Credit card reconciliation doesn't match

Question

I've used Quicken since 1992, so maybe my files are just too big? But my reconciliations in the past year or so come up with discrepancies. I enter an adjustment, but the next month it happens again. I'm considering buying Quicken 2017 and cancelling my subscription, since I have had multiple problems like this that I never had when Quicken lived on my computer. Is that recommended? Or is there something I can do to fix this problem? I have vlaidated to no avail.

docqs · Answer

I've been using Quicken since 1992, so going through all those transactions would be nightmarish. I've never had this problem until about a year ago. The amounts of the discrepancies varies every month.

what if I started over by opening a new account ( like MasterCard # 2) with a zero balance and make the current one inactive? (I always do it all manually without downloading because when I tried downloading Quicken got stuff all wrong!)

UKR · Answer

My suggestion would be to:

* get rid of any adjustment transactions that you entered over time
* check to see if you have more than one transaction named "Opening Balance" (OB) in your register. If so, retain only the one with the oldest date and delete any others
* verify that the Opening Balance transaction in your register still is correct. A bug in Quicken during account reactivation may have mistakenly changed the OB amount from what it originally was. Figure out what the correct OB should be* and update the amount. (Also type the correct amount into the Memo field, in case it ever gets changed again …)
* you should now be able to re-reconcile your register without needing any adjustments

* To figure out the correct OB amount:

* if you're sure that the account was started with an OB of $0.00 but now shows a different amount use $0.00 as the OB amount
* if the account was created in Quicken long after it was created at the bank and needs a non-zero amount … restore an old backup copy of your Quicken data file, one that is older than when this problem first started. Save this file to a name different from the current file (e.g., OldBackup20221201) and look at the account's OB transaction in that file. Make a note of the amount and use it to correct the OB in your current data file.