Accounts Not Included and Incorrect Balances

Robin Schokman

I have Quicken 2017 for Windows. Just this month 2 errors in Reports have occurred 1. When preparing a Net Worth report the balance shown for a banking account at a month end clearly does not match the balance shown in the register for the same point in time. 2. When preparing an Income/Expense report one account does not appear in the report. The account is not selected in the list of accounts so I add the account. This makes a one-time correction. The next time I prepare the same report the account has been de-selected.

Tom Young

As to 2., once you have a report set up in a manner that's useful you should save that report using a unique name.  If you don't do that but instead keep reaching for a "stock" report, you'll have to fix it every time.

Not sure about 1.  Maybe you used a wrong date for your report and that one Account is the only one that had a balance different from the "month end" balance as of the date you used?  Hard to figure that one out without pictures of what you're seeing.

Robin Schokman

I think I am intelligent enough to put the correct date on my Net Worth Report which happened to be the month end of Sep 30. and compare it with the balance on the Register
With regard to Item 2 I there is a design fault if I can't tick a box to permanently select an account (in fact to make it all accounts selected) and that selection is cancelled when I get out of the report.
By the way, I tried to reply to your email with screen shots to demonstrate the problems and the email was rejected by the Mail Administrator

Robin Schokman

I have researched further and discovered when the problem started. In the middle of September I deposited $10,000 in the bank account in question. However, I split the deposit transaction with $10600 credited to an income account and $600 debited to an expense account. I prepared a few Net Worth reports around the date of that transaction and found that after it, the Net Worth report was showing $600 higher balance for that bank account compared with the amount showing in the register. Somehow the $600 has thrown out the report. and makes it appear that it was added to the bank account balance

Tom Young

The entry you describe shouldn't have resulted in the effect you're describing.  First thing to try is to delete the entry and reenter it.  If that doesn't work, though it should, you might want to try validating the file.

Robin Schokman

I did as you suggested - deleted the entry, re-entered it and also validated the file (no errors) but the problem did not go away. The strange thing is that the Income/Expense report correctly shows the distribution of the net deposit of $10,000 - $10,600 to an income category and $600 to an expense category>Also the total report of Income/Expense is correct (validated from other sources) , however, the Net Worth balance is overstated by the $600. I am not sure how you can have a Net Worth Balance that is not in accord with the associated Income/Expense report. I will just have to recognise that there is a permanent variance of $600
By the way, I sorted out the other problem by doing as you suggested - I deleted the existing Income?Expense report and created a new one which now includes the missing account.

Robin Schokman

Just an added comment. I went back to the $10,000 deposit and deleted the split allocation so that that the $10000 only went to an income account. That corrected the balance in the Net Worth report

Tom Young

What you're describing just should not be happening and that suggests to me some deep-seated data corruption.  The inner workings of Quicken are largely a mystery, but it sounds like the Net Worth report is pulling from some "bucket" that should be the same as what you see in the register, but isn't.  Does this "disconnect" also occur with the Net Worth figure at the bottom of the Account Bar?

If you delete the transaction completely, things balance I assume?  You might try entering that one entry as two entries to see if that puts things to right.  And I suppose you might bite the bullet and try a supervalidate, though that process, as I understand it, can introduce its own problems.  Backup before trying that, of course.

Tom Young

You obviously posted while I was composing my message.  At this point, (after backing up), change that $10,000 to $10,600, check to see that things balance and if they do then try a separate deduction entry expensing the $600.

Robin Schokman

Hi Tom Thanks for all your help. I tried what you just suggested by using 2 transactions $10600 as a deposit to an income account and then a separate transaction a payment of $600 to an expense account. The Income/Expense report correctly reports the transactions but the Net Worth report has the bank balance $600 higher despite me having deducted the $600 as a transaction. I will stick with my work around which has corrected the Net Worth balance which needs to be correct all the time. The Income/Expense report for September is a one-off and I have the correct reporting in a separate Excel spreadsheet I use - I don't need September again.

Jim_Harman

@robin schokman, when you say income and expense accounts, are you referring to what Quicken calls Categories? 

If so are you certain that the Category with the $600 expense is included in your Net Worth report? Sometimes newly added categories are not included in saved reports even if you selected "All categories" when you saved the report. 

Robin Schokman

Yes Every Category is either an Income or Expense unless it is an an Asset or Liability where it is called Transfer.
Unfortunately while the $660 was added as a new Expense type in September it is certainly included in the list of Categories in the Net Worth report