Pros/Cons - Closed Accounts vs Hidden Accounts

Ps56k2

After I have an account that is physically closed and no longer used, I was, within Quicken then checkmarking them for - Separate & Hidden - out of sight, out of mind.

So now, the question is - for these same accounts is it better to just "Close" them.
What's the difference from the Quicken point of view ?

BTW - I have gone thru most of my old and hidden accounts and now Closed them.

NotACPA

If an account is closed in real life, I close it in Q, and after that year end I hide it.

Rocket J Squirrel

I hesitate to do anything permanent and non-undoable in Quicken.

The only time I close an account in Q is when it represents an asset I no longer own, like a car or a house.

NotACPA

I'm not sure how that differs from my "closed in real life" qualifier.  A closed credit card isn't reopened ...  it gets a new account number.  Same for checking,  savings, loan accounts, etc.

Closed is closed.  It doesn't matter, to me, if it's an asset or a liability.

Chris_QPW

I'm with @Rocket J Squirrel on this.  If Quicken Windows didn't have this ridiculous "permanent" closed, I would then consider using it.  Note that in Quicken Mac you can reopen a closed account.  There really isn't any justification for this being non reversible.

People have been "closing" accounts in Quicken since day one.  There isn't anything that the closed functions does other than put that icon on the account that you can't do manually.

I have used the close function exactly one time.  And guess what?
Shortly after I found a reason why I wanted it opened again.
I ended up having to create a new account and move the transactions into that new account.  Luckily it was a non investment account where this was possible.  I could have gone to a backup, but it was a long enough time in between that I would have lot of work to get everything up to date.

miklk

Closed is a nice visual clue that the account is closed. Unfortunately, the fact that it is permanent makes it so many of us don't use it.

Quicken doesn't treat it any different from any other open account as far as I can see. 

Chris_QPW

miklk said:

Closed is a nice visual clue that the account is closed. Unfortunately, the fact that it is permanent makes it so many of us don't use it.

Quicken doesn't treat it any different from any other open account as far as I can see. 

BTW one thing that was pointed out in a discussion on closed accounts in a Quicken Mac thread is that Quicken should make closed accounts "read-only".  This would be one real benefit that is "different" from an open account.

And I have to agree with that statement.  The point came up when somehow a closed account got changed and that of course messed up other account balances and such.

But of course if they do that, there would be even more reasons why it should be reversible.