unable to reconcile for $00.00 Difference

Darrel

Cleared balance and statement ending balance difference -90.00. Doesn't matter if I use paper balance or online balance. After exhaustive research I am unable to determine why this difference occurs. I have also validated the quicken file to no avail. Have never encountered this problem before without determining the cause.

Greg_the_Geek

Have you checked the Opening Balance on the account? You might need to restore a backup to check for the correct value.

volvogirl

exactly $90? When an amount is divisible by 9 it can mean a typo. Like 54 entered as 45. 63/36 72/27 etc.

Darrel

I have checked the opening balance and ending balance, Both change when moving from online to paper and the difference is still -90. I've also checked all the transactions. They're correct.

Greg_the_Geek

The opening balance should not change.

Darrel

The opening balance can be changed if you reconcile with the paper balance stated on the account. Either way, the difference is -90

Greg_the_Geek

The Opening Balance is the first entry in the register when the account was added to Quicken.

Darrel

Oh. The opening balance I am referring to is the opening balance on the popup when you do the account reconciliation. This is a checking account that I reconcile every month. This is the first time that the difference has been other than zero that I have been unable to determine why. The original opening balance was in 2007 and it was $0.00

Greg_the_Geek

If you're downloading transactions, Quicken has been known to change the Opening Balance to something other than $0.00.

Darrel

I am downloading transactions and each month I normally use the online balance for reconciliation. Each month the balance as of the date of reconciliation changes to whatever that account balance is. That being the case how would one determine if Quicken has changed the Opening Balance to something other than $0.00

Greg_the_Geek

Scroll back through the register to the first entry.

Darrel

2/27/2007 is the first entry. It is $0.00

Greg_the_Geek

I'm sorry but I don't have any more suggestions.

Darrel

I appreciate your effort and time. Thanks anyway!

RalphC

I usually find reconciliation errors on or about the closing date of the statement. Quicken has reconciled some transactions that actually haven't cleared yet. I begin by unselecting transactions on or about the closing date to see if I can get it to balance.

Failing that, I unclear all the recent transactions in the Quicken reconcile routine and go transaction by transaction with the bank statement to find an (omission) error.

The good news is that you had a zero balance a month ago, so the error is somewhere in the last month.

Chris_QPW

To get an idea of where in the register the problem is, work back through your statements, and Quicken's balance on that date. This should work provided that you don't write checks (or other transactions) that get reconciled past the closing date (but entered before the closing date).

Since you mention switching between the Online Balance and "paper" statement balance, I will point out what the warning Quicken puts up is all about.

If you are reconciling to the Online Balance, you have most likely reconciled transactions that are in between the last statement date and the next one.

If when you switch paper statement reconciling and then enter the date that was on your last statement you will have transactions in the register that are reconciled past that date. Quicken's reconcile will include those reconciled transactions in "past the statement date you entered" but will not show them on in the window except that they will affect the totals.

So, even using "paper statement" you will need to reconcile to the current online balance. Or you need to un-reconcile all the transactions past the date that you enter for the reconcile. Personally, I think Quicken is wrong to do it this way, but that is what it is.

The other main reason for mentioning this is because if one wants to check the totals in reconcile window, they need a "known date/amount". And the most logical one would be the closing date/amount on your last statement. It is a better date than one in the middle of the month if for no other reason than you might get tripped up by pending transactions. But only if there aren't any reconciled transactions past that date.

As an example. My last statement for my credit card account was on 10/13/2023, with a balance of -515.25.

I have been reconciling every day to the online balance.

I changed a reconciled transaction to cleared and start a reconcile using 10/13/2023.

Clearly that isn't going to work.

Now I changed all the reconciled transactions on and after 10/13/2023 to cleared and get this: