When I activate online services, why does Quicken put in a erroneous opening balance?

Question

I am using Quicken Deluxe, version 39.23 on Windows 10.

kwcolston · Answer

I should mention that this account was for a CD which only had interest added each month. I had previously downloaded transactions until the website was redone.  I think it's odd that what it "computed" was a payment amount that didn't match in any way the other transactions.  Unfortunately I spent some time trying to reconcile the account, only to find erroneous entry by accident. I shall expect this behavior the next time I add an account. Thanks for the explanation.

Frankx · Answer

Hi @kwcolston,

When you first activate online services for an account, Quicken only downloads a certain number of transactions - specifically it will download those transactions that the financial institution makes available for download.  Quicken also downloads the account's current balance per the bank's records.

Since Quicken doesn't "know" about - and cannot download - all prior transactions for an account (unless the account was opened very recently), it "computes" an opening balance based on the current bank balance and whatever transactions are available to Quicken (i.e. the transactions you previously manually entered and the transactions Quicken has downloaded).

Let me know if you have any followup questions.

Frankx