Quicken Reconcile is Incorrect (Version R42.19)

btseed

I have a (+) balance on a credit card which matches my bank statement, the Quicken Register, and the 'Statement Ending Balance' when reconciled (e.g. 50), however during the reconcile the 'Cleared Balance' is the same value but Quicken placed a (-) in front of the value in the 'Cleared Balance' line of the reconcile (e.g. -50). The 'Difference' is reflecting 100.
I have verified my bank statement with the bank and what I have entered in Quicken several times and there are no errors. I have also closed and restarted Quicken without success. I have been using Quicken since the 1990s and have never seen this problem. Any assistance that could be provided would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
btseed

NotACPA

In your card account, in Q, what color is the balance column?

Normally, for a credit card where you owe money, it should be red.

By any chance is that balance BLACK? Which would indicate that you've got a credit balance and the card owes you $50.

btseed

I received a credit from a return which caused the credit card to reflect a positive balance. I do most (if not all) of my banking online. I do the downloads for my accounts almost daily and then perform a reconcile for any cleared items. I've had hiccups with Quicken lining up with the accounts before but have always been able to resolve the issue. This one has me scratching my head because everything is correct except for the (-) sign on the Cleared Balance.

I will wait until a charge is applied to the card and try the reconcile at that time. Thank you and NotACPA for your quick responses. I will let you know how it works out. Thanks again.

NotACPA

In your card account, in Q, what color is the balance column?

Normally, for a credit card where you owe money, it should be red.

By any chance is that balance BLACK? Which would indicate that you've got a credit balance and the card owes you $50.

UKR

Are you reconciling against a paper statement or against an Online Balance?

If the account is overpaid and you're reconciling against a paper statement, a credit balance must be entered as a negative amount, as weird as this sounds. Normally, when you owe money, you enter the ending balance as unsigned positive number even though in reality it is a negative amount. So, a credit balance must be entered as negative number to make Quicken's internal sign flip (x*(-1)) come out right.

If you're reconciling against an Online Balance, did that online balance get reported correctly or is it suffering from a flipped sign? In some cases, credit balances do not appear to get handled correctly in Quicken, so the best solution is to not reconcile against an overpaid Online credit card balance. Delay reconciling until the credit balance is used up by new charge transactions.

btseed

I received a credit from a return which caused the credit card to reflect a positive balance. I do most (if not all) of my banking online. I do the downloads for my accounts almost daily and then perform a reconcile for any cleared items. I've had hiccups with Quicken lining up with the accounts before but have always been able to resolve the issue. This one has me scratching my head because everything is correct except for the (-) sign on the Cleared Balance.

I will wait until a charge is applied to the card and try the reconcile at that time. Thank you and NotACPA for your quick responses. I will let you know how it works out. Thanks again.

btseed

Folks, the (+) balance on the credit account was the cause of the problem. I am surprised that Quicken does not account for this in the reconcile. I would have to believe that I'm not the only person who has ever had a (+) balance on a credit card before.

At any rate, thanks for all your help with getting this resolved. It is much appreciated.

Thanks again,
btseed

NotACPA

Q normally expects the balance on your card to be negative, so no need to input ANY sign.

BUT, when you have a credit balance, input the Ending Balance as a negative number, with charges and payments properly input.