Using a quicken database going back 20 years, getting $0.01 rounding error

mike11

I have a quick data file that I have been using for 20 years. I recently upgraded from quicken 2014. As part of the upgrade did an audit before committing to the new product I did an audit of the new version.

first I validated the data base.

Then I made sure all the account balances matched (the do).

Next I went to do some report comparisons. I compared some of the Investment Performance reports from the old (2014) version to the new version. I found there various differences between the two reports.
1) some of the cash values differed by $.01 between the register and the reports on the new version (they were ok on the old version)
2) some for the "misc expenses" were missing in the report but present in the register (these were all ok in the old version).
3) others (its a large report) and i have not checked everything yet



I spoke to Quicken tech support, and they told me they do not recommend using a file this old as it will be large and corrupted at some point and there is nothing I can do about it. They told me it has nothing to do with with the jump from 2014 to the current version (interim steps would have made any difference). So basically if I want to have reliable access to the data I think my best step is to stick to 2014 which does not sound like the best solution to me.

Has anyone else been using the same data base this long? What has your experience been? How have you worked around these issues?

Dan Glynhampton

In the past I’ve used a Quicken file for around 20 years through various conversions and not encountered corruption problems; that said, it’s not impossible that small problems in the database can be uncovered by changes in the code when you upgrade. 

One of the areas where I have seen issues though is with saved reports.  Is the report you are looking at one that you customised and saved in Q2014 or earlier?  If so, try creating a new report, and customise it to be the same as your saved one, and see if you get the same errors or if it is now correct. 

It’s evident that reports are saved as a set of queries (because their content updates if you change the underlying data).  If the underlying database structure is changed in an upgrade, those queries may not return the same data that they did before, leading to problems in the reports. Creating the report from scratch overcomes that. 

If it’s not fixed by creating a new report, then post a specific example (with screenshots, suitably redacted to protect your privacy) showing the issue, and someone might be able to help track down if it’s a bug or corruption.  

mike11

Thanks you for your response. This is known problem(saved reports) with quicken, and no the reports were not saved reports, they were freshly generated reports.

mike11

Have verified with quicken the $.01 differences are a known issue. (its even two different values in the report). Still working on the missing misc expenses reports but it looks like any misc_expense without a Category are missed in the report.

Register:
Clr Date Action Security Shares Price Date Acquired Share Bal Inv. Amt Cash Amt Cash Bal Memo Xfer Acct
2019-11-21 Added foofoo 2.889 12.066459 34.86 +34.86 0.00 Memo

Report:
Investment Performance - Year to Date

2019-01-01 through 2019-11-21 (in Canadian Dollars)

Date Account Action Description Investments Returns Avg. Annual Return

2019-01-01 - 2019-11-21
2019-01-01 Beg Mkt Val 0.00
2019-11-21 Brokerage Added 2.889 foofoo 34.85
2019-11-21 End Mkt Val 34.86
TOTAL 2019-01-01 - 2019-11-21 34.85 34.86 0.00%

mike11

Looks like the other issue I reported here are due to changes in the way the reports are done.