New Problem Reconciling Credit Card Accounts

Question

I have been a Quicken user for 30 years and have run into a new problem.  Just recently, when I tried to reconcile credit card statements, the payments and the charges total up properly and the amounts match the statements, but the Quicken reconcile page shows a difference when it should be zero.  This first happened when I tried to reconcile my Chase card and the difference was exactly $100.  It just happened again with my Capital One card and this time the difference is exactly $250.  I have double checked and the total number of charges and payments and the total amounts of the payments and charges match the statements.  All entries have been manual (no downloading) and there are no finance  charges on either card.  So far I have not had any problems with reconciling bank statements.  I thought this was a fluke when it happened the first time, but something is not right.  Any idea what might be going on?

Tom123 · Answer

Thanks.  I have done a search through both accounts to see if any previously reconciled items "R" has been changed and found nothing.  I suppose if a reconciled "R" item had been deleted this would explain the difference, but given the round numbers and the fact that it has happened on two different accounts that have been regularly reconciled, that would be a odd coincidence.  I may try restoring a previous backup to see if anything is missing, but for now I will just use an adjusting entry and move on.  I just hope there is nothing in the most recent Quicken update that created this glitch.

Tom Young · Answer

As you know, the "opening balance" in a reconciliation is a calculated number.  It's the sum of all the transactions in the Account with an "R" in the Clr column.  If any transaction with an R in the Clr column gets changed in an Account, somehow, then you're not going to reconcile that Account except by accepting a "plug" adjustment or finding out what transaction(s) got changed.

If you happen to have backups taken shortly after the last reconciliation dates of each Account you could look at at those backups and compare the Balance in those Accounts to what's in your current file.  If the Balances differ then you know that some prior transaction(s) have either had their transaction amount changed or some transaction has been deleted or a new transaction has sneaked in.  This won't tell you however if some transaction that used to have an R in the Clr column now has a blank in there.

The nice round amounts of the differences could be helpful here if you can recall any transactions in those amounts that have taken place in the Accounts.

Tom123 · Answer

Thanks for this tip.  The opening balances of both of these accounts is showing zero, but that is actually correct because I set them up when the credit cards were first issued and the starting balances were actually zero.  I could put a dummy number there to offset the reconciliation anomalies (or simply have Quicken add an adjusting entry), but that really does not explain why these accounts suddenly would not reconcile.  Both accounts are about 20 years old and this has never happened before.