Reconcile credit card with positive balance - software bug?

Monty B

Occasionally I have a positive credit card balance (i.e., I've overpaid my account or there was a return). When I try to reconcile the account, the difference between the cleared balance and the statement end balance is a negative number. For example, Quicken shows the cleared balance as -$250.00 and the statement end balance as +$250.00. The difference should be $0.00 but the Quicken reconcile screen has the difference as -$500.00. It appears that the difference is calculated as: cleared balance less the statement end balance (e.g., -$250 - (+$250.00) = -$500.00. If the bank (Wells Fargo) reported the cleared balance as a positive number then all would be OK.

If I have a credit card debit (balance due), the reconciliation works fine.

Is this a software bug?

Monty B

Thank you for your response. I am using the Actions (gear) at the top right of the CC transactions page to balance the online account and there is no option to enter dollar amounts since they are auto filled. Going forward I'll use the Tools > Reconcile an Account to do a manual balance as you suggest if I have a credit balance.

Chris_QPW

Are you reconciling to an online balance?
Is that balance negative or positive?
It should be negative.

I remember there been another thread saying that there was such a problem, but I don't see it when doing this in a credit card account against a manually entered ending balance.

But note for this case you need to enter the statement balance as a negative number.
The reason is because of the fact that in a credit card account because most of the numbers you would enter are assumed to be negative.  As in if I ask you "How much did you pay for food?"  That answer is $100, not -$100 even though that is what it would really be in the account.

Example.

Monty B

Thank you for your response. I am using the Actions (gear) at the top right of the CC transactions page to balance the online account and there is no option to enter dollar amounts since they are auto filled. Going forward I'll use the Tools > Reconcile an Account to do a manual balance as you suggest if I have a credit balance.