Scheduled Transactions add uncategorized amounts

Martin R

Good day, I've noticed on multiple occasions that some of my scheduled transactions add an uncategorized amount. It's been going on for some time now and I don't have any rules or quick fill rules. For example, I have a bill for electricity that I split in two categories, it's always the same amount 100$) and sometimes, instead of showing -100$ in my chequing account, it shows as +80$ because of an added uncategorized amount. It happens often and with multiple transactions, but not all the time.

Using Quicken Deluxe for Mac (Canada)

jacobs

I'm sorry, I'm still not clear on what's happening.

It may (or may not) shed some light on things if you, at least temporarily, go to Quicken Preferences > Register and change the first radio button from Short to Long names for categories. 

Please walk us through how and when this change in amount and split takes place. You have the original transaction, for $101.70 with two splits, and it's a scheduled transaction, right? And something happens which changes the actual amount of the transaction from a $101.70 expense to a $56.50 deposit/credit, right?

The additional split is appearing simply to make the sum of the splits equal the total amount of the transaction, so the Uncategorized split isn't actually the concern here -- it's how the transaction amount is being changed.

Do you manually click the Paid button in your register? Do you download from your credit card (or checking account), and Quicken matches the downloaded transaction to the scheduled transaction? If the latter, could you click on the transaction, go to View > Inspector, and look at the last line in the Inspector window for the "Statement Amount". What amount does it show? 

Quicken Francisco

Hello @Martin R

Thank you for reaching out on the community and telling us about your issue. I do apologize for the issue you're having. In this case it would help if we could get a couple of screenshots to see exactly what is happening. This will help us figure out what steps we can take to have the issue you're having. I'll leave an article down below on how to do so.

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

note you may need to drag the photos into the response box in order to add them to the post.

Once you get the chance let us know more!

Thanks,

Quicken Francisco

Martin R

Here is a screenshot, disregard the redacted text, the issue is with the added uncategorized amount that pops up in my scheduled transactions, it seems more and more common now, throughout various accounts.
Thank you for helping :smile:

jacobs

Your screenshot doesn't make clear which column is which, but I'm guessing from the colors that the first column with numbers is Amount and the second is Balance? If not, please clarify.

It appears that the Uncategorized amount is being added because of an issue with positive and negative numbers. The main transaction here shows $56.50 in green. If this is a checking account, a positive number is in green, and reflects money coming into your account. If this bill is a payment of a phone bill or electric bill, the amount should be negative. So you have two negative split amounts, but because the total is positive, Quicken is adding an Uncategorized split to bring the total of the splits to a positive $56.50.

I'm not sure which value here is correct. Is $56.50 the correct amount of a bill being paid? If so, that number should be negative. But then I don't understand the splits, since the first split is the same $56.50 expense; what is the second split? You can't have the main amount be $56.50, a split also be $56.50, and have another split for some additional amount -- the splits must add up to the main amount. 

Martin R

I have taken another screenshot with clarification

The transaction is scheduled as a negative amount of 101.70 split in two categories:
45.20 for mobile phone and 56.50 to an account that is type “Asset” which I use as an accounts receivable. For some reason, when it appears, it adds an uncategorized amount of 158.20 which changes the total amount to +56.50.

The same situation appears in my checking account, the error may be linked to the second split, the Asset account. Looking back, it also happened with other Asset type accounts. The thing is that it doesn’t happen all the time, which I find very strange!

jacobs

I'm sorry, I'm still not clear on what's happening.

It may (or may not) shed some light on things if you, at least temporarily, go to Quicken Preferences > Register and change the first radio button from Short to Long names for categories. 

Please walk us through how and when this change in amount and split takes place. You have the original transaction, for $101.70 with two splits, and it's a scheduled transaction, right? And something happens which changes the actual amount of the transaction from a $101.70 expense to a $56.50 deposit/credit, right?

The additional split is appearing simply to make the sum of the splits equal the total amount of the transaction, so the Uncategorized split isn't actually the concern here -- it's how the transaction amount is being changed.

Do you manually click the Paid button in your register? Do you download from your credit card (or checking account), and Quicken matches the downloaded transaction to the scheduled transaction? If the latter, could you click on the transaction, go to View > Inspector, and look at the last line in the Inspector window for the "Statement Amount". What amount does it show? 

Martin R

I do not download any transactions, I do it all manually and there is no link to my financial institution. Typically, I set reminders to show the next 30 days, this is when I see there is an error for upcoming transactions. When the transaction is posted at my bank, I click “Paid” on Quicken.

Just now I changed the register to display long names as suggested, changed the reminder to show the next 6 months to see the upcoming transactions that would usually have the wrong amount and looks like this may have resolved the issue.

Thank you very much for your support and for getting back to me so quickly!

jacobs

@Martin R I don't believe simply turning on long category names or displaying scheduled transactions farther into the future would resolve the issue, but perhaps you tweaked something else in the process. In any event, I'm glad it now looks correct for you moving forward!

Post back if things go sideways again.