When reconciling, why does the "Quicken Balance" not match the balance in the register?

Talix

Hello, I am having a problem reconciling a long-standing credit card account. The statement shows the opening balance on 10/03/2020 as 4,913.57, which matches my account register balance exactly. However, when I try to reconcile, it shows the "Quicken Balance" as 3,968.48, giving me a difference of 945.09.

Why is the "Quicken Balance" different from the register balance? More importantly, how can I fix it so they agree?

All of my transactions from that date and earlier are reconciled (I checked by filtering to only show uncleared transactions, and none of them were before that date).

I appreciate any assistance anyone can give! :smile:

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Talix

Thank you for the response and the screenshots. The adjustment states that it was created due to previously reconciled transactions being changed. A change could mean that a transaction(s) was edited or a transaction(s) was deleted.

The way forward is to either locate the $945.09 that is missing from the Quicken register or add an adjustment to make the reconciliation agree.

If you would like to search for the discrepancy, I would recommend reaching out to support for one on one assistance.

https://www.quicken.com/support#contact-support

Quicken support has the ability to initiate a screen share which can help locate the issue.

-Quicken Tyka

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Talix

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to post your issue, although I apologize that you have not received a response.

While on the reconcile screen, do you show any transactions that are not marked as cleared?



Marking a transaction as cleared will include the amount in the Quicken balance. Please let me know what you find!

-Quicken Tyka

Talix

Hello Tyka, thank you for your response! There are no transactions on my screen at the time I described. See attached screenshot, which I would have attached last time if I had realized how to do so in this forum. :p

Thank you for in advance for any other advice or suggestions you might have!

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Talix

Thank you for your response and the screenshot of the reconcile screen.

I would next navigate to the register and add the CLR (cleared) column to the register to determine if the transactions have been reconciled.

To add columns to the register, go to Columns in the bottom right-hand corner and ensure that there is a blue check by the Clr column.


If any of the transactions have a green checkmark that means they are already reconciled and won't show in the reconcile window.





If that isn't the issue I would check the Statement Ending Date. Any transactions that have a date after the date listed in the reconcile window will not show either.



Please let me know if either of these 2 things is the issue!

-Quicken Tyka

Talix

Hello @Quicken_Tyka, thank you so much for continuing to discuss this, and I'm impressed with the level of detail and screenshots you provide. Is there a way I should be embedding pictures in my post, rather than dragging and dropping a file onto the text box to attach it?

To discuss your suggestions, I have many reconciled transactions going back many years. I have attached a screenshot showing the cleared column. I'm not sure what you are asking when you say "to determine if the transactions have been reconciled" and "If that isn't the issue". I thought that if all transactions were reconciled, the "Quicken Balance" would match the displayed register balance for any given day.

I have been selecting the "Use Online Balance" method of reconciliation for demonstration here, but I've tried the "Use Statement Balance" method as well. When I put in the end date (10/02/2020), start balance, and end balance, I get the same difference in dollars (see second attached screenshot).

I notice the statement says it starts at 09/03/2020, and says the starting balance is $3,150.26, and when I check in Quicken in the register, sure enough the balance at the end of the transaction before 9/3 matches that start balance (see third attached screenshot). So why is Quicken adding an opening balance adjustment of -$818.22? (see fourth attached screenshot)

It says that it calculated the sum of the previously reconciled transactions to be different than the balance that both the statement and the register show at that date. But if there are no uncleared transactions before that date (as determined by filtering to show only uncleared transactions and then sorting by date), how can that be? I double checked that the original view had no filters.

If it matters, we upgraded from Quicken 2007 to this new Quicken Subscription software as of the end of this past December, but besides this everything has been working well and I've actually been very happy with the data import process.

Again, thank you for your time and assistance!

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Talix

Thank you for the response and the screenshots. The adjustment states that it was created due to previously reconciled transactions being changed. A change could mean that a transaction(s) was edited or a transaction(s) was deleted.

The way forward is to either locate the $945.09 that is missing from the Quicken register or add an adjustment to make the reconciliation agree.

If you would like to search for the discrepancy, I would recommend reaching out to support for one on one assistance.

https://www.quicken.com/support#contact-support

Quicken support has the ability to initiate a screen share which can help locate the issue.

-Quicken Tyka

Hiker Jim

This is a persistent issue with me as well. With me, my checking account was opened on July 20, 2019 with a deposit of $10,000. After the statement closing date of August 2, 2019, I was credited with a $.68 interest deposit. However, when I try to reconcile (which I haven't yet done on this account), I get the message that the Quicken balance doesn't equal the register balance due to a balance adjustment previously entered. My register shows no balance adjustments whatsoever.

How do I "undo" reconciled statements, or how do I see a list of these "balance adjustments"? It seems that if entered, this is hidden from users?

I have no uncleared transactions, and the ending dates are fine.

Jim

jacobs

Is your opening transaction "Live Opening Balance", in gray? If so, I'd try deleting that opening balance, then entering a manual transaction on the date you opened it for the amount of the opening balance. 

Next, do you have the "Clr" column visible in your register? I think you do from your comment, but I just wanted to make sure; this is essential for tracking down reconciliation problems, so make it visible if it's not. It will show transactions which are reconciled with a green check mark (which should be no transactions if you've never reconciled the account), and marked as cleared with a blue check mark (which should also likely be no transactions if you haven't reconciled this check mark).

To answer your question, there are no hidden transactions; everything in the account is visible. 

I'm confused about your question about how to undo reconciled statements, because you wrote that you have not yet reconciled this account. When you have this register open, on the Transactions menu, is Reconciliation History grayed out?

It might be helpful if you post a screenshot of the top of the reconcile window where you're getting the message about the balance adjustment.

Suzanne108

I am having the same problem.

Last week, I merged four previous accounts into the current one when I realized that I did not have to be creating new accounts every time the card was replaced with a new account number due to fraud.

I reconcile my accounts every month, noting the bank's statement balance in the memo section matches the balance shown by Quicken. After merging all the accounts and removing duplicate transactions so that all of those reconciled balances match, all was fine.

But now when I reconcile, the Quicken balance in the reconciliation function shows as zero and after entering the new statement balance as of 7-5-2021, it is off by $962.45 even though my own reconciliations match perfectly. This happens even if I enter the 6-4-2021 balance as the previous balance.

I recently had fraudulent activity yet again and was given a new account number with the physical card on the way. Is this the reason the Quicken balance in the recon function shows as 0? How do I fix that? I don't actually care what Quicken thinks the balance is since I match my Quicken register with my bank statement every month.

FWIW, I merged multiple accounts for two other credit cards the same way I did this one and the reconciliations worked fine.

Can anyone help? Thank you.

Suzanne108

Disregard my last post. I found the errant amount in two adjacent places: 1. a double entry probably from duplication from one of the merged accounts; and 2. an adjustment entry that must have been made to offset that. Perhaps that will help other people who are experiencing the same issue.