Eliminating Very Old Debits From Reconciliation Window?

Snap

When I reconcile checking account, there are several very old debits that show up in the window that I'd like to not see every time. I do not check them off to get a "zero difference" balancing to match the bank statement.

Looking back to the old items they are not marked "C" or "R". At the advice of the Quicken chat agent, I tried to mark each one "R" (not in reconciliation window) and it affected the new reconciliation opening balance, which is not good because it will not match the next bank statement.

The reconciliations have been working appropriately, matching the bank statements, by ignoring those items but it would be preferred to not have the non-current debits show up at every reconciliation. Some of them are 37 years old so maybe in the multiple program file translations something went wrong?

Is there a work around or fix?

UKR

Please tell us more about "these old debits"?
What is it with them? Are they checks that you mailed and they were never cashed?
And does the Opening Balance transaction in your register match the bank statement's balance on that transaction date?

Snap

A couple are utility company payments, one to a doctor, etc so I presume they were cashed. Without interacting with them in the Reconciliation window, the reconciliation opening balance in Quicken matches the current Bank Statements and the reconciliations work, zeroing out. It's like the old checks just are along for the ride sitting in the debit window. They are back in the ledger and were not marked cleared or reconciliated.

Snap

I should add that one of items was a bank interest credit from 9 years ago. As with the other old items, if I just leave them alone in the reconciliation, the reconciliation works out.

Snap

If I were to mark the old transactions in question as reconciled in the ledger, and, as I noted, that messes up the opening reconciliation balance, can I override the auto-fill opening balance at the next reconciliation assuming that will drop the old items out of the reconciliation window?

UKR

The "Opening Balance transaction" I was asking about refers to the oldest register transaction in Quicken, when you first added this account register to Quicken.
But never mind that ...
I'm thinking that you should be able to mark these transactions as "Void" or change the amount to $0.00 and edit the Memo field to store the original transaction amount in it for reference. Finally mark these transactions as reconciled. Your next monthly reconcile should now be "clean".
Because your register already reconciles, I suspect that you have duplicate transactions or made balance adjustments to cover these old transactions.

Snap

Here's a weird thing. The very first odd old debit is the first transaction in the register and it's in 1983. The next transaction posted is in 2004, so something lost in translation?

If I understand your opening balance question, it was with that first 1983 debit and with the opening balance is a negative number equal to that check debit.

I'll try your suggestion with the first old debit and see if it leaves the register's balance.

Snap

I gave it a try, voiding the first ledger entry debit. That set the amount to $0, marked it cleared and inappropriately adjusted the ledger ending balance by that amount of the missing debit, so that won't be the solution. The ending ledger balance without the manipulation is correct, marching the bank statement.

Snap

Back to the weird thing comment. Even stranger is that the first ledger entry (1983), one that keeps showing up in the Reconciliation window is Before the opening balance for the account and it looks like it belongs in a different account (business vs personal).

UKR

It looks to me as if you have run Year End Copy in the past, to eliminate old reconciled transactions from the register.
YEC adjusts the Opening Balance transaction based on balance on cut-off day (2004?) +/- unreconciled older transactions (before 2004)

After voiding the 1983 transaction, adjust the Opening Balance by the amount of the voided check.

Now you should be able to void the rest of the unwanted transactions without messing up the reconcile end balance. But, voiding these transactions will change your running balance in the register so that it once again matches the daily bank balance

Snap

That probably did happen. I tried to delete the pre-opening balance debit and reduced the opening balance downward accordingly. The result was the correct final balance but the Reconciliation Opening Balance was low by the same amount.
Maybe they are just entries that will have to be lived with.