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Five Digit paper check numbers

John Orr

My paper check numbers are five digits. Quicken handles them fine (printing and tracking in the register) but when the transactions are downloaded from my bank, only the final four digits are included, so I have to use "Edit/Match Manually" to link them to my register.

Is this a problem with my bank, or with Quicken?

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Accepted answers

UKR

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20357735#Comment_20357735

And that's the problem. All the bank "knows" about a check is information based on the MICR line.

Talk to the bank and/or the check printing company.
You may have to switch to business size Standard Checks, 3-per-page or business size Voucher checks, 1-per-page plus 2 stubs.

All comments

Tom Young

What's the bank, what's the downloading method?

John Orr

Thanks for the quick response!

The bank sends a QFX file, which opens up in Quicken.

John Orr

It is a Navy Federal Credit Union checking account.

Tom Young

Look inside that QFX file (I assume it's available to you) and see what they are sending. If it's only that last four digits then that would be the problem. If they are sending the full five digits it would appear to be a Quicken problem.

Help > Contact Support > Log Files > OFX log

John Orr

Tom, thank you. I opened up the QFX file in Notebook and saw that they are sending "Paid Check 000000xxxx" with six leading zeroes and only four digits.

I called Navy Federal Credit Union and got someone in tech/online support who said 1) nobody else has complained about this, and 2) yes, we are only tracking four digits and that should be corrected.

They didn't promise a swift correction, but the recognized the problem. Thank you very much for helping me confirm it and point it our to them.

Ray Cosner

What version of Q are you using?

I had this problem for years, but it disappeared several months ago after an update. It's been fine ever since. Sorry, don't recall which update fixed it.

Tom Young

@Ray Cosner

I don't believe "version number" has anything to do with this problem, at least in this case. If the Financial Institution is sending bad information, which is what is occurring here, then the program just isn't going match transactions unless the programmers introduce some sort of fuzzy logic that would conclude "I'm guessing '0000002345' is actuall '12345.'"

Ray Cosner

My guess is Q was modified so that if the final four digits of the check number matched, it declared the downloaded item was a match with a register item. My bank is still delivering four-digit check numbers to Q, that is, if the true check number is 12345, then the number that comes through from the bank is 2345.

UKR

The important part here is to tell the bank that

The Check Number field in the downloaded data file has to be able to contain a properly formatted numeric check number, up to 10 digits long (somebody better verify with the OFX format documentation …) and no leading zeros.
The Payee Name field containing "Paid Check 000000xxxx" needs to be changed to display a properly formatted number without leading zeros, up to 10 digits as needed: "Paid Check 1234" or "Paid Check 12345", etc. Hardcoded leading zeros is no good.

NotACPA

@"john orr" Is this a long "business" type check?

Because my recollection was that there was only room for a 4 digit check number on small Personal checks, while Business checks could have 10 digits.

Ray Cosner

These are personal checks, for the account I've had at this bank for 45 years.

In years gone by, I paid most of my bills by check and I got into five-digit numbers at least ten years ago. When I got to that point, Q did not recognize (until recently) the downloaded check number as a match with what I had entered in the register when I wrote the check (as discussed above). Today, it would probably take me a century to write that many checks.

NotACPA

@Ray Cosner, so on the MICR line of your checks, are 5 digits are shown?

Ray Cosner

I order my checks as needed from my bank. The printed check number in the upper right corner is five digits. The encoded check number on the bottom line is four digits.

UKR

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20357735#Comment_20357735

And that's the problem. All the bank "knows" about a check is information based on the MICR line.

Talk to the bank and/or the check printing company.
You may have to switch to business size Standard Checks, 3-per-page or business size Voucher checks, 1-per-page plus 2 stubs.

Ray Cosner

From my perspective, everything is working fine regarding five-digit checks and Q matching to the register transactions.

I see no need for further action on my behalf. Allow me to remind you, the 4-digit number is on the checks that I order directly from my bank via their web site. I am not using any alternate source of checks.

You are suggesting I should spend my time working to fix what is not broken in my usage. Maybe it's not "clean", but it works flawlessly for me and does not require me to make a single added keystroke. I thank Q-Inc for taking steps to cause the transaction match to be made.