Newly downloaded transactions are not flagged

Question

Up until the last two days, newly transactions are listed in the downloads page and I have the opportunity to accept each transaction. This no longer happens - the transactions are in the register marked "c" and I have to do a "reconcile" from the account menu to reconcile them. What's happened? What has changed with the download process? I like consistency, especially with financial programs. I've used Quicken for over twenty years and it's getting less dependable.

Frankx · Answer

Hi @LKQH,

It sounds like you've made a lot of progress and that's good.  And yes, if the difference amount is lass than the three SS deposits, there could be duplicate payments/withdrawals that are throwing things off.  But I would suggest that you continue to focus on deposits first and then go back and focus on payments/withdrawals.  And always pay attention to the bank balance as you go along.

It is unfortunate that you are having to spend this additional time to get things in balance, but hopefully you'll get there soon, and after that please make sure that you backup your datafile frequently.  You almost cannot backup enough these days,

Get back to me if you have any followups.

Frankx

LKQH · Answer

Frank, I already went way back in the registers and the credit union is now correct. For Chase, I found five deposits from Social Security were missing the first time I went through. I pretty much looked for negative balances, which I never carry, and that should be where a deposit is missing. After trying a couple more downloads, now three SS deposits are missing, but the difference is much less than the amount of three such deposits. Maybe duplicate withdrawals around those times? So frustrating and time-consuming. I don't mind paying for Quicken, even now that it's a subscription, except at times like this!

Frankx · Answer

Hi again @LKQH,

I have a couple of thoughts on the balances being incorrect.  The most likely cause would be that the process of Quicken automatically accepting all transactions that were downloaded (for the limited time frame when the setting was wrong) you now have duplicate transactions in some accounts.  To fix that you just need to review the registers and delete the duplicates.  The time frame you should focus on would be the period when you were no longer seeing pending transactions after downloads.

There is also another, less likely, potential reason for the out of balance accounts.  If, when you were trying to fix the problem you were seeing in the accounts, you disconnected and then reconnected, some or all of those accounts, that may also have caused you to have duplicates, or perhaps have missing transactions.  The best way to fix this would be to try and reconcile each account.  However I would suggest that you NOT just automatically accept some "adjustment" entry that Quicken may suggest you make, but rather terminate the reconcile process and keep looking for the problems.

Lastly, if after you've done the above, the accounts are still out of balance then I would suggest that you take a look at the account's opening balance (the first transaction in the register).  Quicken has sometimes changed an account's opening balance amount to get the account to match the current ending balance reported by the financial institution.  If that first transaction looks strange, or doesn't make sense, try deleting it and see if that fixes your problem in the account.

Obviously, before you do anything make sure you make a backup file so that you have something to put you back where you are now, should things go wrong.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Frankxc