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Projected Balances Not Accurate

clemtigs

The projected balance is not calculating correctly. It is accurate for transactions until about a month from now and then it misses on the day shown. The error propagates forward from there until the next error and they build on themselves. The starting and ending balance for the day are not reflective of all the daily transactions. In the example I attached, it is off by the amount of one of the transactions. I validated and corrected the file and the errors moved. Previous to the validation actions, the errors didn't necessarily coincide with actual transaction amounts. I believe this started with the most recent update but could have been sooner. Is there a known issue and workaround?

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TheLogicEscapesMe

What they have chosen to show in this table can be very confusing.
The tendency is to think that the "Closing Balance" is the "running balance", it isn't. And along with that there is a tendency to "subtract/add" the Amount field to "determine" the "Closing Balance", you can't.

One line shown is a scheduled reminder, it gives the account used for that reminder, and the amount for the reminder. The Closing Balance is closing balance for that account on that day.

So say I have two scheduled reminders on the same day. No matter what the amounts are for those reminders the "Closing Balance" (for the account) is going to be the same on both lines, because there is only one closing balance for a given day in a given account. and that closing balance is made up of the balance of the day before, the scheduled reminders, and any transactions entered into the register. Looking at just those scheduled reminder lines, you have no idea what the starting balance is for the day, and you can't see any transactions that are in the register, therefore you can't do any "math" here.

If you look at the account name and the closing "daily" balance, and then jump to the account register you will see that is in fact the closing daily balance and you will get the transactions/numbers that add up and make sense of this number.

TheLogicEscapesMe

P.S. In my example for two reminders I should have included that the two reminders are for the same account (same account, same day).

clemtigs

Thanks for the feedback. I understand the concept that all the transactions for the day will only show up in the final line for that day. Let me explain what is in the table a little better. The first line is the end of the previous day of transactions, which I would expect to be the closing balance for that day. I interpret that to mean that is how much cash is project to be in that account on that given day. Lines 2-5 are all transactions on a subsequent day from line 1 and the same day with respect to each other. I would expect the sum of those transactions subtracted from line 1 to be an accurate projected closing balance on the day transactions 2-5 are applied. I believe all the information is there to complete the math. And if I apply it as I just describe, (Line 1 - sum(line2,3,4,5)), the math is not correct. Please explain the fault in my logic?

clemtigs

One more clarification. These are all from the same account. Thanks

clemtigs

Sorry, for the string of comments...I keep re-reading your response for the key I am missing. I did confirm the register balance is updating correctly after each transaction. The discrepancy only seems to be occurring when I look at the chart for projected balances.

Note: the actual numbers are different and I understand the cause (Quicken does not show future paycheck splits to different accounts when looking at them in the register view. The full balance shows in the single deposit account).

clemtigs

OK. I was able to figure this particular case out. When I set up the planned Bill Reminder for $525 transaction I had a 'From Account' and the same account listed in 'Category'. That negated the transaction balance somehow. I removed it from 'Category' and it tracks this balance correctly. I have another anomalies that I am seeing though and i will open a new thread to track those.

TheLogicEscapesMe

Given your screenshot it would be impossible to make any assumptions. You don't show what accounts are involved. But on top of that even if they are all from the same account, there still can be missing information. For instance any transaction that isn't a scheduled transaction will not show up here.

Just looking at this table it is impossible to know when the math will work or not.
I can't put in a screenshot (to new of a user account here), so I will have try to show it in text.

I sorted my projected balanced table by account, (and it does a secondary sort by date).
2020-03-08, Weekly Estimate, Chase 9766, -257.98, -1291.11
2020-03-15, Weekly Estimate, Chase 9766, -257.98, -515.96 (doesn't add up)
2020-03-22, Weekly Estimate, Chase 9766, -257.98, -773.94 (does add)
... the rest do add up, why?

Register:
2020-03-08, Weekly Estimate, Split, (charge)257.98, -1291.11
2020-03-13, Chase 9766, [Chase 9766], (payment) 1033.13, -257.98 (note this number isn't shown in the projected balance table)
2020-03-15, Weekly Estimate, Split, (charge)257.98, -515.96 (it does add up here)
2020-03-22 Weekly Estimate, Split, (charge)257.98, -773.94

So as you can see there are places in the projected balance table that I can't add, but they are still right. If you then throw into the mix where you have multiple scheduled transactions on the same day, it will get extremely confusing without having the register to look at, at the same time.

BTW this shows a bug in Quicken. The account is Chase 9766 and by the category of [Chase 9766] you would think that I made a mistake and the reminder is set to just remove the money from this account. But if I edit the reminder or enter it into the register it will show the correct account, which is my checking account. I thought that bug was fixed years ago! But I guess not.

Bottom line there might be a bug in your case or there might be corrupted data.

But it is quite tricky to follow those numbers. About the only real use of the Closing balance I can see is to make sure none of the Closing balances come up negative for a checking/savings account. But personally I don't look at that table, the plot is much easier to use. I had to even search for where the table is when I saw your question. I use the projected balance graph for making sure my cash flow is correct, but I put the projected balance on my home tab. And that one doesn't have the table, which is perfect for me. As in making sure there is enough money in my checking account to pay for the credit cards and the other payments that come directly out of it.