Show all Uncleared Entries on Reconciliation Screen

Daffy Duck

Currently when you open the reconciliation screen for a given period it shows all uncleared transactions since the last reconciliation. It also shows uncleared transactions from prior periods - but they are gray.

I believe all uncleared transactions, including those after the reconciliation date should be shown. Ideally the ones after the transaction date should be grayed like the ones from prior periods.

Based on my experience, when I have checked my entries and still am out of balance, transactions that I though occurred after month end were recorded by the bank in the current period. This could be related to the timing of direct deposits or typos on my part. I believe if all uncleared transactions were available on the reconciliation screen it would simplify the process as I would not have to go to the register to find the problem

jacobs

I'd offer a friendly amendment to this request: an option to display dates past the end date of the statement being reconciled. I envision something simple:

    Show [  ] days of transactions past end date

where users could specify the number of days. Or this could be similar to future scheduled transactions, with an option to show transactions into the future for 7 days, 14 days, 1 month, or all future transactions.

NotACPA

To "Reconcile" is to compare.  You're comparing your account register recorded in Q to the bank  statement (or online amount).

How can ANY transaction appear on the statement after the statement cutoff date???

It simply can't.  Thus, how can uncleared future entries be involved in  the reconciliation?

PAST  uncleared entries already appear ... so I completely don't understand this request and don't see the need for it.

jacobs

@NotACPA  This idea request from @Daffy Duck comes from a separate discussion in which he raised the issue of a deposit scheduled for the first of each month which arrives several days before the end of the month. You can move the deposit in Quicken back to the date it actually occurred, in order to reconcile correctly with the bank -- but that puts the income in a month different than the one in which it may belong.

We discussed that in a true business accounting program, the cash deposit in one month could be accrued and reversed through adjusting entries so the income remains in the following month. Doing so in Quicken is possible, but pretty cumbersome. And thus the request to be able to simply see, and mark as cleared, a transaction that is recorded as coming after the end date of a statement if it shows up in the bank "early". Read through this discussion thread for more details.

Chris_QPW

It sounds like this is a reconcile dealing with manually entered transactions, not ones downloaded from the financial institution.

Here are three scenarios I can think of happening.
The first is the one I think would have to be true for this request.

You manually enter transactions in the register (or get a reminder to do it) and stay the statement data is 11/30/2020.  You have a transaction entered into the register as 12/1/2020, but that transaction actually cleared the bank on 11/30/2020.  You will not see this transaction in the reconcile.

Same as above, but you are downloading transactions, and matching them to transactions that were manually entered.  If this transaction was properly matched then the downloaded posting date would be used in the reconcile and as such show up in the reconcile.

But there is a variation to this.  Note I don't know how the Mac "matching" works, but it might be that the match might not match transactions dated in the future.  This is true with Windows.  And if the user didn't catch it at this point you will have duplicate transaction, but I still see the reconciling processing working.  As in the downloaded one would be reconciled on this statement, and then on the next month reconcile the manually entered one would be included and the reconcile would fail like it should and the user would finished process of reconciling by determining that there was this transaction that didn't belong in this reconcile.

The last one is no manually entered transaction just downloaded ones.  In this case there should be no reason that the transaction dated in the future should be included.  After all that would a statement that the financial institution placed the same transaction at two different dates.

I would also add that it is "improper" to include future dated transactions and pull them into this reconcile without changing the date(s).  So if they had this suggested feature I think that part of the process would be to ask the user what is the proper date for any transaction after the reconcile date. 

BTW a point about the history of how Quicken has done this over the years.  A long time ago Quicken would include any uncleared transaction in the reconcile.  That might sound like an ideal for your suggestion, but there are people that purposely enter transactions a month or more a head of time as way of predicting their cash flow.  Needless to say having all of their uncleared transactions in the reconcile doesn't work well.

jacobs

@Chris_QPW  In the original discussion, the original poster said he did indeed have a scheduled transaction for the first of the month. If downloading transactions, Quicken Mac gives users the option to either retain the manually entered date or accept the posted date.

I agree with you that clearing a transaction beyond the statement ending date seems "improper", and originally made that point in the original discussion. But I do now see there's a legitimate -- narrow -- reason for this. If the user has a pension payment scheduled for the first of the month, but it posts on the 29th of the prior month, there is currently no good alternative but moving the deposit back to the 29th, because it must be there in order to reconcile the bank statement for the prior month. But that puts the income in the wrong month. If this is consistent, every single month, then it's not really a big deal once you start, because there will be one deposit every month. But wat it the payment is quarterly? What if the payment is sometimes on the 30th and sometimes on the 1st? In true accounting software, you'd record the deposit when it occurs and recognize the income when it's earned, and then make a reversing accrual if needed to "time shift" between the months. This could be done in Quicken, with an asset holding account and extra transactions, but it ain't easy because Quicken isn't designed to be used as a double-entry accrual-based accounting program. so it seems a viable work-around for such a situation for a personal finance program like Quicken to simply allow the user to see and clear transactions beyond the statement end date.

And, yes, this should be hidden from view for most users who will be confused by it, and available only as an option manually selected by a user who realizes they need it.

Chris_QPW

@jacobs good point on the income, I didn't think of that case.  Certainly could mess up budgets and such.

NotACPA

If the payment is received on 12/31/xx it's reportable on the tax return of Year XX ... even if it's actually due 1/1/YY.

Same is true for any other EOM/FOM combination.

In cash basis accounting, money is reportable WHEN RECEIVED,  not  WHEN DUE.

jacobs

@NotACPA  I agree the best practice is simply to show the deposits in Quicken on the date they are deposited (posted), a preference setting which Quicken Mac accommodates. If these are regularly recurring monthly or quarterly transactions that always arrive in the prior month, then there will still be 12 or 4 monthly transactions each calendar year (with the possible exception of the first year if one has been doing it differently in the past). That's the way I would choose to do it. 

But because not all such events have tax implications, I understand why a user might prefer the alternative. And thus this idea thread.

I personally think the developers have much more important fish to fry than this one, even regarding reconciliations -- Quicken Mac is still waiting for the ability to revisit past reconciliations for when something is off, and to be able to print a reconciliation report for those who want one for their records -- but if there are a lot of users like the original poster above, they can vote for this concept and see if the developers tackle it further down the road.

Daffy Duck

As I read through this thread, I fail to see how it would be confusing to anyone if the later transactions are visible. Part of reconciling is determining what transactions cleared and what did not.

There is one other situation that I do not believe was mentioned in the thread - that occurs when the user makes an input error on a manual entry and types in say November 2 on an entry related to an October transaction. When he goes to reconcile he is out of balance and says to himself - I know I entered this - but its not there. If it showed up on the reconciliation screen he sees the entry and can fix it. And ultimately that is the purpose of reconciling - find and correct errors.

(I am the author of the original entry on this thread.)

Daffy Duck

I would think for budgeting purposes you would want the transactions to show up in the periods they are related to not the period they are recorded in. This is particularly true of income - where I have some months that have my income for two months showing up in my bank account and none in other months. That uncertainty would be problematic in the budgeting process

As I am currently converting from [removed - no soliciting] to Quicken, I do agree with the comment that my suggestion would complicate things when you are bringing years new data into Quicken. But that is something you only do once. But the way things are, it caused me problems in many months so I moved my End of Period for reconciliations to the first of the following month.

Lastly, as a long term user of [removed] and prior to that older versions of Quicken (2007 and earlier) and both of those programs let you see all uncleared transactions when performing a reconciliation. [removed] reconciliation process is extremely similar to Quicken - and displays all uncleared transactions with no problems. Users accept it and seem to have no problem with it.

smayer97

Daffy Duck said:

As I read through this thread, I fail to see how it would be confusing to anyone if the later transactions are visible. ....

The issue is less about confusion and more about accuracy.

Daffy Duck said:

...

Lastly, as a long term user of [removed] and prior to that older versions of Quicken (2007 and earlier) and both of those programs let you see all uncleared transactions when performing a reconciliation.

...

Not true. QM2007 only shows uncleared transactions where the transaction date is on or before the end period date.