Quicken frequently changes the opening balance of some accounts.

MichaelG2024

--Quicken frequently changes the opening balance of some accounts: wreaking havoc. [more than a year]

Using Quicken for Windows R53.16 (or later)
When will this be fixed, if ever? [= duration]

Boatnmaniac

This can sometimes happen when deactivating/reactivating accounts, when resetting accounts or when changing the connection method of accounts. It's been a problem for some time now and I do not know what is being done by Quicken to address it.

However, if you have not already done so, you might want to enter and save the dollar amounts of the Opening Balance transactions into the memo fields of those transactions. It won't fix the problem but it makes it a lot easier to know when the issue has occurred and a lot easier to fix it when it has occurred.

Boatnmaniac

This can sometimes happen when deactivating/reactivating accounts, when resetting accounts or when changing the connection method of accounts. It's been a problem for some time now and I do not know what is being done by Quicken to address it.

However, if you have not already done so, you might want to enter and save the dollar amounts of the Opening Balance transactions into the memo fields of those transactions. It won't fix the problem but it makes it a lot easier to know when the issue has occurred and a lot easier to fix it when it has occurred.

DenverBob

I was hoping that Quicken would have fixed this by now. It does not sound like it.

After many attempts to fix, repair, restore data nothing worked. I had used Quicken for 20 years without any troubles.

Always reconciled to the penny every month. Unlike a lot of folks I have never had quicken connected to any banks, ever.

Always did entries manually. Switched to another software a couple years ago.

Guess I'll check back in a couple more years. 😉

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20403352#Comment_20403352

If you "have never had quicken connected to any banks, ever" then you cannot have experienced the issue described in this thread. It is an issue that occurs only with connected accounts when resetting or changing the connection method. The issue(s) you experienced were different from this one. If you decide to start using Quicken, again, and wish to troubleshoot those issues, please start a new thread about it so it gets the attention it deserves.

plate lunch

Ahh, so I'm not alone. Been seeing this problem occasionally and I was stuck over on the "Download Issues with Bank of America" thread, trying to figure out why I wasn't seeing any downloaded transactions.

From what I could tell, the messed up Opening Balance threw off Quicken and even though Quicken said it downloaded transactions, it never displayed them. It wasn't till I restored the opening balance that the downloaded transactions displayed. What a waste of time.

And as far as restoring the opening balance, just save a lot of backup copies. How to open a backup copy is not very obvious but I was able to poke the right menu options to get a look at my uncorrupted account balance.

Boatnmaniac

@plate lunch -

From what I could tell, the messed up Opening Balance threw off Quicken and even though Quicken said it downloaded transactions, it never displayed them. It wasn't till I restored the opening balance that the downloaded transactions displayed. What a waste of time.

Now that is interesting….restoring the opening balance also caused the "missing" downloaded transactions to be displayed? Missing downloaded transactions is also an issue that pops up once in a while and I don't recall seeing anyone else say this is what fixed that issue for them. I will definitely keep it in mind and see if this can be confirmed by me or someone else. Thanks for posting this here. This could be a big help to a lot of people who have this issue.

And as far as restoring the opening balance, just save a lot of backup copies. How to open a backup copy is not very obvious but I was able to poke the right menu options to get a look at my uncorrupted account balance.

If you have not already done so, you might want to enter and save the correct Opening Balance dollar amount into the Memo field for each of your accounts. Then it will always be there and you won't need to open backup files to find out what the correct Opening Balance should be.

Also, restoring a back up file can be done 2 different ways. I sound like you found the File > Restore a Back File method.

The other option is to go to the folder where your backup files are saved. Once there, double click on the backup file you want restored and Quicken will open it.

plate lunch

@Boatnmaniac

Glad to offer my observations. Maybe it will give the Quicken programmers a clue for reproducing the issue and getting the problem fixed.

I saw your suggestion about noting the Opening Balance but you have to know that Quicken has an opening balance problem ahead of time. I think it is years between my visits to this forum and I just look at a few topics that relate to an immediate problem. Backups are always helpful.

I'm a programmer so I was looking for a "Close File" and matching "Open File" option under the File pulldown. There is no Close File so how to open the backup and not overwrite my current working file? I was so relieved when I saw there was an option to make a copy. Whew. Home free :-)

Boatnmaniac

@plate lunch - I'm not sure what you mean by "you have to know that Quicken has an opening balance problem ahead of time." If you mean that one would not think of entering the Opening Balance transaction dollar amount into the Memo field as a proactive measure to address a possible issue in the future, then I fully agree with you. But now that we know that this Opening Balance transaction dollar amount does sometimes get changed when the the connection method is changed, reset, deactivated/reactivated or reauthorized we can take this action proactively so we do not need to restore a backup file to know when it has been changed. Instead we can simply compare the Memo field entry to what is shown in the Balance column. It then becomes "easy, breezy" (as my wife is so fond of saying) to know when the issue has occurred and how to correct it.

And, yes, backup files are always incredibly important.

You are correct: There is no Close File. Quicken will automatically save the file under the current name when the session is closed. (Actually, being a data base the file is automatically updated with every change we enter during the open session so I'm not sure that there is an actual save process at all when the session is closed. Maybe that is why there is no Close File option.)

But you might want to take a look at Edit > Preferences > Backup. There you can enter your settings preferences for both Automatic backups and Manual backups. Quicken will place the backups into a separate folder (you can either use the default folder or select your own) and will save it as a .QDF-backup file instead of as a .QDF file.

I generally do not do Manual backups. Instead, I rely nearly 100% on Automatic backups and I have it set to backup after every session and to retain the last 35 backup files. When doing Automatic backups, Quicken will add the date and time to the backup file names making it easy to know when the backup file was created. What is really sweet about this is I never have to remember to manually backup my data files because it is done automatically for me.

With Manual backups, we are given the opportunity to save it with a different file name and/or manually select a different storage location with every backup. Except for special purpose backups, I find this manual process to be too cumbersome for my likes.

Following are a couple of pictures that you might find helpful.

As mentioned in my previous post, restoring a backup file is actually very easy using the File > Restore a Backup File function or to simply go to the Backup folder and double clicking on the backup file you want to restore. During the restoration process, Quicken will prompt you to either save the restored file using the original file name (which will overwrite the original data file) or to save it with a different name and/or folder location so the original file is not overwritten.

plate lunch

@Boatnmaniac

"If you mean that one would not think of entering the Opening Balance transaction dollar amount into the Memo field as a proactive measure to address a possible issue in the future, then I fully agree with you."

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. I have too many accounts and restoring a backup file to look at it is pretty easy so I'll probably stick with relying on the backup files to repair changes in an account Opening Balance.

Drifting off topic by talking about backups but Big Thank You for pointing out Automatic Backups. I've been using Quicken for a long time and have a routine for Manual Backups that I've just never changed. It looks like Automatic Backups will do everything that I need and do it all automatically. Interestingly, for some reason, I have both Automatic and Manual backups turned on. Suspect it might have happened when Quicken added the feature and I never noticed. Good thing to start the New Year with. Updating the way I do backups. Thanks again.

Boatnmaniac

You are welcome. I think you are making the right decision about setting up Automatic Backups. I rely on Automatic Backups nearly 100% and only do Manual Backups when some special need is identified (such as wanting to test something out after I had already updated my accounts which then allows me to do the testing without closing the session and then reopening Quicken).

As a FYI - While entering/saving the Opening Balance dollar amount into the Memo field is a time saver when after a changed Opening Balance transaction dollar amount issue has occurred, I find the biggest benefit is it very quickly tells me IF the dollar amount has changed and without needing to opening up a backup file in order to determine this.

Having a lot of accounts and can indeed take some time to enter the dollar amounts into the Memo fields but here's a couple of things to chew on regarding it:

• The accounts where this Opening Balance change issue seems to occur is in connected Spending accounts (checking, savings, credit card, etc.). I have not seen it occur in Investment, Property, Asset and other types of accounts. So maybe that narrows down the list some so it doesn't seem like such a daunting task.
• Maybe break it down into chunks where you do only a few accounts in a session. Completing it over multiple sessions might make it seem more manageable.

Well, I've said enough on the subject. In the end it is your decision to make as to what you feel is best for you.

M stich

Quicken classic premier 53.32

Just had this problem yet again. Thanks for the recommendation about the memo field, that will make recovery much easier

I am really getting tired of paying Quicken for "improvements" that I don't want, don't like, and don't use, while they continue to ignore problems. Most all of the problems I've had are associated with downloading data from institutions. I really wish they would work on getting it right instead of making it "better". I would never recommend someone starting out with financial software go with Quicken. Someone mentioned other software? Which one(s)?

Boatnmaniac

FYI: This is a Quicken-owned website and they don't permit discussions regarding alternative competitive products here. Such discussions will be quickly edited or deleted. If you wish to find out about alternative products to Quicken you might want to explore other non-Quicken sites and forums.

q_lurker

Having a lot of accounts and can indeed take some time to enter the dollar amounts into the Memo fields but here's a couple of things to chew on regarding it:

One more thought building off @Boatnmaniac

A banking transaction report can be set up to only those spending accounts and only transactions with Payee matching to Opening. In my case that shows only five of 30+ accounts with a current non-zero opening balance. Those also happen to be old, now inactive accounts; all dating to when I first started with Quicken. From there it is easy enough to click on the transaction and edit the memo.