After syncing your wallet via API, you may see a yellow warning sign next to some of the assets, informing that the reported and calculated balances don't match in the wallet. This article explains what the two balances mean and what to do to fix an issue like this:
When syncing your wallet/exchange via API, Koinly will download two sets of data:
Your activity (full transactions history)
A snapshot of asset balances (assets currently held, as reported by the API). We call those 📠 Reported balances
Koinly will then import & process all the transactions provided and arrive at balances of your assets as the outcome. These are your 🧮 Calculated balances. We will report any difference between the two balances as:
Difference = Koinly Balance - API Balance
🆚 Comparing reported and calculated balances
| 🧮 Calculated balances | 📠 Reported balances |
Source | Based on transactions imported | Self-reported by the API |
Tax Reports | Used in all generated reports | Not used in reports at all |
Purpose | Confirmation if data is complete, to generate EOY balances in reports | Only to cross-check if imported data is complete |
Accuracy | Will be correct only if the imported data is complete | Correct most of the time (which is why they're a good reference) |
The "important" balances are the 🧮 Calculated balances as those are the balances that are based on transactions imported and will show in your reports. These are the balances that need to match reality.
If 🧮 Calculated balances are wrong:
Transaction history imported is wrong or incomplete
This issue needs to be fixed as data in Koinly doesn't match reality
If 📠 Reported balances are wrong:
API may be providing outdated information
API may be providing information in a different way than Koinly (e.g. limit orders, see common reasons below)
If 🧮 Calculated balances are correct, then the issue with 📠 Reported balances doesn't need to be fixed as it doesn't affect your tax reports.
You can even hide reported balances altogether by toggling Ignore reported balances
🧑🔧 How to fix wrong balances
To fix the wrong balances in Koinly you need to fix the underlying issue - incomplete transaction history imported. Most common solutions include:
Trigger a full resync of the wallet
Delete the wallet and add it again using the same API
Delete the wallet and add it again using CSV files only
For more detailed troubleshooting, check:
☝️ Not all balance errors need fixing
Some imbalances are due to differences in how data is reported and, in fact, your 🧮 calculated balances are correct and everything is accounted for. It depends on what the issue is and what's the reason for the imbalance warning - check some common issues below.
✳️ Common reasons for balance mismatches
1. Rounding
🟢 Not necessary to fix
Data provided by the API may be rounded, so the calculated balances don't match the reported once exactly but minor errors below 6th decimal don't need to be fixed.
2. Open Orders
🟢 Not necessary to fix
Exchanges may report your "available" balances only, as some assets are locked in limit orders. Koinly will import your trades once they actually happen.
3. Staked assets
🟢 Not necessary to fix
An exchange may exclude staked assets in their 📠 reported balances, but Koinly will include them in the 🧮 calculated balances because we skip staking transactions. If the staked assets are accounted for in Koinly in your balances (in your totals or in your pool wallet) this warning can be ignored - see Staking and Farming Tokens.
4. Delayed update
🟢 Not necessary to fix
The API may already provide the most recent transactions (so the 🧮 calculated balance is correct) but the 📠 reported balance is still old. This usually happens if you sync the wallet in Koinly right after the transaction took place and this issue will self-resolve the next time you sync the wallet.
5. Reflection/taxed tokens
⚠️ Needs to be fixed
These are not reported as transactions on the blockchain so Koinly cannot import them automatically. See Reflection, Taxed and Rebase tokens.
6. Spam
⚠️ Needs to be fixed
Some spam transactions (especially due to address poisoning) may show as imbalances in your wallet - you can fix such imbalances by marking all spam transactions as such. See Spam tokens, worthless NFTs, rug pulls.
7. Other missing transactions
⚠️ Needs to be fixed
Not all transactions may have been imported, resulting in wrong 🧮 calculated balances. This may be caused by Exchange API limitations and needs fixing, as your transaction history in Koinly doesn't match reality. See 👉 Some transactions are missing.
8. Errors in manual data entry
⚠️ Needs to be fixed
Manual changes made in the account (adding transactions, merging transactions, editing transaction timestamps, etc.) may have been in fact incorrect, causing errors on the ledger. Unfortunately, often the easiest way to revert all manual changes is by recreating the wallet (deleting it and adding it again).
Can I use reported balances in my tax reports?
❌ No, reported balances cannot be used in tax reports as they do not reflect transactions in those reports.
Reported balances are just a snapshot of balances reported by the API (e.g. exchange). Koinly will only keep the last reported balances (from the last sync) and won't have the reported balances for any particular date (e.g. end of year).
As such - if there is a mismatch between reported/calculated balances and calculated balances are wrong, the solution is to find the source of the issue (e.g. missing transactions) and fix it, so that the calculated balances match reality.