Quicken Adding/Modifying Opening Balance

Michael Cambria

One of my checking accounts keeps having quicken add an Opening Balance with a negative number. It's doing this with a date that is over a decade in the past. Luckily it is the first transaction.

When I open my accounts, going back to Quicken on DOS 5.0, any account that was open after I started using quicken has an Opening Balance of zero ($0.00). I changed this manually and next update, no question quicken added this back.

This number is exactly what the difference is between quicken and my bank.

Why does quicken touch reconciled transactions? Worse, transactions that are over a decade old?

Can you please stop?

Quicken Jared

Michael Cambria said:

One of my checking accounts keeps having quicken add an Opening Balance with a negative number. It's doing this with a date that is over a decade in the past. Luckily it is the first transaction.

When I open my accounts, going back to Quicken on DOS 5.0, any account that was open after I started using quicken has an Opening Balance of zero ($0.00). I changed this manually and next update, no question quicken added this back.

This number is exactly what the difference is between quicken and my bank.

Why does quicken touch reconciled transactions? Worse, transactions that are over a decade old?

Can you please stop?

Hello @Michael Cambria,                    

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this trouble with the opening balance. Thank you for drawing our attention to this issue on the Quicken Community.

First, what financial institution are these checking accounts associated with? 

Also, be sure to save a backup by going to File > Copy or Backup File in the upper menu at the top of the screen, then try deleting one of the Opening Balances from the register by right-clicking it and then clicking Delete. Next, try adding a new transaction manually for the same amount and with the same date by going to Edit > Transaction > New in the upper menu at the top of the screen.

I hope this is helpful, and I look forward to hearing more from you regarding this situation.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

Michael Cambria

The bank is Santander. IIRC something similar happened with my BoA, but not with the very first xaction, but with one (or more I forget) right in the middle of my history of the account. This made debugging "fun" to say the least. This issue was in 2021 [1] back when Quicken did something which was causing all kinds of pain for lots of people.

I have another recent post where I haven't been able to DL from Santander for weeks. I don't know if the two issues are related or not. I linked the url to here, but iirc that comment was deleted.

I fixed by closing the account (in Quicken) and starting a new one (BoA 2021) with Opening Balance of 0, and then a XFER from old BoA to BoA 2021. The former now has a $0.00 balance and the new account has first xaction with the outstanding balance from the prior quicken account.

I changed the Santander opening balance to $0.00 many, many times. Each update quicken decides to change it back. I deleted it and added $0.00 back (with the original date) as suggested above, no luck.

I decided turn off online access for this account, create a new one (e.g. Santander 2022) as described above. Since this account doesn't get much use (~4 transactions/month) I don't know how things stand yet. I'll get to the ATM to force an event when time permits.

[1] I can find the exact date if needed next time the Windows machine is up.

Quicken Jared

Michael Cambria said:

The bank is Santander. IIRC something similar happened with my BoA, but not with the very first xaction, but with one (or more I forget) right in the middle of my history of the account. This made debugging "fun" to say the least. This issue was in 2021 [1] back when Quicken did something which was causing all kinds of pain for lots of people.

I have another recent post where I haven't been able to DL from Santander for weeks. I don't know if the two issues are related or not. I linked the url to here, but iirc that comment was deleted.

I fixed by closing the account (in Quicken) and starting a new one (BoA 2021) with Opening Balance of 0, and then a XFER from old BoA to BoA 2021. The former now has a $0.00 balance and the new account has first xaction with the outstanding balance from the prior quicken account.

I changed the Santander opening balance to $0.00 many, many times. Each update quicken decides to change it back. I deleted it and added $0.00 back (with the original date) as suggested above, no luck.

I decided turn off online access for this account, create a new one (e.g. Santander 2022) as described above. Since this account doesn't get much use (~4 transactions/month) I don't know how things stand yet. I'll get to the ATM to force an event when time permits.

[1] I can find the exact date if needed next time the Windows machine is up.

@Michael Cambria,              

I see. Thank you so much for following up with me and providing so much detail. I am sorry that there has not been a clear resolution as of yet. 

I am eager to hear about the results of the event once you are able to check into this. I intend to continue corresponding with you about this.

Thanks again,

Quicken Jared 

Michael Cambria

This is still happening.

I created a new account, set it up for online access. This time the change was easy to see, there are only a few transactions.

Quicken Jared

Michael Cambria said:

This is still happening.

I created a new account, set it up for online access. This time the change was easy to see, there are only a few transactions.

Hello @Michael Cambria,   

I see. Thank you for checking back in and letting me know about the current situation. I am sorry that this issue is persisting.

Have you tried reseting the cloud data in Quicken? First, save a backup, then follow the instructions below:

1. Click the Mobile & Web tab.
2. Click edit profile. The Preferences dialog displays.
3. If prompted, enter your password. Depending on how you've set things up, this may either be your Password Vault password, or your Quicken ID password.
4. In the left pane, select Quicken ID, Sync & Alerts.
5. In the right pane, under Mobile & Web, click Reset your Cloud data.
6. In the Reset your Cloud Data dialog, type yes, and then click Reset.

I hope this is helpful, and I am eager to hear back from you once this has been attempted.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

Michael Cambria

I don't see "Click edit profile."

I see "Quicken Cloud Profile"

I'll try to reset cloud data with the options I find poking around

JohnL.Miller

This happened a few weeks ago on several of my accounts. One was an investment account, another was a checking account (from different institutions). I don't recall where the others were. As soon as I spotted one of them, I checked every opening balance. I edited each offending opening balance, resetting the amounts to zero. So far, it has not recurred. If this had happened on other transactions, or worse, spread across multiple transactions, it would have been an absolute nightmare.

Michael Cambria

I really wish (R) transactions were not touched. Too bad the are not read only <g>.

Things are easier now knowing what to look for. The first time... it WAS "an absolute nightmare" as you so eloquently put it.

If a new transaction (with download date, not something decades ago) was added that would be easier to spot. Text says "Quicken is confused" optional.

The modification each time "just happens" to have the value that makes things (for lack of a better term) "add up" for the software. It's not some random value, it is always a value that explicitly to make things work for Quicken. When done, the register matches the last balance (which is now months old, see the many different threads related to this different problem.)