reconcile_account

What it does

Compare an account with the balance your bank shows, then reconcile it.

Give the balance shown by the bank today (currency units). If YNAB’s cleared balance differs, nothing is written: the result explains the gap with the pending transactions, the one whose amount matches the difference (explained_by) and likely duplicates. Fix those first (with the user), then call again. Only if the user wants to accept the remaining gap, call with adjust=true: a “Balance adjustment” transaction is added to Ready to Assign. When balances match, every cleared transaction is marked reconciled after the user confirms (as for apply_categories). undo_operation reverts it.

Behaviour


Kind	write — hidden unless `AVENIR_MCP_WRITE=1`
Confirmation	yes: previewed, then applied after the user agrees
Undo	yes, with `undo_operation`
Destructive	yes
Idempotent	no
YNAB requests	2 for the example below, on a cold cache

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
`plan_id`	string	yes	—	YNAB plan id or ‘last-used’.
`account_id`	string	yes	—	Account to reconcile (from list_accounts).
`bank_balance`	number	yes	—	In currency units, negative for money out; at most a billion either way.
`adjust`	boolean	no	`false`	Record the remaining difference as an adjustment.
`confirmation`	string \| null	no	`null`	Code from a previous “confirmation_required” result.

Returns

Field	Type	Description
`status`	“applied” \| “confirmation_required” \| “declined” \| “nothing_to_do” \| “difference_found”	Outcome: difference_found (nothing changed; see analysis), confirmation_required, applied, declined, or nothing_to_do (already reconciled).
`message`	string	What happened and what to do next, for the agent to relay.
`account`	string	Account name.
`analysis`	object	The comparison with the bank.
`analysis.account_id`	string	The account analysed.
`analysis.bank_balance`	number	Balance the bank shows, as given.
`analysis.cleared_balance`	number	Sum of the account’s cleared and reconciled transactions in YNAB.
`analysis.working_balance`	number	Sum of all the account’s transactions, cleared or not.
`analysis.difference`	number	Bank balance minus cleared balance; negative when YNAB counts more money than the bank.
`analysis.to_reconcile_count`	integer	Cleared transactions not yet reconciled.
`analysis.uncleared_count`	integer	Transactions the bank has not shown yet.
`analysis.uncleared`	array of object	Up to 50 of them.
`analysis.explained_by`	array of string	Uncleared transactions whose amount equals the difference.
`analysis.possible_duplicates`	array of array of string	Pairs with the same amount and merchant, at most 3 days apart, over the last 60 days.
`adjustment`	number \| null	Amount of the balance adjustment created, if adjust was requested; else null.
`confirmation`	string \| null	Single-use code confirming exactly this preview, valid 10 minutes; null unless status is confirmation_required.
`operation_id`	string \| null	Journal id of the applied operation, for undo_operation; null unless status is applied.

Example

Arguments:

{
  "plan_id": "demo-budget",
  "account_id": "acc-checking",
  "bank_balance": 3440.8
}

Answer on the demo budget:

{
  "status": "difference_found",
  "message": "YNAB's cleared balance differs from the bank by -71.86. Nothing was changed. Check explained_by, uncleared and possible_duplicates with the user; call again once fixed, or with adjust=true to record the gap as an adjustment.",
  "account": "Checking",
  "analysis": {
    "account_id": "acc-checking",
    "bank_balance": 3440.8,
    "cleared_balance": 3512.66,
    "working_balance": 3512.66,
    "difference": -71.86,
    "to_reconcile_count": 49,
    "uncleared_count": 0,
    "uncleared": [],
    "explained_by": [],
    "possible_duplicates": [
      [
        "tx-050",
        "tx-051"
      ]
    ]
  },
  "adjustment": null,
  "confirmation": null,
  "operation_id": null
}

Errors

Account {account_id} is not in this plan: use an id from list_accounts.
This client cannot ask the user to confirm, and AVENIR_MCP_REQUIRE_ELICITATION=1 forbids confirmation codes: nothing was changed. Use a client that supports MCP elicitation, or unset the variable.
This confirmation code is unknown, expired, already used, or was issued for different changes. Call again without confirmation to get a new preview.
Confirmation codes are disabled (AVENIR_MCP_REQUIRE_ELICITATION=1): call again without confirmation, and the user answers in the client.
The plan changed between the preview and the answer. Call again without an answer to get a new preview.

YNAB’s own errors come back as Error calling tool '<tool>': YNAB <status>: <detail>.