Amex Download - Reconciling balance issue (balance adjustment every time)

Question

I have had this problem since the new log in requirements for AMEX.  I download, and reconcile and it always adds a "balance adjustment" that is different every time. I compare the register balance to the online balance and they are the same.

The difference is not a pending charge — that isn't the problem. I've posted three different times and have gotten no satisfactory response.  I have been using quicken for over 20 years so I understand how the process is supposed to work.

Description of the issue — the balance in the side panel with the list of accounts is different from the balance that shows in the register and different from the downloaded balance.

I have gone so far as to manually reconcile back to the statements and I always balance. It must be something to do with how AMEX/Quicken are interacting during the download. The balance being sent or recorded by Quicken from AMEX is not correct for the period of time being reconciled.

Can someone at Quicken review this issue and provide a suggestion for fixing it or provide an update to the program that corrects the issue.

Thanks,

WillyG · Answer

Thank you for the suggestions. The adjustments - even when they are the exact opposite - did not represent pending charges as far as I can tell, but I did switch to statement balance, just to avoid the adjustments every time I reconcile.

I will also run the Validate and Repair on my file as well to see what it turns up.

Tom Young · Answer

It sounds like you are reconciling to the online balance and the online balance Quicken presents to you is always wrong, resulting in Quicken proposing an adjustment.  Reading your previous posts you've stated that Quicken proposes an adjustment and then later proposes the exact opposite adjustment.  That certainly supports the notion that the online balance presented is wrong, a perpetual timing difference.  As suggested in a response to one of your earlier posts, perhaps going to Statement reconciliation would be an option.

I've not been having the same experience with my AMEX card, but I update early every morning (Pacific time) and it's pretty clear that the aggregator (Intuit) typically updates sometime during the night.  If you're located more towards the east coast and updating in the early evening, then you might try changing your update time.

Having the Account Bar (vertical list of Accounts to left or right of the screen) different that the Register balance might suggest some damage to the data file, (or might not), so going through the Validate & Repair process if you haven't already couldn't hurt.

I'd suggest a phone contact with Official Quicken Support

https://www.quicken.com/support#windows

to see if they can come up with an answer here.  It doesn't seem to be a "program" problem per se, but it might have something to do with what the aggregator is looking at when it updates and your timing of your Quicken file updates.