Force Reconcile to accurately reflect balance in IRA

sjmsing

I have an IRA account which I never reconciled in Quicken, I merely visually checked it over many years. Quicken and my brokerage numbers match exactly.

I'd like to start using Quicken to reconcile. Reconcile shows a huge negative starting cash balance which is obviously incorrect. I try to put in the proper numbers and reconcile shows I am off by this huge number. A Quicken Balance Adjustment transaction merely incorrectly inflates the Quicken cash balance in the IRA which, as I said, does correctly match my brokerage.

What can I do to correct this?

Sherlock

The prior cash balance of the reconcile is simply the total of the cash of the transactions already marked as reconciled.  If Quicken and the brokerage numbers match and there are no placeholder transactions in the account, you should be able to successfully complete the reconcile without an adjustment transaction.  If you haven't already, you may want to review: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7267839/quicken-faq-managing-placeholder-entries-in-quicken-for-windows

Jim_Harman

Let's not worry about Quicken's Reconcile function for the moment. You say that over many years Quicken's balance has matched your broker's balance. That is good.

In other words if you click on Holdings in the account and set the date to a statement date, the numbers, both share balances and cash if any, match. Is that correct?

But if you go back further, the cash balance is way off, right? I suggest that you go back in time to find the date where the cash balance starts being wrong and see what is going on then.