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Quicken can't do Simple Math

yardbird_1

After 20 years of great performance by Quicken (including 2 years on an M1 Mac Air, OS 11.5.2), and having reconciled 11 bank statements for new bank accounts started last summer, I get this: the most recent statement shows a reconcile error completely at odds with the previous day's reconciliation.

I uncleared the first 4 months of transactions (246 manual clicks, one at a time) and tried to re-reconcile the 1st month. Clearly, Quicken isn't up to the job!

1.) The transaction amounts match in both the bank statement and the reconcile window.

2.) The transactions in the statement are "cleared" in the reconcile window.

3.) Run the cleared transaction on a calculator and the total is in fact the statement's ending balance of $2029.10

4.) The Reconcile window reports an error of -$479.92

QED

$Simple Math.jpg$

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Comments

yardbird_1

Thanks in advance for any suggestion to upgrade from Quicken 2016. Yes, that would make tech support available, where there is none for v2016.

Jon

Quicken sometimes gets confused about historical account balances; I had this happen on one of my credit cards about 6 months ago. To fix this, you're going to need to clear Quicken's reconciliation history for the account & reconcile the account all over again from scratch; just unchecking & rechecking the transactions or trying to re-reconcile those months isn't enough to clear the error in my experience. On the first reconciliation window (the one that shows the account balance) there's a History button. Press that and you'll see all the previous reconciliations you've done on the account. One or more will have a value in the Discrepancies column. Press the Clear History button and then perform a new account reconciliation for the entire history of the account up to the most recent statement. You can do this in a single reconciliation, you don't have to do it month by month.

They redesigned the reconciliation windows a year or two ago; I'm pretty sure you don't have the clear history option in Q2016 and will need to upgrade to be able to do this. I don't have a copy of Quicken 2016 to go back & check but 2018 doesn't have it.

Jon

Before you do the above, check in your account register all the way back at the oldest transaction that set the starting balance for your account. If it's a "Live Balance Adjustment" transaction make sure it's the correct balance for that date - Quicken will adjust the value of those transactions if it needs to in order to make your current account balance match what the bank says it is. If that transaction isn't correct, that could throw off your reconciliation. I would suggest replacing that transaction with a fixed Adjustment transaction instead to stop this from happening again.

yardbird_1

There's no Reconcile History in 2016, but I do remember it from earlier versions (my first was in '99). I am ready to install Quicken Deluxe, but wouldn't mind figuring this glitch out.

Is the "Live Balance Adjustment" the one you get after all the clearing for that reconcile? If so, there's no way around to move forward, except for applying that correction. The two new accounts (savings and a checking) both start off at zero and then the initial deposit for them. They both show bogus balances at the final reconciliations' "ending balances".

Just to confirm (because I haven't installed the current Deluxe yet), does this have a Reconciliation History function? (Nice too know, because a version such as v.2016 which doesn't have it cannot be trusted.)

TIA

jacobs

Starting with version 6.1 (January 2021), Quicken Mac has maintained a history of every reconciliation. Pulling down the Reconciliation History menu option, this window shows you if there are any discrepancies, and in which month(s).

Screenshot 2023-08-17 at 12.33.10 PM.png

You can go back to re-reconcile, where Quicken will show you what transactions have been deleted, added, or changed. You can also print a reconciliation report, if that makes it easier to cross-check multiple months.

If things seem hopelessly messed up, you can clear the entire reconciliation history for this account.

Screenshot 2023-08-17 at 12.36.40 PM.png

Then, you can do a single reconciliation from the beginning of time until however recently you want — end of last year, end of last quarter — where you have an available bank statement to provide the ending balance. Then, you can move forward month by month up to the present doing additional reconciliations to make sure everything in Quicken agrees with the real world account.