Newbie Help

hopper33

Hello. I am new to quicken. I am trying to work on my own accounting to match my bank records, and Quicken helps show transactions better than a bank printout.

When I d/l my bank account info and it shows mostly accurate amounts through the last 90 days (It has a starting date of October 7, 2021. I am trying to add records to the balance from further back, say June 2021 through the present. I have downloaded the additional dates and imported them, however the figures are now all off. I am guessing because rather than compute amounts from the starting October date backward, it recreates a false starting amount from the first transaction, now in June, which unfortunately was a debt, when reality the actual balance was ~25K.

Sorry so winded. Is there a way to go 6-9 months back and have Quicken show the actual account balance on the first date? I am hopefuly quicken can determine and impute it, because part of my issue is reconcilng my banks balance, versus my personal balance.

Thank you for any help or insight!

Bob_L

You can make the first transaction to what the opening balance should be.  Opening balances are categorized as a transfer back to the same account.  So if your account is named mychecking, categorize that first transaction as [mychecking].  If there was another transaction showing an opening balance from those first downloads,  just delete it.

hopper33

Sorry. I am not sure that works. All I have is an ending balance. I am trying to "back math" to an opening balance, so eventually I can see all transactions to find out what I missed in my personal accounting. Also, when open up an imported larger time frame from today back 6 months, the end balance (today's) is much larger than my bank's amount.

I wish I could manaully enter the end balance, and the program would alter accordingly.

Thanks for the reponse!

Bob_L

Maybe I am not following what you want. You should be able to calculate what opening balance you need and use that.  That is use trial and error to back into the balance that gets you to your ending balance.  Comparing how far off you are vs. what shows as the opening balance should also help identify what it should be?

hopper33

I appreciate the help. I'll try and explain better.

I am trying to balance my own account version vs. my bank's.

The bank is presumably accurate, but my version is off. No doubt I forgot to enter transactions. I have an end balance from my bank for today back 1 month online. When I download Quicken I get 3 months back. Those 3 months end balance (Today's) is nearly identical to the bank's 1 month. When I import more entires to make Quicken's calculation to make 3 months back to 6 months back, the end balance is drastically off, and I have no way of know ing if the starting balance is accurate. It remains drastically off even if I download a specific date range of 6 months. I would think the end balance would remain the same regardless of how many months it goes back because it is straight from the bank and supposed to be today's balance. I was hoping the end balance would remain the same, it is straight from the bank, and Quicken would automatically "back math" to a starting balance 6 months ago.

I admittedly suck at math and accounting, which is way I purchased this program to help. I do not understand how the end balance (Today's balance straight from the bank) can be SO FAR OFF.

I am just trying to get an accurate statement of all transactions so I can use to evaluate my personal account to see what I missed in it.

Getting long winded. Thanks for the/any help. It may be a lost cause.

Frankx

Hi @hopper33,

Let me try to explain.

When you did the initial download of the account register from your bank (let's call the the "last 90 days"), Quicken used those transactions and the "balance according to the bank" to calculate the starting balance in the Quicken register for that account. 

It is basic math - if the bank says I have $500.00 in my account on the download date (let's say it was on 12/31/21), and if the net sum of all deposits and checks, (all transactions) for the "last 90 days" (the first download you performed) is a negative $300.00, then the starting balance for the register must have been $800.00 . And Quicken then makes that $800.00 the opening balance the account register (and for this example the date of that starting balance would be 10/1/21).

Now, if you want to add additional transactions that pre-date 10/1/21 (using the above example) you will need to adjust the account's opening balance to account for the "net amount" of those additional transactions and also change the date of that opening balance to be before the date of the oldest transaction that you've entered.

But the bottom line is that Quicken is not going to automatically do the "back math" to compute the account's opening balance.

I hope this helps some.  Get back to me if you have any followups.

Frankx

hopper33

I appreciate the attempt at help, but I beyond frusterated. My online only gives one month of daily balances which include start and end. When I download I get the same, but for 3 months. This appears to do the "back math", but I suppose it can just more data in the download to Quicken.

Now when trying to refresh, the simplest of upates and the Quicken version and my online bank view are $0.01 off. There has never been a transaction for only 0.01. I have no idea how they doBott not reflect the same amount.

Bottomline, Quicken does not appear to be capable of doing what I am looking for, and I may have to put pen to paper and do it the long way.

Thanks to all for trying to help

Frankx

Hi again @hopper33,

Your frustration is understandable but is common for newbies. And it comes through in your posts, but don't fret too much because things will get better as you progress.

On the one-cent issue - the solution is to simply adjust the opening balance in this Quicken account by one cent and you're done.  The main thing is to get the current balances correct and then keep them correct over time.

As far as "do[ing] it the long way" goes -  can you tell us the name of the of the bank?  We may be able to help you to obtain additional downloads for it (assuming that's what you want to do).

Frankx