Net Worth by Year Report Bug

M Campbell Crockett

I'm currently running Quicken Premier Version 6.1.1 (Build 601.37924.100) and it's Beta version on macOS Version 11.2.3.  I created and saved a Net Worth by Year report some time ago.

I recently noticed an error in the generated report involving one traditional IRA account.  For 2021, the account shows a value $7913.xx more than is reported in the sidebar.  Statements from my brokerage are in storage so I can't determine how long the error has been occurring although the difference in value at the end of 2020 was $8925.xx.

I reconcile this account at the end of each month with no discrepancy between the Quicken balance reported in the sidebar and my brokerage statement.  Is there any way to determine what is triggering this error and how it might be corrected?

Quicken Francisco

Hello @M Campbell Crockett

Thank you for reaching out on the community and telling us about your issue. I do apologize for the issue you're having. Are having this error in both the Beta and the live build or just in one? If you wouldn't mind could you take a screenshot of the error as well. This will give us a bit more information to work with. I'll leave an article how to do so down below.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7663259/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-a-mac#latest

Once you get a chance let us know more and we'll take a look!

Thanks,

Quicken Francisco

jacobs

@M Campbell Crockett At the top of your sidebar, click the ••• icon and see if it is set to Show Today's Balance in Sidebar or Show Projected Balance in Sidebar. If you switch between the two, does the account value change in the sidebar?

In my file, I have a scheduled deposit every other week for my wife's salary. One of the splits is a pension plan contribution. If she was paid yesterday, but I haven't yet marked the transaction in my checking register to be Deposited, then the sidebar value for the pension account will be different depending on whether I am showing Today's Balance (the contribution from yesterday's scheduled-but-not-deposited deposit is not included in the sidebar balance) or Projected Balance (the deposit is included in the sidebar balance) -- and the Net Worth report can be different than either sidebar balance!

Here's why. The Net Worth report shows only posted -- not scheduled -- transactions. So if you have a deposit from yesterday not marked Deposited, it is not in the Net Worth Report, but it is in the sidebar showing Today's Balance. And if you switch the sidebar to Projected Balance, it includes as many future transactions as you have that register set to show.

Let me give a simplified example. Let's say this pension (asset) account has a value of $10,000 as of February 28. I have scheduled deposits of $100 on the 1st and 15th of every month, and I have the register set to show the next 30 days of transactions.

On March 1, this account receives a $100 deposit. The balance is now $10,100. There is a deposit of $100 scheduled for March 15, but I have not marked it deposited yet. There are also future scheduled deposits of $100 on April 1 and April 15 visible in my register. As of today, March 23, the Net Worth report would show the account is worth $10,100. The sidebar, set to show Today's Balance, would show the account is worth $10,200. And if the sidebar were set to show Projected Balance, the sidebar would show the account is worth $10,400. Three different amounts, all correct from their perspective.

And there's one more wrinkle. If this account were an investment account rather than a banking or asset/liability account, the Projected Balance in the sidebar would not include the future transactions. That clearly seems to be a bug -- Projected Balance works for some accounts but not for others -- but the developers have said it would be hard to fix due to the complexities of future investment transactions. And so, in their infinite wisdom, they have declared it is "working as designed" but can be considered as a possible future enhancement request. That makes no sense to me, and has confused many users who use the Projected Balance in their sidebar, but it's the reality we're stuck with.

Without knowing more specifics of your situation, I'm not sure if any of this is relevant to you, but reading your description of the problem made me think it might have to do with the different treatments of scheduled transactions (past, present and future) in the sidebar, the register and reports.

M Campbell Crockett

@Quicken Francisco

Sidebar: 

Net Worth by Year (2011-2021): 

jacobs

@M Campbell Crockett I see your numbers show a difference of $9,600.18 in the one account. Can you identify what that amount is? A withdrawal fro the account, or multiple withdrawals? As I explained above, this would be the case if you have a scheduled withdrawal(s) not yet marked Paid in this account: the Net Worth Over Time report shows the current balance of posted transactions, but does not include scheduled transactions, while the sidebar includes scheduled transactions.

M Campbell Crockett

@jacobs The "Show Today's Balance in Sidebar" option is selected.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to have projected or online balances displayed in the sidebar as they would provide misleading information about your current finances.

While I always keep the transaction view of my accounts displayed, if I switch to the portfolio view of the 4077 account, it's balance matches that displayed in the sidebar.

This "bug" only occurs with the Net Worth by Year report and effects the Retirement total and the Net Worth totals displayed at the top and bottom of the report.

jacobs

M Campbell Crockett said:

The "Show Today's Balance in Sidebar" option is selected.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to have projected or online balances displayed in the sidebar as they would provide misleading information about your current finances.

I agree with you, but clearly many Quicken users disagree and want to be able to see their future transactions reflected in the sidebar totals, which is why Quicken offers that option.

The issue I was raising is whether you have any scheduled transactions in this account, because this report and the sidebar treat scheduled transactions differently. for instance, since this is a retirement account, do you have scheduled withdrawal transactions? 

M Campbell Crockett

@jacobs None of my Brokerage and Retirement accounts have any scheduled transactions.

However, I do have scheduled transactions in my banking accounts for pensions, Social Security, and VA Disability Compensation.  The purpose of these is to correctly identify the Payee when the transactions are downloaded from the bank and, in the case of Social Security to record a split for Medicare Part B that is deducted from the monthly amount.  The bank accounts are reported correctly in the Net Worth by Year report.

M Campbell Crockett

@jacobs Most of my investment records are in storage but have 3 binders available that allowed me to check 4077 balances back to 2017.  Below are the variances from my brokerage statements. 

• 2021  $9,600.18
• 2020  $9,392.48
• 2019  $8,925.38
• 2018  $5,538.24
• 2017  $3,502.55

Clearly the variances have been increasing over time.  Except for the month of March 2021, all of my transactions in the 4077 retirement account have been reconciled except for 4 Placeholder transactions that Quicken created.  I needed to live them in the database so that the transactions and holdings would match my brokerage records.

jacobs

I would have thought these amounts might be scheduled RMD or other withdrawal transactions, but you say there are no scheduled transactions in this account. 

I can therefore only say that I cannot replicate the issue you describe without the use of unposted scheduled transactions, nor do I recall anyone else reporting such a discrepancy with their Net Worth reports. Unfortunately, without seeing your transactions, I can't offer further guesses as to what's going on. Sorry, I tried.

To get Quicken to look into this as a bug, you would have to (and/or they would have to) examine the data to determine the source of the discrepancy.

M Campbell Crockett

@jacobs Normally, I just call my brokerage at the beginning of January and have them transfer the RMD from my other retirement account to my taxable account and invest the RMD.  I have never withdrawn any RMD from the 4077 account in the last twenty years.

Thanks for your efforts.

M Campbell Crockett

@jacobs I rarely if ever use Quicken's Calendar feature; however, I used it recently and discovered that it has the same bug as I reported for the Net Worth Report.  When the Calendar feature was introduced in 2015(?), I recall opening a problem report regarding how it reported investment activity along with a number of others that were Beta testing Quicken(Mac).  Apparently the bugs still haven't been corrected.