Updating Account balance upon posting payment.

jfmiles

For some time now, Quicken immediately updates the account list when a bill is posted to be paid on some accounts but not all.

To explain further, if I owe $10 on account XXX and pay the account through my checking, Account XXX will immediately reflect a zero balance. But other accounts will still show the $10 until such time as it is cleared and downloaded through the bank.

Is this an option somewhere? I have looked but failed to fine one. Thanks.

[edited for readability]

NotACPA

WHAT other accounts would also be showing this amount?  And if you name actual accounts, it's easier on those who are trying to help you.

You need to provide a better explanation of what's happening.

jfmiles

Wells Fargo updates right away. Capital One does not.

Chris_QPW

To answer your last question, no there isn't any option.  How "fast" it is going to show up in Quicken ultimately depends on how fast the financial institution provides that information to Quicken.

jfmiles

Thanks, Chris, but that's not it. I understand that Quicken updates when the institution provides the new data. But some of my accounts reflect the new amount as soon as I generate the payment. Immediately after without doing another update.

Chris_QPW

So you are using Quicken Bill Manager?

If so I won't be able to help you with that, I avoid that problem feature at all costs.

jfmiles

No, I am not using Quicken Bill Manager that I know of. Just Quicken Premier for Windows 10 Enterprise.

Chris_QPW

Then I guess I'm not really following with what you are saying.

Note that the "online balance" comes from the financial institution too.  For the most part they decide when that it updated, just like when the transactions are updated.

jfmiles

Yes, I know. This is how it has been since I started using Quicken in the 1980's. But sometime in the recent past, some of my accounts update immediately.
Example: I owe $100 on my Wells Fargo Credit Card. I pay the $100 using my checking which is also Wells Fargo. As soon as I do, my Wells Fargo Credit Card shows a $0 balance. I'm not positive right now if Wells Fargo accounts are the only one doing this. I know my Chase account is still working as it always has.

Frankx

Hi @jfmiles,

I've been trying to understand what you've been describing as a "change", but I (and others here) are not seeing what you are calling a change in how, or more accurately - when, payments are reflected in Quicken.  This is how Quicken has always worked. 

When you record a payment of a liability (the "amount owed") in Quicken - even where it is between two different financial institutions - the "other side" of the payment transaction is a reduction of the liability account (in your example above - the credit card balance due) in Quicken.

Hope this helps.

Frankx

jfmiles

I do know hoe Quicken traditionally operates. I have been using it for decades. Please read my example again carefully and you will see what it is doing now.

Example: I owe $100 on my Wells Fargo Credit Card. I pay the $100 using my checking which is also Wells Fargo. As soon as I do, my Wells Fargo Credit Card shows a $0 balance. I'm not positive right now if Wells Fargo accounts are the only one doing this. I know my Chase account is still working as it always has and does not update the balance until the payment clears both banks and I update the new information.

Frankx

Okay - let's clarify what you mean by "my Wells Fargo Credit Card shows a $0 balance". 

Are you saying that the Quicken "Ending Balance" located at the bottom of your "Wells Fargo credit card" Quicken register equals zero, or are you saying that the "Online Balance" located at the bottom of your "Wells Fargo credit card" Quicken register equals zero? Or both?

How is it different with respect to your Chase account? For that account - is there a difference between the "Online Balance" and the "Ending Balance" for that credit card?

I want to note that in your initial post you said "immediately updates the account list" - which is usually located on the Quicken home page and displays ending register balances.  

Frankx

volvogirl

Do you mean at your real credit card account at Wells Fargo or in your WF credit card account in Quicken?  We don't know what it did or how it worked before or what you saw but this is how it usually works.  As soon as you enter the payment in your checking account as a Transfer to the credit card it reduces the credit card account. What do you expect to happen differently?  We must be missing some more details.  

You might have been categorizing the Checking account payment wrong in the past.   Like to a credit card category and not to the actual credit card ACCOUNT.  

Can you post any screen shots to help us understand what you are talking about?

jfmiles

Evidently what is clear to me is not to others. I've explained it several times but it seems not very well. Thanks anyway but it is just a glitch and not a fatal problem. I will live with it.

NotACPA

jfmiles said:

Evidently what is clear to me is not to others. I've explained it several times but it seems not very well. Thanks anyway but it is just a glitch and not a fatal problem. I will live with it.

But you haven't explained the situation very well.  That's why we keep asking questions to try to understand what you're saying.

jfmiles

I understand that. And that's OK. But I don't know how to explain it better. One credit card account ballance updates immediately when I post the payment in my checking and another does not update until both banks clear the transaction and I update the account. Both ways cannot be correct. So as I said, thanks but as I can't describe my problem properly, I will live with it. It is not that major of a difficulty as long as I am aware it is doing it. I did not at first and made several double payments.

So again, thank you all and I may try again in the future if I have new problems.

Sherlock

I suspect, when Quicken immediately updates both accounts, you used a transfer transaction.

jfmiles

Not that I know of. I post both the same way as I have for years. I'm not even sure what a transfer transaction would look like on Quicken. I sometimes use them directly on my banks website.

volvogirl

Ok.  When you enter the payments in the checking account what Category do you put them to? They must have different categories listed on them.   A direct Transfer to the Credit Card Account will have the name of the credit card account listed as the Category in square brackets like [WellsFargo Credit Card] and the other payments might not be a Transfer and just go to an expense category.

Also it might help to see what's happening if you add the Transfer column to the checking account register.   Click the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the account register to get a list of available columns. Click to put a checkmark in the Transfer Column.

volvogirl

Hope this doesn't confuse you.
 And something you said concerns me.   Normally when you make a credit card payment the balance should NOT go to zero. Let's say the credit card statement closed on July 5 and has a $132.95 balance.  You pay the $132.95 when you get the bill later like on July 20.   So you might have new charges you made after July 5.  

How are you entering the charges on the credit card?  You should not be splitting out the credit card payment for all the charges.

jfmiles

Two reasons this happens. Some of my cards only have one charge a month, such as I only use it to pay my Netfix bill. That would bring a zero balance with every payment. Others I might make several monthly payments and pay off the card completely to date. Again bringing me a zero ballance upon payment. But this really has nothing to do with my original question. So thanks for your interest and input but I am still in the same spot.

Sherlock

jfmiles said:

Not that I know of. I post both the same way as I have for years. I'm not even sure what a transfer transaction would look like on Quicken. I sometimes use them directly on my banks website.

When we pay a credit card balance, we enter a transfer transaction in Quicken.  If we examine the entry in the payment account register, the category used is the name of the credit card account register in square brackets.  For example: [Wells Fargo Credit Card].  The act of entering a transfer in one account register immediately creates a corresponding entry in the other account register.

If you choose not to enter the credit card payment in the payment account register as a transfer transaction, the corresponding entry will not appear immediately in the credit card account register and you may wait until the transaction is imported into the credit card account register.

jfmiles

I did not know about the Quicken "transfer" feature at all. But that seems to have been my problem. Some accounts were set to "transfer" in the category list and other were set to a generic "Credit Card". They are all now set the same and I think that should solve my glitch. Thank you for your input and suggestions.

volvogirl

A Transfer is one of the most basic functions in Quicken.  You have not been using Transfers?  Like if you transfer money from your savings account to checking account?  The payments from your checking account should be a TRANSFER to the Credit Card Account.  

You enter the individual charges in the cc account.
Then when you pay the bill you Transfer it from the checking account.  
Then when you download from your bank and cc it should match the entries you made.  

jfmiles

Yes, I believe I have been using "Transfer" since day day one. That would be a very long time as my Quicken registrar goes back to 1988 and I believe I was using it even before that. I had never had this trouble before. But some how two of my credit card accounts had been changed to a generic category of "Credit Card" recently. I do not know how this happened but it is now changed back. The correct categories were already on the list so it was a quick change once I realized the cause with the help from this board.