Does Closing An Account Affect Reconciled Transactions in a Different Account?

David Green

I have a savings account that I'm tracking in Quicken that I have not reconciled in several years because it doesn't get used much. We're starting to use it more. I can't get the account to reconcile to a 0 balance. I have several years' worth of statements but would need to contact my bank to get statements earlier than that and it would cost me per statement. At this point I'd have to go all the way back to when the account was opened since I don't know where the problems crept in. If I close the account and then open a new one for the same account with the most recent statement closing balance as the opening balance in the new account, will this affect transactions in other accounts? If I decide just keep this account and enter a balance adjustment to get Quicken to match, will this affect reconciling going forward?

Bob_L

I would just reconcile (CTL-R) and accept the balance adjustment. 

Chris_QPW

To answer your question, no it will not affect any other accounts.  The only time you affect another account is if you have a transfer between the two accounts.  A balance adjustment uses the syntax that looks like a transfer, but it isn't.  If you are in "My Account" the category is [My Account], which means the money come or goes outside of the account affecting only the balance of that account.

David Green

The problem is if I accept the adjustment to the reconcile, then the balance Quicken has in the account is considerably higher than the online balance. So I am thinking of just closing the account and starting over with a new one from the last statement date. Hence my question, because most of the transactions into or out of this account come from or go to my checking account and the category is the account they're going to (or coming from).

Bob_L

Then just compute your adjustment yourself to bring the balance to what it should be.

Chris_QPW

David Green said:

The problem is if I accept the adjustment to the reconcile, then the balance Quicken has in the account is considerably higher than the online balance. So I am thinking of just closing the account and starting over with a new one from the last statement date. Hence my question, because most of the transactions into or out of this account come from or go to my checking account and the category is the account they're going to (or coming from).

How is the ending balance being put into the reconcile?
If the ending balance is what current balance of the account is, the adjustment that Quicken will compute for the balance adjustment transactions will bring the current balance of the account to that ending balance.

Chris_QPW

P.S. there isn't anything wrong with the idea of closing out that account, getting it to zero, and then starting a new account using what will download.  The two accounts will be completely separate.

Chris_QPW

One thing I should state, I'm not a real big fan of closing accounts since they can't be reopened.  What would do for "close it out" would be reconcile using zero as the closing amount.  And if it connected to an online account go in and deactivate the account.  Then the last thing would be to go into the Display Options tab and select Hide transactions entry lists, and Hide account name in account bar and account list.

David Green

> @Chris_QPW said:
> How is the ending balance being put into the reconcile?
> If the ending balance is what current balance of the account is, the adjustment that Quicken will compute for the balance adjustment transactions will bring the current balance of the account to that ending balance.

I am using the ending balance of the statement. It closed last week. There have been a few deposits since then. The register balance in quicken is a lot higher than the online balance which is correct. The deposits are too low to account for the difference

David Green

> @Chris_QPW said:
> One thing I should state, I'm not a real big fan of closing accounts since they can't be reopened.  What would do for "close it out" would be reconcile using zero as the closing amount.  And if it connected to an online account go in and deactivate the account.  Then the last thing would be to go into the Display Options tab and select Hide transactions entry lists, and Hide account name in account bar and account list.

Thanks I’ll think about that

David Green

I took the option of zeroing the old account and starting a new one. I went all the way back to last year when my old bank sold me off to a new one. I reconciled everything from that point on and it all works now. I deactivated the old account and removed it from cloud sync. I did not close the old account for now, but I may still close it.