Understanding account balances
Know when to use Working, Cleared, and Uncleared balances—and why reconciliation ignores pending transactions.
Written By Pedro
Last updated 5 days ago
Zerosum keeps posted and pending money separate, so you can line an account up against your bank without losing track of what has not settled yet.
Working balance = Cleared balance + Uncleared balance
What each balance means
Working balance is what the account is worth once everything settles: cleared and uncleared together.
Cleared balance is everything that has posted at your bank. A posted transaction is cleared whether or not you have approved it, because posting is a fact about your bank, not a review step.
Uncleared balance is what counts but has not posted yet, like a pending card purchase you entered or a check you have not deposited.
ℹ️ Approval is not what makes a transaction count. A posted transaction affects these balances the moment it arrives, even while it waits for you to approve or categorize it. The only things left out are raw pending holds in the Pending at bank section and future scheduled transactions. Reconciled is a lock on a transaction, not a fourth balance.
Which balance should I use?
Adding an account: enter its Working balance.
Editing an account: the field shows the current Working balance, and changing it creates an adjustment for the difference.
Reconciling: compare Zerosum's Cleared balance with the balance at your bank that counts posted transactions but not pending ones.
Linking a bank account: confirm the Working balance shown during setup.
Bank labels vary. The posted-only amount might be called Current balance or Cleared balance. Use whichever matches your bank's posted transactions, without pending. Lunch Flow users can choose which balance Lunch Flow sends: open the account, go to Balances, and pick the booked or cleared balance.
Example
Zerosum shows credit-card debt as a negative amount. Say a card has a Cleared balance of -$3,769.21 and an uncleared purchase of -$15.99, so its Working balance is -$3,785.20. If your bank's posted balance is -$3,769.21, it matches the Cleared balance and you can reconcile with no adjustment. Leave the $15.99 uncleared while it is pending, then mark it cleared once it posts. Do not edit the Working balance just to hide pending activity.
💡 Still waiting at your bank? A pending hold Zerosum has not entered yet sits in the Pending at bank section and counts toward nothing. Use Enter Now to add it as an uncleared transaction, or leave it until the bank posts it. See Reviewing, matching & linking imported transactions.
Why did editing the balance create an adjustment?
Editing the Working balance tells Zerosum the account's ledger total is off, so it creates a transaction for the difference. That is separate from reconciliation: an exact reconciliation match creates no adjustment. If the cleared balances differ, look for missing, duplicate, wrongly cleared, or wrong-amount transactions first, and only create an adjustment if a gap remains.