Cannot fix mis-reconciled history

Avi Dee

Quicken Mac Version 6.5.1 (Build 605.42638.100)

In my main checking account, if I go to Accounts > Reconciliation History, I find that in October, it says there was a -$175 difference, and in November, there was a +$175 difference. That doesn’t match reality, since I always reconcile to zero, but this my Alliant account, and Quicken consistently botches downloads from it, so maybe one of my botched downloads broke things. Fine, I thought, let’s fix it.

So I picked October to re-reconcile, and indeed there was a $175 check that was listed as cleared in that month that really cleared on my November statement. So I unchecked that green checkbox, clicked “OK” in the warning dialog, and then the reconcile passed. I committed the reconcile.

I then went to November to re-reconcile it and add in the check. The problem is that the re-reconcile dialog didn’t list the newly-unreconciled check so I couldn’t make it reconcile!

I backed up before this, because I don’t trust Quicken to not screw stuff up (honestly), so I restored the backup and I’m back to my previous kinda-broken state, but you should fix this. In a re-reconcile, you should offer up all transactions in the time period that aren’t reconciled.

Jon

What was the Posted Date on the transaction? If it was in October, I think that would explain why it didn't show up when you tried to re-reconcile your November statement.

Unfortunately there's no way to change the posted date on a transaction, and as you note the re-reconciliation window doesn't allow you to change the date range of the reconciliation. What you could try is deleting the November reconciliation from the Reconciliation History window & then re-reconciling your November statement. I think that should allow you to pick up the new unreconciled transaction. I would try doing this on a copy of your Quicken file to see if it works; if it doesn't your regular file is undisturbed.

jacobs

@Avi Dee Another idea: what if you delete the check which won't show up in the Reconcile window, then manually enter the same transaction, whith a date within the November reconciliation time period. Then it should be included in the November re-reconciliation and you should be all squared away.

(Sometimes, there's a simple brute force solution which takes just a minute, and yet we spend much more time looking for a cause or a more 'elegant' solution!)

Avi Dee

Is it the “posting date” that is used during reconcile? I just looked, and I see what the problem was. This is my Alliant account, which the Quicken syncing keeps botching. This is check 2436, but Quicken found an online transaction for check 2433 and mismatched it, so the clear date is a week before I wrote the check. I am very vigilant about fixing those mismatches, but what used to happen is that syncing Alliant would download duplicates and triplicates, and Quicken would reconcile those downloads and auto-match them with transactions that *already cleared* which screwed things up. I guess during one of those botched downloads, I missed one of those bad auto-matches.

Thanks for the pointer! I think what I’ll do it make a backup , go remove 2436 from the October reconciliation, then reject the auto-match to split out the bogus 2433 transaction (the real 2433 already has its own 2433 online match) and delete that bogus 2433 match, and then, because there will be no posting date, it should (hopefully) show up in my November reconciliation.

Fingers crossed.

Avi Dee

OK, that doesn’t work.

Here’s the problem. I can fix the October reconciliation by removing check 2436 from October. However, if I then reject the automatic match that has the bogus posting date, check 2436 is now left with *no* posting date, and posting date isn’t something that you can manually adjust. And without a posting date, it doesn’t show up as a possibility for re-reconciliation in November.

As far as I can tell, the fact that Quicken refuses to re-reconcile something with no posting date, and the fact that you can’t manually add a posting date, means that I’m stuck here. Short of going in and editing the raw sqlite3 database, I can’t fix this.

Avi Dee

@jacobs The idea of doing a clean new reconcile rather than a re-reconcile is an indictment of the fact that the re-reconcile window is an afterthought; re-reconciliation should use the same window and same rules as a reconcile. Still pondering if it’s worth pursuing that route.

Jon

I don't see that you have anything to lose from copying your data file & trying it out. If you don't like the result, throw away the copy.

jacobs

@Avi Dee When you enter a transaction manually, it does show up in the Re-reconciliation Window. It has nothing to do with a posted date; it uses the Quicken transaction date.

I just manually entered a transaction with a date in a prior month. I clicked on Reconciliation History and clicked in the month containing this transaction to re-reconcile. The transaction is there, makes in the Change column as "Added". I can check it in the Clr column and complete the re-reconciliation. to me, this works exactly as I would expect it to.

I'm not sure I follow which transaction you've done what with. I'd suggest simply deleting the problematic transaction -- manual, downloaded or both. Then enter it as a manual transaction. No matching, just a simple manual entry. Then re-reconcile. 

Avi Dee

OK, so I removed the troublesome transaction from October, and completed the re-reconciliation. I then deleted it, and re-created it. I then re-reconciled November, and saw the option to add in the new transaction.

I then got a warning dialog. I clicked through, and now in my Reconciliation History, both November AND December reconciliations are broken.

I am reverting. There’s nothing gained by trying to fix this.

Quicken Jared

Avi Dee said:

OK, so I removed the troublesome transaction from October, and completed the re-reconciliation. I then deleted it, and re-created it. I then re-reconciled November, and saw the option to add in the new transaction.

I then got a warning dialog. I clicked through, and now in my Reconciliation History, both November AND December reconciliations are broken.

I am reverting. There’s nothing gained by trying to fix this.

Hello @Avi Dee,       

I am sorry that the issue seems to remain unresolved, and that it is causing so much frustration.

You said that November and December transactions are both broken; are they matched incorrectly, now? I want to make sure I understand what the problem is, as of this moment. It had sounded as though there were unreconciled transactions that weren't appearing in the register of the reconciliation menu, earlier.

I look forward to your response, and hope to work with you on this further, if you should have the chance to check in with us once more.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

Avi Dee

I removed the flawed transaction from the October reconciliation. At that point, only the November reconciliation was listed as unbalanced.

I then deleted and re-created the flawed transaction, and then re-reconciled November.

Then I got that error dialog, and the reconciliation history dialog listed both November and December as being unbalanced.

That rattled me, so I immediately undid everything and reverted.

I am kinda burned out by this, so I’m not immediately pursuing this again. Having two broken months in my reconciliation history doesn’t affect the use right now.

jacobs

@Avi Dee Yes, I think you're grinding gears trying to fix this. Unfortunately, it's difficult to guide you through this without seeing the transactions and screens and amounts that you're seeing. 

When you get that dialog box about adding a transaction, it informs you that it will update the ending balance. But there's a good chance you don't want the ending balance to change, since the transaction you're adding is to replace a transaction you deleted. So after accepting that dialog, you may need to change the ending balance back to its original value. How to do that may not be intuitive. You need to hit the Back button to get back to the starting Re-Reconcile screen which lists the Reconciliation summary and Quicken Balance information. Notice that in the Reconciliation Summary column, to the right of the Ending Balance, there's a small pencil icon. If you click that, it will let you enter the correct ending balance. Then click next to get to the list of transactions, and see if everything is now in balance.  

Avi Dee

> @jacobs said:
> you may need to change the ending balance back to its original value.

Yes!!!!!! Thank you!!!!

Jacob, you’re brilliant.

Jacob is correct. That dialog is indeed a warning that Quicken is changing the ending balance to compensate for the new item you added.

So the correct procedure is:

1. Re-reconcile.
2. Adjust the items included/excluded from the reconciliation period.
3. Close the reconciliation.
4. If you get a warning dialog, know that Quicken just changed the ending balance, so...
5. Re-reconcile the same period again...
6. And put the ending balance back to where it was.

I’m definitely doing the happy dance.

jacobs

Yay, I'm glad you were able to get past this problem with your reconciliations from last year. On to 2022!