Deleted an account, but Quicken still says its somewhere?!

CnJHeiman

Setting up student loan accounts that have new providers, so figured the easiest way for those without anything more than initial disbursement (uhh, thanks Covid?!) was to delete and create new. Worked perfectly for all except one.

When naming the new account (using the same that the deleted account had since… they're the same thing), I'm told that the name is already in use. Can't find it in the accounts list though, even when showing hidden accounts. I do find the name as a Category option, but don't have an option to delete it when right clicking, only Merging. Even this isn't a solution, as another message window pops up telling me I can't do that, even though the usage is 0.

So, is this a "shame on me" for taking the simple approach (even though it worked for the other accounts) or is there something else I should be looking at? Thanks!

RalphC

If memory serves, the Quicken recommendation is to never delete an account as this would affect any number of calculations that Quicken performs in the data file resulting in orphaned transactions and a corrupt data file. The recommendation is to close the account, hide it, and eliminate it from reports. But, it really sounds like you created a category and not an account.

That said, the first and easiest remedy would be to resort to a backup that was saved before you did any of this. Do not delete the unwanted accounts but close and hide them. You might have to create new accounts with slightly different names.

splasher

If you are dead set on having the replacement account to have the exact same name, have you tried renaming the category with that name to free it up?

CnJHeiman

Appreciate the feedback.

To clarify, the original account only had a single transaction in it (the initial disbursement) so I deleted that prior to removing the account. A search for the deposit amount doesn't return anything, so sounds more like corruption than orphaning. As for the account name, it shows in the Categories list only as a possible transfer option, just as any other money accounts, so it is not editable.

I do have the new account set up with a slightly different name, but was curious about other thoughts since I've never experienced this in 20+ years of using Quicken.

J_Mike

I have experienced this problem - QWin seems to remember deleted account names.

My work-around is to use a slightly different name create the new (replacement) account.

Then go back and edit the account name - change it to the desired name.

QWin then accepts the previously used name.

Chris_QPW

I don't know why you can't delete the category, or for that matter how you could create an account and a category with the same name, but for some reason in Quicken categories and account names share the same name space.

Example:

Create account called "Checking".

Try to create a category "Checking":

Doing the reverse (create category "Checking" after deleting account, and then the account):

Chris_QPW

P.S. Have you tried running Validate and Repair?

BTW on the assumption that Quicken "remembers account names". There might be some kind of bug that causes this, but as you can see from my post above, that isn't how it is supposed to work. I can delete accounts and reuse that name either in another account or category.

Rocket J Squirrel

A File > Copy might also help, as that rebuilds the database leaving behind items marked deleted. No guarantees, though.