Still trying to reconcile to the last transaction in my check register.

Blue44

Last month I engaged with several members about reconciling my book balance to a bank statement of a previous date. E.g., my most recent bank statement is 12/15/2022. Today's balance in Quicken is 12/20/2022, and I have recorded several transactions since 12/15/2022.

For years I have successfully reconciled a bank statement from a previous date to the Quicken balance of the current date, e.g. today: 12/20/2022. That's how Quicken has been working for me for many, many years. I don't want to debate why I've always done it this way, it just works for me. I'm hoping I tweaked something so that I'm no longer able to do a reconciliation to the current date. I do not want to go back and post, say, a missing deposit from a month ago. I want to post that adjustment currently; i.e., today. That is historically correct; i.e., I corrected it *today,* not weeks ago.

Did Quicken do something to change the way I have been reconciling, or perhaps did I change something that now prevents me from reconciling to the present date? Something that I can change back?

I repeat, I don't want to debate why one way of reconciling is the "right way."

Tom Young

I'm not sure I really understand you're issue here but is sorta sounds like the box next to "Reconcile using online balance" under the "Online Services" tab of the Account got unchecked?

Blue44

Thanks! ............. But where do I find the "online Services" tab?

Blue44

I found the "Online Services" tab, but there's no "Reconcile using online balance" choice there....

Jim_Harman

Are you downloading transactions for this account, or entering everything manually? 

If you are entering everything manually, are you saying that you want to reconcile your balance in Quicken to the current balance in the banks website? Or are you balancing to a statement you received?

q_lurker

This appears to be the prior discussion:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7923077/checks-ive-written-after-my-bank-statement-date#latest
and yes it went a bitt off track toward debating the 'right' approach toward adjustments and corrections.

For years I have successfully reconciled a bank statement from a previous date to the Quicken balance of the current date, e.g. today: 12/20/2022. 

Where are you getting the bank's balance for 12/22 that you are trying to reconcile to (compare to) your Quicken balance?  The bank statement balance cannot be the comparison because as you said, you entered additional transactions in Quicken between 12/15 and 12/22.

Maybe some numbers will help.  On some prior date (a month or so ago) you and the bank agreed on a reconciled balance of $1000.00.  Your 12/15 bank statement reports a 12/15 balance of $950.  During the period of the bank statement, you entered in Quicken a transaction of $98.00.  Your bank on the statement shows that transaction as $89.00.  There are no other transactional differences between the transactions reported on the statement and your Quicken data.  For 12/17, your entered another check for $25.  Identifying your prior error, on 12/22 you enter a $9.00 deposit representing your error on the $98.00 entry earlier.  Quicken should be showing the a 12/15 balance of $941.00, a 12/17 balance of $916.00, and a 12/22 balance of $925.00 (after the correction adjustment you made). 

BANK
Prior balance $1000.00
Net deposits and withdrawals ($50.00)
12/15 balance $950.00

QUICKEN
Prior Reconciled Balance $1000.00 -- transactions before 12/22 with Clr status = R
Net deposits and withdrawals  (59.00) -- between prior date and 12/15
12/15 balance $941.00
12/17 chk written for $25.00 balance $916.00

So you tell Quicken to reconcile to 12/22, it shows prior balance as $1000.00.  What Ending balance are you going to give it?  $950 is wrong.  You have to look at the later checks and compute $925.00. 

You go through the process and realize Quicken is saying $916.00 not $925.00.  So on 12/22 you enter the correction.

12/22 Dep $9.00 as error correction on prior $98.00 entry. balance = $925.00.

If you close out the reconciliation at that point, you have a problem - you have reconciled the $25.00 check that the bank has not acknowledged yet.  When the bank clears that check (correctly) as a $33.00 check rather than $25, you are in a world of hurt trying to identify the error.

By the way, how do you date the 0.37 interest the bank paid on 12/15?  On 12/22 when you get to it?

I see your methodology as fraught with risk.  I see no reason not to balance to the bank statement date of 12/15.  If you want to date your corrections to 12/15 also, to each his own. 

Please offer any clarifications if I have misinterpreted your process.

To my knowledge, Quicken has not recently changed anything in its reconcile process.         

Blue44

To Jim Harman:
I enter all transactions manually from my handwritten check register. I then reconcile my most recent bank statement which my bank only makes available several days after the statement date, to the bank balance on Quicken, which likewise shows a balance after several days of transactions since the statement date.

Blue44

To q_lurker:
I hope my note above to Jim Harmon clarifies what I do. If Quicken has not changed anything I'm hoping to find the box where I can check the box that says "Reconcile using online balance." As I said, I got as far as the "Online Services" tab but there's no choice to "Reconcile using online balance" tab. Could that be a choice Quicken deleted?

As a matter of principle, a bank statement can be reconciled to any register balance after the date of the bank statement. Any charge or credit after that date will simply be outstanding. Any error in that post-bank statement period will be discovered and corrected in a subsequent reconciliation.

Jim_Harman

If your Quicken account is not connected to your bank account for transaction downloading, the Reconcile to online balance option is not available because Quicken cannot access the online balance.

Blue44

Jim---Ah...I get that. Then Quicken did something to the reconcile process because I can't do what I've always done any more. A workaround for me is to change what they show as the bank statement date to the date I'm doing the reconciliation. Then everything through the current date is included.

Blue44

Here's something I found online that was a choice Quicken used to have but apparently eliminated.

Tom Young

The image you posted would be associated with a "downloading" Account with that "Reconcile using online balance" box checked.  Is the problem that the Account is no longer set up for downloading?

Blue44

I see. But no; I've never used the downloading feature. Just my druthers that I don't want something to download that I don't know about; I'd rather spot it on a bank statement and figure out from there what it is.

Chris_QPW

Blue44 said:

Here's something I found online that was a choice Quicken used to have but apparently eliminated.

What is a Quicken Mac image doing in a Quicken Windows thread?

That is most likely the reason for all the confusion.

And note that your profile says that you are using Quicken Windows too.