Quicken including Pending transactions in downloaded reconcile balance
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@Rocket J Squirrel, not disagreeing with you at all, but the fact that @Quicken Anja has also previously acknowledged this problem as one that did require, and receive, a fix from Quicken would cause me to believe that it would at least warrant an investigation by them again. It's very challenging as a user of a product to be stuck in the middle, with banks pointing at Quicken, and Quicken pointing at the banks. Quicken as a company has much more voice than an end user does. If it is a problem with a bank, I would hope that Quicken could assist its users by reaching out to the bank on our behalf.
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@Chris86 just because @Quicken Anja acknowledged this as a problem doesn't mean that it was in fact a "Quicken problem" depending on how you define that. It is certainly a problem for Quicken Inc and their customers because the system doesn't work right, but that doesn't mean that the fix is within their control/domain.
It can simply mean that they have forwarded the problem reports to the Intuit to get resolved, which may mean a fix in the Intuit servers or the financial institution.
As a programmer, even without looking at the code, I can make a pretty good guess at what code is "common" and what is going to be tailored for given financial institution.
So, let's do that for the Online Balance. The first thing to understand is that it isn't a calculated value, it is downloaded. So, we next have to look at the download paths.
If we were talking about Web Connect (QFX file) clearly there is the generated file, and then there is what Quicken (the program) does with that file's data. This going to be common code for all financial institutions. Unless a new version of Quicken comes out that has a bug in it (which will affect all QFX files) then Quicken can be ruled out.
If you are talking about Express Web Connect it gets a lot more cloudy. Quicken (the program) is still going to be running pretty much common code for all Express Web Connect financial institutions. It gets its data from the sync to the Quicken Connection Services/Cloud dataset. Again, in this area, common code. That server is in turn going to connect to the Intuit one. I have no idea what protocols they are using for this connection, but it only makes sense that they wouldn't have a different one per financial institution. Now we get to the Intuit server connecting to the financial institution, and this is where it gets really cloudy. Because there isn't a set protocol between the Intuit server and the financial institution. There is an "agreement" on how to do it. So, the problem can be either the financial institution not providing the data as expected, or Intuit not picking it up correctly. Note that I don't think it is as chaotic as it sounds most of the time, I'm sure the agreed method is one of a few that Intuit has already worked out for other financial institutions.
That brings use to Express Web Connect +. This cleans up a lot of this "cloudy". What is definitely known is that instead of an "agreement" the protocol used between Intuit and the financial institution is FDX. As a set protocol there is going to be a field that the financial institution fills in with the current balance. Everything about this connection method from Quicken (the program) to the Quicken Connection Services to what Intuit does should be common to all financial institutions.
So, it should be impossible to have Chase and USAA both using Express Web Connect + and one has the Online Balance correct and the other doesn't unless the problem resides at the financial institution.
And a few facts bear this out. I'm not sure if it is still a problem, but here is what has been seen on this for Chase. For only checking and savings accounts, and only on weekends and holidays the Online Balance was (is) including pending transactions. Clearly no code in Quicken (the program) or the Quicken Connection Services, or on the Intuit servers is going to change for one financial institution for just some types of accounts on just the weekend/holidays.
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Wow. I really appreciate the time you're taking to explain all of this @Chris_QPW Very much appreciated. I'm a programmer as well, but not at all versed in the Quicken/financial landscape, but what you're explaining makes total sense to me.
I wish I was as knowledgeable as you on this stuff and could explain to USAA tech support why I believe the issue to be with the financial institution, and not Quicken or Intuit :)
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I have noticed that every time I update - Quicken to USAA - then I have to pay attention to the window that comes up asking me to — either link to an existing file — add an account — or do nothing. Why do only the USAA updates do that?
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This is a new one on me, but let me say that if the account information that Quicken is getting is changing, then that is about what I would expect Quicken to do. You might want to try setting up your USSA account(s) in a new data file to see if it is only in that one data file or not.
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