Editing the posting dates

Jim Sepe

For some reason my credit card download says a transaction was processed on 7/1/21 however on the statement it shows as 6/30/21. This makes my reconciliation off by $50. I've noticed people say that the posting date is what the reconciliation process looks at however I can only find answers on how to edit for windows. Can any one help with how to change this date on Quicken for Mac Deluxe version 6.2.2?

RickO

Just change the date in the Date column in the register to 6/30 and it will reconcile properly.

Jim Sepe

Thanks RickO for the quick response. I tried that already but it does not move the transaction into the reconciliation window. From what I read here in the community the reconciliation process used the posting date when deciding to include or not.

RickO

What date are you entering the reconcile setup for the statement end date?

Jim Sepe

Ending date of 6/30 and I changed the transaction date to 6/29. With this entered the transaction does not show up in the reconcile account window.

RickO

Don't know what to tell you. For me, anytime a transaction is outside of the reconcile window's timeframe, changing the date to be within works for me. Are you sure there's not some other mismatch?

Jim Sepe

I wonder if it is because the transactions are being downloaded rather than entered.

Chris_QPW

Note I'm not a Quicken Mac user, so I might not have the details correct.

There should be a Downloaded Posting date column that you can turn on to see what the financial institution sent.

Note the problem most likely lies with the financial institution.  There should be no way that a transaction is recorded outside of the statement period.

You didn't say if you are reconciling to the online balance or one that you put in.  I will assume that it is the online balance, which also comes from the financial institution along with a date.

If doing it manually you can just change the ending date.  If not you will have to delete the transaction and re-enter it.

As for being able to change the posting date in Quicken Windows. In fact you can't.
Quicken Windows has a screwed up system, and hopefully Quicken Mac won't emulate it exactly.

First off in Quicken Windows there are in fact 3 dates.
The one the user enters.
The downloaded posting date.
And the hidden posting date that is used for reconciling (provided it exists, if the transaction isn't downloaded the one the user entered is used for reconciling).

The first really dumb part of the Windows implementation is that the changing of the date is a hidden key combination.  It certainly shouldn't be.  The second part is that you are changing the hidden date, not the downloaded one that is visible by turning on the Downloaded Posting Date column.

This whole system is just convoluted much more than it needs to be.

Jim Sepe

Hi Chris. I am entering the statement balance myself. The issue is that the transaction is on the Apple Card statement but it is not in the reconcile window so I can not mark it as paid. I've read in other community posts that there is a developer hidden feature that if you right-click on the transaction and then click on copy while holding down shift-control a special window comes up that allows you to edit the post date. I guess this is not available in the Mac version. I guess I'll just wait until next month. Thanks. Jim.

jacobs

Why don't you just enter a statement date of 7/1 instead of 6/30? That will make Quicken include the transaction in question. If any other transactions are included, just don't check them to be reconciled. 

smayer97

jacobs said:

Why don't you just enter a statement date of 7/1 instead of 6/30? That will make Quicken include the transaction in question. If any other transactions are included, just don't check them to be reconciled. 

That would be a questionable work-around... not a solution.

UKR

For me the $64-question is: Why, in a statement dated 6/30 does the bank include a transaction dated 7/1? That makes no sense.
I sure would like to see excerpts from the bank statement showing dates and transactions ...

Jim Sepe

Here is the transaction. It shows on my June statement as 6/29/21 however the uploaded transaction to Quicken shows 7/1/21, I see others in the community have had the same issue. In Windows there seems to be (or was) a hidden window that let you edit the posting date but couldn't find it in the Mac version. For now I might just delete the transaction and add it fresh.

jacobs

In Preferences > Connected services, have you tried checking the box for "Use posted date matched transactions (instead of the date you enter manually)"?

Even for transactions which are not entered manually and then matched to downloaded transactions, a financial institution has a choice of two dates to use: the date it was initiated and the date is was posted. For instance, if I got to an ATM to make a withdrawal today, July 4, it will post on Tuesday, July 6. Does the bank download this transaction with a date of July 4 or July 6?  What the financial institution downloads may or may not reflect what they show on a bank statement.

smayer97 said:

jacobs said:

Why don't you just enter a statement date of 7/1 instead of 6/30? That will make Quicken include the transaction in question. If any other transactions are included, just don't check them to be reconciled. 

That would be a questionable work-around... not a solution.

I'll disagree. Because the possibility for such date discrepancies exists, you can try to get the financial institution to correct how they date downloaded transactions -- which may have success, but not quickly and perhaps not at all. Or… you can make a simple change in Quicken by entering a closing date a day or two later than printed on the bank statement.

It's not a "questionable workaround", and it is a solution.

By telling Quicken to use a later reconciliation date, all you are doing is telling Quicken to include more transactions up to the later date. You don't need to worry about possible differences between transaction date and posted date. You enter the ending balance per the bank statement, and you click as reconciled only the items on the bank statement -- and voila! -- your reconciliation balances. If there are any other transactions in Quicken's window between the bank statement ending date and the later one you entered, simply ignore them; they will be presented in the window when you next reconcile. 

smayer97

Reconciliation periods should never overlap, which is what you would end up with in the Reconciliation history. That makes no accounting sense. Therefore, anything that does that is by definition a work-around... not a solution.

jacobs

@smayer97  If a particular financial institution regularly dates transactions on its statements with one date and downloads them to Quicken with another date, then sure, you can call it a "workaround" if you wish. Who cares what you call it? The question is whether you can solve the problem in the short-term and the long-term without jumping through any hoops or creating a problem down the road.

If this is a recurring issue, then you could just enter the day after the date printed on the statement for the rest of time, and there'd be no overlap, because reconciliation histories in Quicken have an ending date, not a starting date. If you reconcile one period and April statement by entering an ending date of May 1 rather than April 30, it does not create a problem. The next reconciliation could have an ending date of June 1, and then July 1, etc. Or perhaps at some point, you could try entering the month ending date and finding all the transactions you need are now downloaded with the correct dates so you can reconcile without adding a date.

The original poster, @Jim Sepe ,  hasn't yet answered my question about the date preference setting in Quicken Mac, and we haven't had a chance to look at the Inspector for one of these transactions to see exactly what the bank is downloading to Quicken. So we might yet find there's a reason for the date discrepancy which can be changed within Quicken. Or there might be a discrepancy in what the bank is sending.

Either way, my "workaround" of making the ending date a day later is one viable "solution" to the issue, even if it's a bank problem. No need to make a mountain out of an easily-stepped-over molehill.

mervinw

This may be a decent workaround:

1. Click Reconcile and select “Use online balance”. This should force all unreconciled transactions to be listed in the reconciliation window.
2. Click “Finish Later”
3. Launch Reconcile again, but this time select “Use paper statement”. Click Ok and disregard the caution.
4. The reconciliation window should now list the transaction that would not display.