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Why is my "Prior month balance" wrong?

jman100419

The last two months the subject balance has been wrong. After talking to Quicken help supervisor, ended up changing the "opening Balance on the account. I didn't agree with this "FIX" but it made the register "PMB" correct. This month it's wrong again! As stated in the prior reports of this problem by other users. I too use paper statements to balance my accounts. I've gone back several years and can't find any discrepancies in my balancing of statements. No reconciled entries have been changed. I don't download bank information into my accounts. Is there a "Bug" in the software? I run Quicken on two computers. Although I haven't changed the opening balance on number two, I still have incorrect opening balances when I try to reconcile the files on that computer too.

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Comments

Tom Young

Quicken has been known to change an Account's Opening Balance occasionally and this, as far as I know, has always been associated with "downloads", which you say you don't do.

With your first PMB error, the one that you spoke to Quicken about, was the Account's OB wrong, or was that changed just to get the PMB "right" as opposed to allowing Quicken to make a current-period "plug" ("to balance") entry?

Do you use the "mobile/sync" feature? That has been associated with data errors and you may be "spreading" the problem between the the two files through the use of the feature as upon startup Quicken does some "syncing" with the cloud account. If you're using that feature you might want to turn that off.

jman100419

Thank you for your response! The OB was correct, the "Help" supervisor had me change it to correct the PMB problem. I don't use Mobile Sync. I think the change to the OB was a quick fix. I don't think it was the correct way to fix the PMB problem. I've used Quicken since 2016, always used paper balancing. The PMB was correct through September this year. In October it was incorrect by a large amount. I didn't write down the difference between Sept. and October. But checking with my 2nd computer is looks like I had to change the OMB by $2000.00. This month when I tried to reconcile the account the PMB was off by $10.00. I contacted the community because I haven't had any luck with Quicken Help. I don't want to keep changing the OB.

Tom Young

Yes, changing the OB is a crude hack. The person you spoke to obviously doesn't understand accounting as changing the OB throws off every single reconciliation you've ever made in the Account up to the reconciliation you're currently working on in order to get the current PMB "correct." Simply accepting a current period "plug" at least has the saving grace of keeping most of your prior period reconciliations correct, up until whatever transaction or transactions with an "R" in the Clr column got changed.

I'd suggest looking at backups to find the source of the problem here, not that second computer file unless that second computer has no connection to the Internet. If you want to use that file on two different computers - say desktop PC most of the time and laptop when you're traveling - it just seems safer to me to copy the files back and forth since, despite what Quicken might say there does seem to be some element of "syncing" going on, even with Syncing off.

My experience is that PMB errors aren't bugs, they are the result of some transaction(s) with an "R" in the Clr column getting changed. I suppose frequent PMB changes might come about because of some data corruption in the working file itself. If you haven't done so recently you might try a file validation.

To try and prevent PMB's getting changed I've adopted the approach of shortly after each month end, when I'm pretty confident that all transactions and reconciliations for the month are "done", password protecting that month (and all prior transactions) by using File > Set Password to modify transactions… I use the same password here as I use to get into the file, no need to over complicate this, so that if, somehow, I try to change a prior period transaction, Quicken presents a warning and requests the password to do so. You can still change transactions if needed, but the request for the password slows you down a bit and allows you to decide if you really want to do this.

To find any PMB problems that might occur, (if I've ever had a PMB problem it happened so long ago I don't remember it), I also make LOTS of backups. Backups are set to happen every time I close the file and up to the maximum (99) times allowed. Then the number of file closes that prompts for "manual" backups is set such that every few days - typically 2 to 3 days - another backup on a different hard drive also created.

jman100419

Thank you! If and when I get this straightened out, I'll definitely use your suggestions to lock down my transactions. Ran the "file validation" as you suggested. Result: QDF data, no errors, QEL no read errors, all internal consistency checks passed.

There were 29 transactions listed as "linked to accounts no longer in Quicken.

I wish I had noted the OMB before I changed it. I do have several older backups; can I check anything using them?

So, what's next. Should I go back and check every "R" transaction for accuracy.

R/John

Tom Young

"I do have several older backups; can I check anything using them? "

If the problem began two months ago, then any backup older than that should have the correct OB, as long as it's after the date of the Account where you're having the problems. Make sure when you restore the backup you give it a different name than your "live" file so you don't confuse the two.

jman100419

I am going to check the "r" entries. One thing I failed to mention is that when I first had the PMB problem, I looked at "R" for several earlier months, they all had the same amount for PMB.

Tom Young

Yes, you can't go back in time and look at PMBs from prior months, that's just not a piece of data Quicken keeps in it's data base. If you start a reconcile, even one from months before the problem began, Quicken always totals up all the transactions in the entire file to come to its PMB.

jman100419

Thank you, I appreciate your input! I'm going to check my "R" values to ensure none of them have changed. If all that is okay, I'll try an older backup.

Tom Young

You might not see "the change" if a transaction or transactions have been deleted.