Transactions imported from online banking are automatically marked as "cleared". Cleared means that the transaction shows up on the bank statement. If you brought them in from online banking then they are on the bank statement - that's the justification for marking them cleared. If you use online banking then during reconcile check the "don't show transactions after the closing date" box. When you do this if you've downloaded all the transactions often you don't have to do anything as the balances will match up without any manually reconciling (if it is off generally it means that some transactions are slightly off on the date they hit the bank - usually near the end of the period).
