretch of days at once, not one at a time:

1. Open the accounting feed for the whole period — it totals every account across the range, so Sales Revenue, VAT Payable and the rest are the figures that should be in QuickBooks for that period.
2. Confirm Posting evidence shows no open conflicts in the range — a held day is a day that isn’t in QuickBooks yet, so the two won’t agree until it’s cleared.
3. Compare the feed’s period totals against the same range in QuickBooks. Because each day posts under its own SWANN-… reference, any day that’s missing or doubled stands out by its reference.

The feed is a read-only view of your own books’ shape, not a second live connection — so it’s always safe to open, however often you reconcile.

If a posted day changes in QuickBooks

Swann Retail keeps watching the days it already posted. If one is later edited or deleted in QuickBooks, that’s flagged back to you under Fixing what won’t post:

• It was edited in QuickBooks — the posted figures no longer match what Swann Retail sent. Decide which is right: put the correct figures back in QuickBooks yourself, or Ignore to keep the QuickBooks version. Swann Retail flags the difference but won’t overwrite the edited entry for you — re-posting the day only re-checks it and reports the drift, it doesn’t amend what’s already in QuickBooks. Once you resolve or ignore it, the day stops being flagged until the entry is edited in QuickBooks again — putting the figures back counts as an edit, so expect one more row for that day, and resolve that one too.
• It was removed in QuickBooks — the entry is gone. If it should be there, press Accept QuickBooks on its row to re-post it — this also re-posts any other recent day QuickBooks is missing, except the ones you’ve already resolved or ignored. Or Ignore if you deleted it on purpose: the day then stays out of your books and stops being flagged, even if you later press Accept QuickBooks for a different day. If you re-entered the day in QuickBooks by hand, mark it Resolve instead, so Swann Retail doesn’t post it a second time. Posting the day again under Post a day won’t bring it back, because Swann Retail still has it on record as posted.

This is the safety net that stops a hand-edit in QuickBooks from silently drifting away from your till figures.

Tie out during a handover

If you’re moving to Swann Retail from another sync — such as Amaka — reconciling the days either side of your start date is what keeps you from double-counting. Pick your start date first (any day works — see Pick your start date), then for the first few days Swann Retail owns:

1. Confirm each day in QuickBooks has exactly one source — the old sync for the days before your start date, Swann Retail from your start date on. A day with two entries means the old sync wasn’t switched off on your start date, or someone has turned it back on since. If the day before your start date has no entry at all, the old sync was switched off before its last post arrived — see When to switch the other feed off.
2. Compare that day’s accounting feed total against what landed in QuickBooks. They should match to the penny.

Swann Retail posts a day only once it has closed, so its first post (for your start date) shows up about two days later — that gap is normal. Once the first few days tie out cleanly, the rest follow the same path automatically.