Registers suddenly wildly out of balance.

rbmagee

I have used Quicken for Windows for decades. Until recently I never have had a problem with reconciling a bank or bank card account with an online balance. But now I have three accounts that show a Quicken balance thousands of dollars out of balance with the bank or bank card company. If I run Verification in Quicken I abruptly get many new double entries in the accounts in question. I have to examine the accounts and delete double entries, but then the balances still are out of balance. What the heck is going on? PS: I was a CPA. This isn't rocket science. Something is wrong in the software.

Boatnmaniac

Are all 3 accounts with the same financial institution?

Did this happen after you had done Reset account or Deactivate/Reactivate?

Or did you reauthorize these accounts for EWC+?

There are occasionally some issues encountered when resetting, deactivating/reactivating accounts or reauthorizing to EWC+.

You found one of those issues….duplicate transactions….and deleting them was the right thing to do.

Two other things to look for:

1. Open a backup data file from before when this issue was identified. Write down the Opening Balance transactions dollar amounts for the 3 accounts in question.
2. Open your main data file and compare what you wrote down with the Opening Balance transactions amounts in this file. If the dollar amounts don't match up, edit the dollar amounts in this file to match what you wrote down.

If your account balances are still off, see if there is a 2nd Opening Balance transaction (with a more recent date) in the account(s) that is still out of balance. If you find any, delete them.

Are your 3 accounts now in balance?

Boatnmaniac

Are all 3 accounts with the same financial institution?

Did this happen after you had done Reset account or Deactivate/Reactivate?

Or did you reauthorize these accounts for EWC+?

There are occasionally some issues encountered when resetting, deactivating/reactivating accounts or reauthorizing to EWC+.

You found one of those issues….duplicate transactions….and deleting them was the right thing to do.

Two other things to look for:

1. Open a backup data file from before when this issue was identified. Write down the Opening Balance transactions dollar amounts for the 3 accounts in question.
2. Open your main data file and compare what you wrote down with the Opening Balance transactions amounts in this file. If the dollar amounts don't match up, edit the dollar amounts in this file to match what you wrote down.

If your account balances are still off, see if there is a 2nd Opening Balance transaction (with a more recent date) in the account(s) that is still out of balance. If you find any, delete them.

Are your 3 accounts now in balance?

rbmagee

Thanks for your advice. I'll do what you suggest. The three accounts all are at different financial institutions. The first went wacky 18 months ago, the second six months ago, and the third this week. I did no reset or Deactivate/Reactivate on any of them. I didn't authorize the accounts for EWC but it's possible the banks unilaterally implemented it. The doubling of entries occurred in all cases after I'd run Validate and Repair file, but not every time that I ran Validate. The double entries were obvious, as not one of them was categorized while the originals were. As I said, I will try what you're recommoending. Although in the long run I may be better off just using a plug figure to force balancing, I hate that.

rbmagee

All is reconciled and in balance now. As noted, I went through two accounts and deleted double entries that had mysteriously appeared -- around 50 in all. That fixed one account. I found another $400 by reviewing one account again and fixed that one. For the third one I checked the Quicken register against 2 and 1/2 years of Visa statements and found no discrepancies, not one penny, so I deducted $2,300 from the starting balance and everything is fine. Strange way to run a railroad! I wonder, inasmuch as my Quicken files are 30+ years old, whether the software is easily confused by so much history. I'm forever having to correct Quicken over some of its proposed matches. On the other hand, at my age I need adventure.