Can someone please help me with One Step Update messing up my register balance?

Marc R
Marc R Quicken Windows Subscription Member

I saw a similar question; however, that was back in 2020. Every once in a while, after I perform a One-Step Update, the register balance in one or more of my accounts is off. I search and search to see if I can find the culprit(s), but no luck. I have to put in a manual adjustment to balance it out. Today when I performed the update, the register balance increase to $197,000! I can assure you that I haven't charged that much, nor do I have the credit limit. Can someone help me fix this issue?

Answers

  • hancus8
    hancus8 Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I have the same problem. Have you found out how to correct? The only amount that is correct is "Online Balance" in mobile app. The laptop version does not have correct balances. Everything used to work correctly until one of the Quicken updates in 2023.

  • Marc R
    Marc R Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I’m glad it’s not just me. Hopefully someone has a solution.

  • FredMaine
    FredMaine Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Also me. I just keep updating every 20 mins or so and it seems to catch up. Not happy about that.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Start with making sure that your account register's Opening Balance transaction is correct, i.e., it matches the bank statement's balance on the day you opened the account or started tracking it in Quicken.
    Also make sure that the Opening Balance remains correct. Edit the Opening Balance transaction and note the date and amount in the Memo field … that's because there appears to be an as yet unresolved issue where Quicken recalculates the Opening Balance amount after deactivating/reactivating the account, setting it to an incorrect amount.
    Next steps:
    Get rid of any and all Balance Adjustment transactions you have made, ever.
    Reconcile your account register with the printed bank statements for every month since opening the account.
    Identify any missing, duplicate or otherwise incorrect transactions and make the necessary corrections.

    When working with your account register, be sure the register is sorted by Date (in ascending or descending order) and NOT filtered in any way or using Search to only show a limited number of transactions.
    A filtered register's Running Balance is a top-down addition of all transactions as displayed. As such, the filtered Running Balance cannot be used to determine today's actual balance or the ending balance including future dated register transactions and/or reminders.

    Remember: Credit card accounts, if you owe money to the bank, will be tracked in Quicken using a negative running Balance (shown in red). The bank statement itself will show the amount you owe as an unsigned number. Only if you're overpaid (e.g., have a credit balance due to a refund) will they show the balance as something like "123.45 CR" or similar notation.
    When beginning to reconcile a credit card register in Quicken, in the appropriate dialog, enter the balance you owe as unsigned (positive) number. Quicken will do the necessary math under the covers to match your entered "123.45" to the register balance of "-123.45".
    Again remember, should you run a credit balance, you need to enter a negative amount (e.g., "-234.56") to represent the positive credit balance, "234.56". Sounds weird, I know, but that's bookkeeping math for you …

    Hope that helps.

  • Marc R
    Marc R Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I appreciate the response and explanation as to how to try and correct the issue. The reason I purchase Quicken is so I don’t have to manually reconcile to my statements. I am not about to go through over 24 months of statements, attempting to find missing transactions. That defeats the purpose. I would rather zero out the account register, deactivate updates and start over with a new account. Considering this appears to be an issue that has been occurring since 2020, I would think Intuit would correct the bug. If not, I will entertain making a change. Thanks again.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you try to run Quicken on "Autopilot", you will get the same results as with an often mentioned car manufacturer's "Autopilot" system … you'll end up in the ditch.
    Despite all the best efforts of the Quicken programmers, Quicken is just not capable of "automagically" handling all the stuff that the banks throw at it during transaction downloads.

    It requires a little TLC and some manual effort and you will have much better results.

    I've been using Quicken since the early 1990s with satisfactory results. Some of my account registers date back to those old times and they're still continuing to be up-to-date and correctly reconcilable.

    Whichever way you decide to go: Good Luck.

  • Marc R
    Marc R Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    Thanks for the response. I understand that it will still require TLC. Whether good or not, I never reconcile at the end of the month. I download transactions on a daily basis and audit. Therefore, the only thing I am using Quicken for is to download transactions into a register.

  • vader
    vader Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I've been using Quicken for ~20+ years. I've been using Auto-reconcile regularly and consistently for as long as I can remember. However, for the past several months this the reconcile balance is coming up off on a semi-regular balance for two different banks, the other banks are fine. I've Reset the account and reconcile and it fixes it for a day or two but then it goes off again. No transactions are missing and its not a difference in transactions waiting to clear. It is just wrong. Again doing teh Reset Account fixes it with no new transactions but it goes off again in a few days.

    Its terribly frustrating. I've dug for answers and found nothing.

  • Marc R
    Marc R Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I am going to need to reset the account as well. I hope they fix it.

  • WJudson
    WJudson Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Been having the same issue since last year. Today marks the third time since January I've had to reset my accounts. Quicken forces a load standard for updating, it shouldn't be off every couple of days.

This discussion has been closed.