Previously reconciled checks become unreconciled

bussysconsultant

Long time Quicken user and IT professional. I am experiencing a problem where I go in to reconcile a bank statement and my beginning balance is off. Looking back at previously reconciled checks and deposits, I find some of them are no longer show reconciled. These can be back a couple of years. If I try to force them to be reconciled, it still doesn't correct the beginning balance. Strange thing is that the difference of the beginning balance is exactly the amount of the unreconciled items. The only way I found around it was to manually reconcile them and then create a dummy entry to get the Quicken opening balance and bank statement balance to agree. Also, I do not download bank transactions, I enter them manually into Quicken.

Mike6935

This is an ongoing issue that many are experiencing. In my case this used to happen frequently, but stopped happening the last couple years. But now I've had 2 transactions unreconcile in my checking register over the last 2 months. It's very frustrating!

Tom Young

Given what you've said here I guess I'd try a couple of things.

First, if you haven't already, try File > File Operations > Copy... and then using the copied file, File > File Operations > Validate and Repair...

If that doesn't do it then I'd try a complete uninstall/reinstall process.  A SuperUser has penned a real "belt and suspenders" approach to this process here

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7892218/can-i-safely-uninstall-all-previous-versions-of-quicken-on-my-laptop

that you may wish to try.

What you're experiencing shouldn't be happening - as you know - so it seems like it has to be either a file corruption problem or something that the program itself is doing because of a bad install.

Mike6935

This is an ongoing issue that many are experiencing. In my case this used to happen frequently, but stopped happening the last couple years. But now I've had 2 transactions unreconcile in my checking register over the last 2 months. It's very frustrating!

Chris_QPW

I have some guesses.

First off if you were using sync to mobile/web turn it off.  It can cause all kinds of problems like this.

Second as far as how you could get I cleared reconciled balance that is equal to these transactions that became unreconciled in the past it might be the bug that Quicken when the user was resetting an account will throw in and opening balance transaction when it shouldn't have.  The latest patch has a fix for this so that it shouldn't happen again.

But the point is is that an open balance transaction will be reconciled and not show up in the reconcile window but it will show up in the cleared balance.

bussysconsultant

> @"Tom Young" said:
> Given what you've said here I guess I'd try a couple of things.First, if you haven't already, try File > File Operations > Copy... and then using the copied file, File > File Operations > Validate and Repair...If that doesn't do it then I'd try a complete uninstall/reinstall process.  A SuperUser has penned a real "belt and suspenders" approach to this process herehttps://community.quicken.com/discussion/7892218/can-i-safely-uninstall-all-previous-versions-of-quicken-on-my-laptopthat you may wish to try.What you're experiencing shouldn't be happening - as you know - so it seems like it has to be either a file corruption problem or something that the program itself is doing because of a bad install.

Well, I've done the copy and validate before and it's still happening. This all started happening when I upgraded to the newest version of Quicken in January 2020 when my Quicken 2017 reached it's sunset expiration date and went to a yearly renewal basis.

bussysconsultant

> @Chris_QPW said:
> I have some guesses.
>
> First off if you were using sync to mobile/web turn it off.  It can cause all kinds of problems like this.
>
> Second as far as how you could get I cleared reconciled balance that is equal to these transactions that became unreconciled in the past it might be the bug that Quicken when the user was resetting an account will throw in and opening balance transaction when it shouldn't have.  The latest patch has a fix for this so that it shouldn't happen again.
>
> But the point is is that an open balance transaction will be reconciled and not show up in the reconcile window but it will show up in the cleared balance.

I don't use the mobile version at all, so that's not a problem. It just bothers me as a software developer that this bug is still around causing problems. If I wrote software that had this kind of a bug in it, my clients would never hire me again, especially if it's an ongoing one like this. I will be doing a few months reconciliation next week and will be curious to see if this bug still persists.

Mike6935

Thanks Chris for your quick response!

I'm not using the mobile app. Seems like this problem is now back with the latest releases of Quicken now that they've forced us to the subscription model. As mentioned, this had stopped happening for the last couple years which was great! But now it's back again unfortunately. Really hoping that Quicken support/development is paying attention to this.

Thanks!

Chris_QPW

@bussysconsultant For what it is worth I have used Quicken since 1992 and have been using Quicken Subscription since 2018 when it came out, and I have never had such a problem.

The only reason for point this out is to underline the fact that not everyone is seeing such problems, in fact it seems to be the minority that have the problem, and as such it is quite a "clean cut" of a problem you making it out to be.  How many bugs have you fixed that you haven't been able to reproduce?  For bugs like these I think that is at cornerstone of why they don't get fixed.  The bug/feature requests are huge for Quicken, and so if a bug can't be reproduced in a reasonable amount of time, it goes unfixed.

I think one reason I have less problems than the people that are reporting them here is because over the years I have learned what to avoid in Quicken.  Not to mention being a developer for over 40 years gives me pretty good idea of what is going on and what is really "supportable" and what is "sort of there" mostly because the users demand it, not because it is really something they can pull off with 100% reliability.

bussysconsultant

> @Chris_QPW said:
> @bussysconsultant For what it is worth I have used Quicken since 1992 and have been using Quicken Subscription since 2018 when it came out, and I have never had such a problem.
>
> The only reason for point this out is to underline the fact that not everyone is seeing such problems, in fact it seems to be the minority that have the problem, and as such it is quite a "clean cut" of a problem you making it out to be.  How many bugs have you fixed that you haven't been able to reproduce?  For bugs like these I think that is at cornerstone of why they don't get fixed.  The bug/feature requests are huge for Quicken, and so if a bug can't be reproduced in a reasonable amount of time, it goes unfixed.
>
> I think one reason I have less problems than the people that are reporting them here is because over the years I have learned what to avoid in Quicken.  Not to mention being a developer for over 40 years gives me pretty good idea of what is going on and what is really "supportable" and what is "sort of there" mostly because the users demand it, not because it is really something they can pull off with 100% reliability.

It seems we have both been using Quicken since 1992. I needed a better financial software package at that time, so Quicken was the answer. I still use Intuit software to run my consulting business, e.g. Quickbooks and TurboTax and have no complaints with either package. I never had a problem with Quicken until the subscription model came out. As a software developer who has been in the business for 60 years this coming November, I am quite aware that finding a software bug can be very hard to pin down unless you have the actual data files that are experiencing the problem, so you are preaching to the choir. I would have no problem submitting my database files to Quicken techs to see if that would help correct the problem.

I have noticed over the years that new releases of Quicken require restructuring the database files. I would suspect that one of these updates created a problem that would only happen under specific conditions. Maybe a more intense file validation would help when these new releases need to restructure the account files.

Chris_QPW

Actually there has been less "restructuring" of the database files then in the past.  Intuit use to change the data format every year.  Starting with Quicken 2016, Quicken Inc has keep the data file backwards compatible.  I did notice a few versions back that there was some kind "formatting/conversion" done "on the fly", but looking at my guess is that it had more to do with syncing data to the Quicken cloud data set, than the data file itself.

But there is no doubting that I'm seeing more reports of the "changed transactions in the past", and they just put out a staged release patch for the fact that sometimes the "Reset Connection/deactivate/activate" was causing Quicken to put in a "Opening Balance" transaction in a month or two into the past.  In some ways it is better that more people are reporting this problem maybe Quicken Inc will get what they need to get it fixed.
You can submit your data file (sanitized) using Help -> Report a problem.

I can only make a guess at this, but I really think the rash of problems are related to Express Web Connect going to QCS for the connection method.  Since I only have one Express Web Connect account and it is still using FDS and hasn't had to be reset in a long time, that might be one reason I have been able to avoid the recent problems.  For this you might want to look at this thread:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7882641/qcs-express-web-connect-is-cloud-sync

Then again if I have learned one thing over the years doing software development that is until you really dig in and find the problem most speculation about what the problem is, is pretty useless.

bussysconsultant

> @Chris_QPW said:
> Actually there has been less "restructuring" of the database files then in the past.  Intuit use to change the data format every year.  Starting with Quicken 2016, Quicken Inc has keep the data file backwards compatible.  I did notice a few versions back that there was some kind "formatting/conversion" done "on the fly", but looking at my guess is that it had more to do with syncing data to the Quicken cloud data set, than the data file itself.
>
> But there is no doubting that I'm seeing more reports of the "changed transactions in the past", and they just put out a staged release patch for the fact that sometimes the "Reset Connection/deactivate/activate" was causing Quicken to put in a "Opening Balance" transaction in a month or two into the past.  In some ways it is better that more people are reporting this problem maybe Quicken Inc will get what they need to get it fixed.
> You can submit your data file (sanitized) using Help -> Report a problem.
>
> I can only make a guess at this, but I really think the rash of problems are related to Express Web Connect going to QCS for the connection method.  Since I only have one Express Web Connect account and it is still using FDS and hasn't had to be reset in a long time, that might be one reason I have been able to avoid the recent problems.  For this you might want to look at this thread:
> https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7882641/qcs-express-web-connect-is-cloud-sync
>
> Then again if I have learned one thing over the years doing software development that is until you really dig in and find the problem most speculation about what the problem is, is pretty useless.

Thanks for your thoughts on the possible causes of the problem. I'm about to do 3 months worth of reconciliations on several accounts, so it should be interesting to see if I run into any more problems.

Tom Young

I don't know if you do this already but if you don't I'd recommend regularly protecting earlier transactions from change by using File > Set password to modify transactions... and updating the "through date."  (No need to update the password.)  I don't know if that setup can defeat some bug in the program but it's still "best practice" as far as I'm concerned. 

Chris_QPW

Tom Young said:

I don't know if you do this already but if you don't I'd recommend regularly protecting earlier transactions from change by using File > Set password to modify transactions... and updating the "through date."  (No need to update the password.)  I don't know if that setup can defeat some bug in the program but it's still "best practice" as far as I'm concerned. 

It would be interesting to see if it would indeed make a difference.  I doubt it though.  A bug doesn't ask permission.  In fact that is one of the main reasons I really dislike the way the cloud sync works.  It basically have "permission" to do anything in your data file it wants, and do it in the background where you can't see what is happening.

bussysconsultant

> @Tom Young said:
> I don't know if you do this already but if you don't I'd recommend regularly protecting earlier transactions from change by using File > Set password to modify transactions... and updating the "through date."  (No need to update the password.)  I don't know if that setup can defeat some bug in the program but it's still "best practice" as far as I'm concerned. 

Thanks Tom, it's worth a try at this point. I'll give it a go and see if I have any problems in the future.

bussysconsultant

> @Chris_QPW said:
> It would be interesting to see if it would indeed make a difference.  I doubt it though.  A bug doesn't ask permission.  In fact that is one of the main reasons I really dislike the way the cloud sync works.  It basically have "permission" to do anything in your data file it wants, and do it in the background where you can't see what is happening.

At this point, I'll try it to see if it indeed helps. But I do agree that if it's bug related it might not make a difference.

Scott Diamond

This is happening to me as well. But I can pinpoint it to the update process. Almost every time I get an update, I wind up with unreconciled transactions from previous months in multiple accounts. Sometimes I don't catch this until after I have added new transactions so restoring a backup isn't an option. Its relatively easy to search for unreconciled transactions, but its annoying. The update process needs to be fixed.

bussysconsultant

> @Scott Diamond said:
> This is happening to me as well. But I can pinpoint it to the update process. Almost every time I get an update, I wind up with unreconciled transactions from previous months in multiple accounts. Sometimes I don't catch this until after I have added new transactions so restoring a backup isn't an option. Its relatively easy to search for unreconciled transactions, but its annoying. The update process needs to be fixed.

I am just about to catch up with my reconciliations from 2/2021 to 10/2021. So I guess I will see if I'm still having any problems with the previously reconciled entries. I will let you know if I experience any problems with the data. I also agree that my problems usually happened when a Quicken update takes place. Not all the time, but enough that I think I can relate some of the problems to a recent update.

The last time Quicken sent through a large update, several months ago I believe, I experienced a new
problem. This time with my investment portfolios. The only transaction entries that I download from institutions are my stock brokers because I got tired of manually entering in all my stock transactions.
The update process had been working great but the last big Quicken update did something weird with
a stock that I had sold off over a year ago and had closed it out in my portfolio. All of a sudden my account no longer agreed with my stockbrokers statement. Somehow the stock I had sold off completely came back partially. It showed the last two transactions for the stock which were somehow now affecting a positive share balance in a stock I no longer owned. The result was that it over valued my portfolio with this particular stock broker, TD Ameritrade. I had to find a way to negate the two entries by off-setting them with minus share adjustments and zero dollar value. Just another bug that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the new Quicken owners and their current software.