Manual credit card payment shows in register as debit

Temreguy2

Followed the Help instructions, posting a manual pymt to the [credit card acct] which shows up as a debit, raising the balance due by that amount. Two automatic pymts, by the bank, with identical categories etc., show correctly as credits. What gives?

volvogirl

I thought it might be that.  I almost posted this info for you.

First make sure you are sorted in Date order with the newest date at the bottom. If you are not then click the DATE Column heading to sort.

 

Sounds like you're running a credit balance. Is the balance in red or black? Look back through your transactions and maybe you'll spot one that was entered backward. Or a payment in the charge column or a charge in the payment column. Look around back where this first started happening.  Or maybe you are missing some charges? 

If the balance is in Black, it means you have a credit on the card.  Like if you overpaid the bill or got a refund for something you returned.   When you enter a charge it will reduce (decrease) the credit you have available on it.   And a payment will increase the balance.

Also make sure you have the right starting balance.  If it's zero you might need to add a beginning balance for when you started the account in Quicken.

 The credit card balance you OWE should be in RED. If the balance is Black then it's showing the credit card company owes you and you have a credit balance. And then when you make a payment it's like the cc owes you more. So you need to go back though your entries and find where the balance switched to black to being in your favor.

See this for more info…..

https://www.quicken.com/support/positive-black-balance-credit-card-account 

 

Boatnmaniac

You can't click on the "Deposit" field of that manual payment and type in the amount paid there?  That should remove the debit amount and replace it with the payment amount?

volvogirl

Where's here are you entering it?  Like into a checking account as a transfer to the credit card account? You should enter it as a payment in the Checking Account reducing the checking acct balance.  When you enter the payment in your checking account you put the credit card account name in for the category using square brackets around the name to indicate it is a transfer...like this… [credit card] or newer versions have a Transfer column.

Is it in the right column in the credit card register?  Are you showing all the columns?  You should have separate columns for payments and charges.  To add or remove columns to the register

Select "Account Actions"   

Select "Register Columns..."   

Temreguy2

The pymt is a transfer from a savings acct to the credit card acct. The bank syntax is a payment to the [credit card acct], but on the credit card acct the amount in the Payment column is added to the Balance amount, not subtracted!

volvogirl

I thought it might be that.  I almost posted this info for you.

First make sure you are sorted in Date order with the newest date at the bottom. If you are not then click the DATE Column heading to sort.

 

Sounds like you're running a credit balance. Is the balance in red or black? Look back through your transactions and maybe you'll spot one that was entered backward. Or a payment in the charge column or a charge in the payment column. Look around back where this first started happening.  Or maybe you are missing some charges? 

If the balance is in Black, it means you have a credit on the card.  Like if you overpaid the bill or got a refund for something you returned.   When you enter a charge it will reduce (decrease) the credit you have available on it.   And a payment will increase the balance.

Also make sure you have the right starting balance.  If it's zero you might need to add a beginning balance for when you started the account in Quicken.

 The credit card balance you OWE should be in RED. If the balance is Black then it's showing the credit card company owes you and you have a credit balance. And then when you make a payment it's like the cc owes you more. So you need to go back though your entries and find where the balance switched to black to being in your favor.

See this for more info…..

https://www.quicken.com/support/positive-black-balance-credit-card-account 

 

Temreguy2

You're right. I do have a credit balance on the account. I see now why the balance got bigger. Thanks. ;-) (PS: a pox on positive and negative numbers! lol)

NotACPA

The cure to those "negative numbers" is to NOT use the Amount column, but rather the Charge and Payment columns ... which to my thinking are much more informative and don't have the negative sign complicaiton.

Boatnmaniac

NotACPA said:

The cure to those "negative numbers" is to NOT use the Amount column, but rather the Charge and Payment columns ... which to my thinking are much more informative and don't have the negative sign complicaiton.

I wish the Quicken default account register view didn't include that Amount column.  It sometimes serves a purpose in troubleshooting transaction issues in the register but other than this I think it needlessly takes up valuable real estate in the register.  And it can sometimes lead to needless confusion.  I always remove the Amount column from my register views.