Problem reconciling investment accounts, cannot update trxs from cleared to reconciled status

Unknown

Quicken 2016 for PC.  Been using Quicken since launch, maybe 1990.

Until the latest update, I could reconcile an investment account to the statement, even if that account did not include cash. Down loaded transaction involving stock purchases and sales were stamped c for cleared; when the paper statement corresponded to that transaction one could mark them r for reconciled.  When the statement omitted such a transaction, usually for date reasons, or when Quicken duplicated the transaction because of ETL difficulties, it was easy to sort out which were which: which corresponded to the paper statement, and which didn't.   Now, you cannot change the c stamp, so finding the transactions that cause a difference between the share values in Quicken (usually the ones in error) and those on the statement (I have yet to see an error on a statement) has become much more difficult.  You can raise an error message that says you can't reconcile it because it doesn't include cash.  That is false: one reconciles inventory, receivables, accruals and all other balances, not just cash. You can and should reconcile investment accounts that don't include cash.  You need to re-educate the domain person that drafted that error message.

Anyway, please restore the functionality that recognizes the difference between clearing the transaction and tying it out to the paper statement, that is, reconciling it.  Please allow us to update the c flag to an R flag if we wish to.

I do hope this kind of regression is not symbolic of the future of Quicken under new management.

mshiggins

What do you mean by last update? Did you apply a program patch? Please check Help | About Quicken and tell us the patch level you are on.

Unknown

Release R8 (25.1.8.5).   Last time I  updated the cleared status on an investment account transaction to reconciled was July; today, I could not.   Thank you for your interest and support.

Unknown

Seamus Moran said:

Release R8 (25.1.8.5).   Last time I  updated the cleared status on an investment account transaction to reconciled was July; today, I could not.   Thank you for your interest and support.

I have the same issue.  Did you ever get a fix for it?

Unknown

Seamus Moran said:

Release R8 (25.1.8.5).   Last time I  updated the cleared status on an investment account transaction to reconciled was July; today, I could not.   Thank you for your interest and support.

I have not tried.   It works OK on current stuff.  I need to rework my 401K account over a couple of years - rebalances that never got straightened out in Quicken - and I just keep putting it off.

mshiggins

Seamus Moran said:

Release R8 (25.1.8.5).   Last time I  updated the cleared status on an investment account transaction to reconciled was July; today, I could not.   Thank you for your interest and support.

From C. D. Bales:


"I have the same issue. Did you ever get a fix for it?"


I find the original post in this discussion to be somewhat ambiguous.


My interpretation is that the original posted believes that Quicken has suddenly stopped allowing reconciles of certain investment accounts. To the extent that is the meaning, it is wrong on several counts.


1.) To start: Quicken reconciles (the Reconcile dialog that allows multiple transactions to have their Cleared Status changed to "R" at the same time) has always been limited to reconciling the cash amount in an account. When you initiate a reconcile dialog with an investment account that has no linked checking account, you can have quicken change the Cleared Status of all the included transactions as "R" - but you are NOT reconciling any of

the investment portion of those transactions. That reconcile dialog does not reconcile whether, for example, you have the correct number of shares for any given security, nor whether you have the correct market value for any given security. If you complete a Quicken reconcile dialog for an investment

account and make no additional effort to determine the accuracy of that Quicken account ... you will NOT have "reconciled" that account ... it can still contain errors.


The only thing Quicken reconciles are really "reconciling" is the cash in the account. See the investment account reconcile opening dialog (note the amounts asked for are "Cash Balance" amounts.




2.) Quicken has never allowed a user to employ the Quicken Reconcile dialog in investment accounts that have linked checking accounts. This restriction goes back to at least Q2004. And the message when a user attempts to

initiate the Reconcile dialog in such an account has also not changed since Q2004. It looks like this:





3.) You also can not employ the Quicken reconcile dialog in Quicken "invoice" accounts. In some earlier Quicken versions, you would get the same message you get when you try to reconcile an investment account with a

linked checking account. In Q2016 however, when you initiate a reconcile in an invoice account, you get an Adjust Balance dialog: the end result of completing that process will be a balance adjustment transaction added to

the account ... and no other transactions in the invoice account will be altered (none will have their Clr Status changed - not even the balance

adjustment transaction will be marked Reconciled). I believe this is largely

because there is no real-world counterpart to Quicken invoice accounts to which you could meaningfully compare your Quicken account.


The same reconcile limit is true for Quicken "Asset" and "Liability" accounts - except the balance adjustment transaction is marked Reconciled.]


4.) Generally, in non-investment accounts that do not allow the normal Quicken Reconcile dialog, but have something external to which you can compare your Quicken account (Cash and non-online-enabled Loan accounts, for

example), you can mass change the Cleared Status to R by a different means.

- Select the desired transactions (in the account register) as you would select multiple files in Windows Explorer

- Right-click a selected transaction

- Choose "Edit transaction(s)"

- Click "Select All" below the resulting list of selected transactions

- Choose "Cleared Status" in the "Replace" dropdown

- Key "R" (no quotes) in the "With" field

- Click "Replace All"

- Click "Done"


5.) The approach in #4 is not available in investment accounts, but you can still mark individual investment transactions as "Reconciled" in all investment accounts. Make sure the "Clr" column is wide enough to display

the Cleared Status value (space, "c" or "R") and the down-pointing arrow.

Click on the down-pointing arrow in the "Clr" column and select the desired Cleared Status from the resulting drop down. This works in every investment account, including those with linked checking accounts.

tlassanske

Just installed and updated the latest version of Quicken, and see that this is still a problem (I have been living with it for years). I have an HSA set up as an investment account. I can manually reconcile every entry except the downloaded interest deposits. When I click their "Clr" fields, all I get is this, instead of the dropdown selection field I get with the other entries. Note that these are all cash transactions, as no securities have been purchased for this account:




 

Sherlock

@tlassanske: I suggest you enlarge the Clr column (that is what the ... are supposed to indicate): place the cursor over the vertical bar separating the Clr column header from Date column header until the double arrow appears then press the left mouse button, drag to the right and release.  When you've made the column wide enough, you'll have access to the pull-down menu in the Clr column and be able to select R.

tlassanske

That worked! It seems odd that it is wide enough for some rows and/or types of transactions, but not others... I had JUST edited the other rows successfully, before trying with the deposits. Also, I believe that column may have been set at its default width, as I don't recall ever resizing it in nearly 15 years of using Quicken. 

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:

" ... I don't recall ever resizing it in nearly 15 years of using Quicken."

You may have forgotten ... but that does not matter. 

Fifteen years ago there was no Clr column in investment accounts.

Since at least Q2014 it has been known that the investment account Clr column must be wide enough to show the dropdown arrow, if the user intends to manually mark individual investment transactions as "reconciled. And; that when the ellipses are present in the Clr column, the column is not wide enough.

Also: for a long time (since at least Q2012 - and I believe well before), investment accounts have allowed users to employ the Reconcile dialog to mark multiple transactions with a Cleared Status of "R". Employing the Reconcile dialog prevents the user from any concern about the width of the Clr column in investment accounts.

You can use the Reconcile dialog to reconcile transactions in investment accounts in several ways:

- Click the Account Actions gear-wheel icon in the account and select Reconcile

- Hold down CTRL while pressing "r"

- Place the Reconcile icon in the Quicken Toolbar, and click that icon when you want to reconcile