Unable to reconcile account. Can I start anew being its a new year

car311

Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
I’ve been a Quicken user going way back. When I had to upgrade to Version 6.0.3 (2020) it seemed to migrate the accounts automatically.

There are 3 accounts involved. One I was able to figure out and reconcile to the bank statement.
One I haven’t looked at yet because I am totally perplexed over the 2nd account.
So many problems. The amount being shown as “Today’s Balance”, just seems to be an arbitrary number. It would be very nice if it was my balance but unfortunately, not even close. So I don’t know what to do about that.
I clicked on “reconcile” and it shows nothing has been reconciled in 2018, 2019 or 2020; when this is not the case. I’ve reconciled every month in the old Quicken up until the time I migrated to new Quicken which was Oct or Nov 2020.
Also in the column on the left in the register, the one that has a dot (of maybe it’s called a bullet), next to the “Date” column, shows a clock with a red circle. That may be an indication that that transaction has not been cleared but I’m not sure.
So now not knowing how to proceed, and being it is the beginning of a new year, I’m thinking I would just like to start from scratch and set this particular account up as a new account. Need some feedback and suggestions.

jacobs

Is this the icon you see, or something else?

That icon is a scheduled transaction which is "past due" -- a scheduled transaction not marked as "Paid" in Quicken. If you have such transactions, you need to either mark them paid (icon in the bottom toolbar), or delete them if they were otherwise entered in your register along the way.

I would ignore "Today's Balance" in the upper right for the moment. Return to that once you get your account reconciled and balanced correctly. That balance figure is affected by such things as scheduled transactions, so I'd ignore it until the register is ship-shape. 

I don't know why your reconcile status for prior year transactions didn't import from Quicken 2007; it typically does. 

Does the running balance in your register agree with your bank statement as of the end of last month? If yes, it may prove easy to reconcile as of 12/31/20, select all transactions (even if it's three years worth), get reconciled and move forward.

If not, well, you've got some sleuthing to do to find out where things differ from before. Do you still have Quicken 2007 on your computer? You can fire it up to look at your transactions and balances alongside modern Quicken Mac; they won't affect each other. If you go back a year, or two, or three, can you find a point at which the old Quicken and the new Quicken agree on the running balance? Then jump forward in increments of a few months and check again; if they're still in sync, continue moving forward; if not, move back in a smaller jump until you can identify something different between the two. Is a transaction missing or changed? This may sound daunting, but if you can run your old Quicken alongside the new, it shouldn't tale long to get to the bottom of the discrepancy. (If you can't run Quicken 2007 anymore, post back and we can discuss other strategies for getting your account back into balance.)

jacobs

First, I'm confused about you saying it automatically starts exporting when you launch Quicken 2007. Quicken 2007 doesn't even know the new Quicken Mac exists, and I've never heard of it spontaneously exporting. What exactly does it export? And after it's done exporting, does it not leave you in your normal account registers?

(Side note: I don't know how long ago you switched from Quicken 2007, but exporting is not the preferred way to start in modern Quicken Mac. It may explain why the status of your reconciled transactions didn't come across. If you haven't yet spent too much time in the new Quicken Mac yet, you might want to try doing a clean import from your Quicken 2007 data file using the best method: File > New in Quicken Mac, selecting Start from a Quicken 2007 file, and selecting the Quicken 2007 data file to import from.)

Part of the reason I'm exploring whether you can get your old data balanced is that there is not an easy way to start fresh on 1/1/21 unless you mean completely from scratch. To start completely new in 2021, you can go to File > New and select Start from scratch. Then you'll create your accounts, and start entering your data. But are you actually okay with abandoning your 20-some years of data history?

Now, you absolutely can keep one Quicken data file for your historical data -- unreconciled and with possibly wrong balances -- for when you want to look up something from the past, while using a new data file moving forward. For me, having all my financial history in one place is one of the key reasons I use Quicken, so it was important to me when I migrated from Quicken 2007 that I brought across almost everything from the past. (I had some glitches due to corruption in Quicken 2007 which I was previously aware of, so I gave up on a few small things, but fundamentally I have my data from more than two decades in my current data file.)

Another alternative is to move forward with your imported data, and force everything to be reconciled as of 12/31/20 so you can move forward smoothly. To do that, you'd reconcile each account to your December statements, and create adjustments as required by Quicken to get your ending balances correct. (You'd also want to check to make sure you have no "Live Opening Balance" transactions at the beginning of your history in each account, which could cause your balances to shift in the future.)

jacobs

Aha! I think I see the issue with the auto-importing. You wrote "I clicked on the file" -- by which I assume you mean your Quicken 2007 data file. That is apparently causing the modern Quicken Mac to launch and begin importing the data from the old file.

The question is whether you still have the Quicken 2007 application on your Mac. (Or if you have it on a backup.) If so, double-clicking on the application -- not the data file -- should open it just as you've been using it for years, without triggering any import into modern Quicken Mac. 

jacobs

Is this the icon you see, or something else?

That icon is a scheduled transaction which is "past due" -- a scheduled transaction not marked as "Paid" in Quicken. If you have such transactions, you need to either mark them paid (icon in the bottom toolbar), or delete them if they were otherwise entered in your register along the way.

I would ignore "Today's Balance" in the upper right for the moment. Return to that once you get your account reconciled and balanced correctly. That balance figure is affected by such things as scheduled transactions, so I'd ignore it until the register is ship-shape. 

I don't know why your reconcile status for prior year transactions didn't import from Quicken 2007; it typically does. 

Does the running balance in your register agree with your bank statement as of the end of last month? If yes, it may prove easy to reconcile as of 12/31/20, select all transactions (even if it's three years worth), get reconciled and move forward.

If not, well, you've got some sleuthing to do to find out where things differ from before. Do you still have Quicken 2007 on your computer? You can fire it up to look at your transactions and balances alongside modern Quicken Mac; they won't affect each other. If you go back a year, or two, or three, can you find a point at which the old Quicken and the new Quicken agree on the running balance? Then jump forward in increments of a few months and check again; if they're still in sync, continue moving forward; if not, move back in a smaller jump until you can identify something different between the two. Is a transaction missing or changed? This may sound daunting, but if you can run your old Quicken alongside the new, it shouldn't tale long to get to the bottom of the discrepancy. (If you can't run Quicken 2007 anymore, post back and we can discuss other strategies for getting your account back into balance.)

car311

Jacobs, I am so grateful for your response and value your help. Yes, that is the icon and at least that's one less unanswered question, now answered. As far as opening the older version that would be ideal but it won't let me. Each time it I open it it starts exporting to the new version and I have to cancel. Rather then spend the time it would take to go back years, and I don't even know if it's just 3 years, it may be everything from 2003, or whenever I started, I figure it would be most expeditious to start from Jan 1 2021. It's not ideal but considering the amount of hours to bring it up to date, hours I can't afford, I would like to begin fresh. What do you think about that, and how would I do that?

jacobs

First, I'm confused about you saying it automatically starts exporting when you launch Quicken 2007. Quicken 2007 doesn't even know the new Quicken Mac exists, and I've never heard of it spontaneously exporting. What exactly does it export? And after it's done exporting, does it not leave you in your normal account registers?

(Side note: I don't know how long ago you switched from Quicken 2007, but exporting is not the preferred way to start in modern Quicken Mac. It may explain why the status of your reconciled transactions didn't come across. If you haven't yet spent too much time in the new Quicken Mac yet, you might want to try doing a clean import from your Quicken 2007 data file using the best method: File > New in Quicken Mac, selecting Start from a Quicken 2007 file, and selecting the Quicken 2007 data file to import from.)

Part of the reason I'm exploring whether you can get your old data balanced is that there is not an easy way to start fresh on 1/1/21 unless you mean completely from scratch. To start completely new in 2021, you can go to File > New and select Start from scratch. Then you'll create your accounts, and start entering your data. But are you actually okay with abandoning your 20-some years of data history?

Now, you absolutely can keep one Quicken data file for your historical data -- unreconciled and with possibly wrong balances -- for when you want to look up something from the past, while using a new data file moving forward. For me, having all my financial history in one place is one of the key reasons I use Quicken, so it was important to me when I migrated from Quicken 2007 that I brought across almost everything from the past. (I had some glitches due to corruption in Quicken 2007 which I was previously aware of, so I gave up on a few small things, but fundamentally I have my data from more than two decades in my current data file.)

Another alternative is to move forward with your imported data, and force everything to be reconciled as of 12/31/20 so you can move forward smoothly. To do that, you'd reconcile each account to your December statements, and create adjustments as required by Quicken to get your ending balances correct. (You'd also want to check to make sure you have no "Live Opening Balance" transactions at the beginning of your history in each account, which could cause your balances to shift in the future.)

car311

You are amazing to take the time and have the patience to go over this so thoroughly and carefully. Very few people read as carefully as you are reading and I'm trying to be brief but thorough. So once again, thank you. If you go back to the very first comment I made when starting this dialogue, "When I had to upgrade to Version 6.0.3 (2020) it seemed to migrate the accounts automatically. " So after reading your comments I started questioning myself and what actually happened. Following what you said about it doesn't migrate I tried once again to go back to the old Quicken and try to lay it out side by side. I clicked on the file and immediately got notice with new quicken logo on top "Importing Date..." "Processing 2538 transaction from bank ...." I quickly clicked on "Cancel".
And that is what happened originally when I installed new Quicken, clicked on old file and wham .... it was all in the new Quicken and I thought, amazing. But according to what you are saying I am figuring I did something wrong initially. But it is getting me crazy. In the last few months I had two computers die. Just dropped dead. One minute I was humming along and black screen and nothing after that. Two IMacs within a couple of months of one another. Now I'm faced with new OS that I don't really know how to maneuver and having to learn all new programs, which is not what I want to do. Quicken is the biggest challenge for so many years it's been there for me and now it's a mess.

So I don't know what to do next. I doubt that I can ever straighten it out even if I put in mega hours which I really can't do. Of course I would rather keep the same register for all the reasons you named but feel like I have my back against the wall (as it is said).

I only use Quicken as a check register. What I mean is I don't go online, don't use it to budget or any of the wonderful things that can be done with it. All I want to do is manually enter my transactions, print my checks, reconcile at the end of the month and pull up reports that I may need for taxes etc.

Quicken that I loved has taken my very basic record keeping into something that is more than I can handle. I eagerly look forward to...an await your feedback.

jacobs

Aha! I think I see the issue with the auto-importing. You wrote "I clicked on the file" -- by which I assume you mean your Quicken 2007 data file. That is apparently causing the modern Quicken Mac to launch and begin importing the data from the old file.

The question is whether you still have the Quicken 2007 application on your Mac. (Or if you have it on a backup.) If so, double-clicking on the application -- not the data file -- should open it just as you've been using it for years, without triggering any import into modern Quicken Mac. 

car311

OK, I see somehow I fouled up from the getgo. I am unable to find a old Quicken application anywhere. I have date files backed-up but never thought I would need a backup of the application. But as I'm clicking on data files they are converting so even if I can find an old disk I may not have the data. Is there anyway to reconstruct what was before I got involved with New Quicken? Probably not, just wishful thinking.

So now I am re-reading all that you have written and trying to figure out my best approach. As you say you wouldn't want to loose all those years of transactions. No I don't want to loose that data but the tradeoff of hours to reconstruct is not a possibility. However, if I do a massive "clear" of all and force the end of year 2020 balance how accurate will any information or reports be? And that is why I am thinking of a clean Jan 2021 restart. Any other guidance? Not a happy camper :-( but happy having your support. :-)

jacobs

The absence of the Quicken 2007 application explains why double-clicking on your old data files is launching the current Quicken Mac.

As I wrote above, you have three alternatives: (1) Spend some time to get your account balances and reconciliations up to date; (2) Force the issue by just making an adjustment transaction in each account to make the balance of each account exactly match your latest bank account/brokerage statement; (3) Start a new, blank file for 2021. (You could keep your converted old data around in a separate file, just to be able to refer to it when you want, even though there may be some missing data somewhere causing the balances not to be correct.)