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Weird error in cash flow totals

jgackson

Version R37.66, Build 27.1.37.66, Windows 11.

I'm finding a systematic problem whereby the totals for a particular account and category, in a Cash Flow report, are incorrect in Yearly or YTD but correct in Last Month and similar choices. The error appears to occur when I change a transaction that was in an earlier version of the report--the report's total uses the earlier value, not the current one.

So, for example, in a retirement account I'd originally entered a $636.69 uncleared transaction, a transfer to a checking account (this involves RMDs from retirement accounts). I generated a "Yearly" Cash Flow report for the current year with accounts as the row and the transfer account as the category. One item appeared, and the total matched the item.

Then the financial institution told me the RMD was going to be $585.78, so I edited the transaction accordingly, and it cleared with the revised amount. When I generate the same Cash Flow report now--that's the attached screenshot--the transaction shows up correctly as $585.78. But the report shows the total as $636.69--that is, the earlier value for the transaction.

If I change the report to, say, "Last Month" instead of "Yearly", the total is correct. But any yearly setting--Yearly, YTD, etc--yields the same incorrect total. Somehow the report seems to be using old, changed values for transactions. I've validated the file to make sure it's okay, and there are no errors generated. The same problem occurs for other retirement accounts where I've edited transactions after generating a report. The problem occurs even if I create a totally new report, rather than use the saved one.

This means all the yearly cash flow reports for transfers from my retirement accounts to my regular accounts are now being totalled incorrectly. That's a big problem.

Anyone have any idea why this is happening, or how to fix it? I've reported the apparent bug to Quicken via "Report a problem", including a screenshot of the incorrectly totaled report, but haven't seen any response or repair.

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Jim_Harman

I have found that editing Transfers can sometimes break the transfer, so that the amounts are different on each side. Perhaps something like this has happened to you. You might try deleting the transfer, making sure it disappears on both sides, and then re-entering it with the correct value.

You will not get an acknowledgement or response from "Report a problem"

jgackson

That was my first thought (used to be a big problem with mobile apps). But the two sides of the transfer match, so it’s not what’s happening here.

Jim_Harman

Please try deleting and re-entering the transaction, just in case.

Jim_Harman

Also is this a 401(k) account or an IRA? Quicken does special processing for 401(k)s

jgackson

So the bug is still there--that is, the total on a report isn't the correct total of the items listed--but your suggestions both narrow down the problem and provide a workaround.

First, the account I used to illustrate the problem is a 457b, but the same problem occurs for my 403b accounts (the nonprofit version of 401ks, and treated pretty much the same).

Second, I've verified that editing a transaction causes the transaction amount in the report to update correctly, but the total remains stubbornly wrong.

Third, removing the transaction causes the report to have no contents, which is what you'd expect.

Fourth, re-entering the transaction manually causes the report to repopulate with the newly-entered transaction, and (ta DA!) the total is now correct.

So the problem is that for some subset of accounts and report settings Quicken doesn't update totals when transactions are edited (I suspect that the total is only recalculated when new transactions are added). The workaround is to delete and re-enter transactions that exhibit the problem, and more generally to not enter such transactions until one is sure the amount is correct (I'd been setting things up for my 2022 spreadsheet transfers, and so wanted to have transactions entered for each account even though they hadn't hit yet)

Jim_Harman

Thanks for the update and the detailed description of the problem.

Jim_Harman

I tried quickly to reproduce your problem and did not see it.

If you can post a detailed step by by step procedure to reproduce it, that will help the Quicken folks to diagnose and hopefully fix it. Thanks!

Important details, if you remember or can reproduce them:

-- When you entered the original transfer, was it a Deposit in the banking account with the 457 or 403b account as the Category, a Cash transferred between accounts in the investing account, or a Withdrawal from the investing account with the checking account as the category? Was there a split in the transaction? These may seem to be the same, but they may be recorded differently behind the scenes.

-- When you edited the transfer, did you do it at the investing end or the checking account side? Did you change anything other than the amount?

Thanks