A report that doesn't match what you expected is unsettling — but it's nearly always good news in disguise. stub builds every report from the transactions in your account, so a strange number is a data problem, not a calculation problem, and data problems are fixable in minutes.
It's also worth more than the one report in front of you. Every fix in this article — a category assigned, a duplicate removed, a date corrected — feeds every report at once. Half an hour spent here is usually the difference between books you argue with and books you can act on.
First, rule out the two that aren't errors
- Profit & Loss counts an invoice the day you send it, not the day you're paid. Healthy profit alongside an empty bank account is two true statements, not a mistake — the money is sitting in unpaid invoices. Check Cash Flow for what actually moved, and your overdue invoices for what hasn't.
- Every report is scoped to the date range at the top. A transaction dated outside it doesn't exist as far as that report is concerned. Widen the period before you conclude anything is missing.
If both hold, the number really is off. Work through these six checks in order; the first two catch most cases.
1. Uncategorised transactions
A report missing money usually says so: the warning at the top counts the uncategorised income and expenses left out. Click it — uncategorised income lives under Sales, uncategorised expenses under Expenses — and give each transaction its proper category.
Anything uncategorised won't land in your Profit & Loss or Expenses report. Categorising is what feeds every report, so this check alone fixes most "missing" money.
2. Duplicates
Look for the same amount twice on the same date — it usually happens when you added a payment by hand and your bank feed brought it in too. Delete the duplicate.
3. Wrong dates
Open the suspect transaction and check its date. A mis-dated entry vanishes from the month it belongs to and inflates another — fix the date and both months correct themselves.
4. Transfers and drawings logged as expenses
Look for transactions that should be Cash Withdrawal, Drawings or Inter-account Transfer but were categorised as a business expense, and recategorise them.
Moving your own money around isn't spending it — but categorised as an expense, it inflates your costs and depresses your profit.
5. Missing transactions
Compare your invoices and receipts against what's in stub, and add anything that never made it in — or import it; see Upload files to stub.
6. Manual entries
Go to General Ledger in the sidebar and review any manual journal entries in the period — one posted to the wrong account, or with an amount on the wrong side, quietly throws out the Trial Balance and Balance Sheet. Edit or delete it, then post it again correctly. See Manual journal entries.
Tip: Reports flag uncategorised transactions and missing opening balances at the top of the page. Read those warnings before you read the numbers — they tell you in advance whether the report can be trusted.