Where is Auto-Reconcile?

TedHoward

Was the feature removed?!!

I followed the proper support article. There should be an option to enable auto-reconcilation of downloaded transactions in at least two locations and for me it is in zero locations. I see the "Reconcile using online balance" checkbox but nothing about "Auto Reconcile" I tried everything I can think of, even unchecking the "online balance" checkbox and restarting Quicken.

I'm not alone in this…

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20389711#Comment_20389711

Jim_Harman

This is only for accounts that are set up for transaction downloading.

Click on the gear at the top right of the account's register.

Select the Online Services tab. At the bottom right, check the Reconcile using online balance box. Note: An update late last year un-checked this box for several of my accounts.

The next time you click on Done after downloading and accepting transactions, Quicken will automatically reconcile your account, comparing the balance including the transactions you have accepted to the online balance reported by your Financial Institution. If the balances match, the cleared transactions are marked as Reconciled. If the balances do not match, Quicken displays the Reconcile window.

The Help here

https://help.quicken.com/display/WIN/Turning%2Bon%2Bauto%2Breconcile

is years out of date.

Chris_QPW

The way this is setup isn't very intuitive.

To "get back to the start" go to the Account Details → Online Services tab and deselect "Reconcile to online balance" → OK.

Now you need to run a reconcile, Ctrl+R. This dialog will come up:

This is where you will find the auto reconcile setting. Note that if you select "Always use Online Balance" that is how you get into the situation where you can't see/change the auto reconcile setting without first disabling it on the Online Services tab.

I will state one thing though, if you are using automatic transaction entry mode where your transactions go directly into the register instead of through the Downloaded Transactions tab, you should NEVER turn on automatic reconcile.

Automatic Reconcile only works with amounts, it doesn't ensure that the payees/categories/tags are correct, and once it is run it will clear the statuses New/New Match and so you can't really easily find the new transactions after that. You should always review your transactions whether it be in the register with automatic transaction entry mode or in the Downloaded Transactions tab before reconcile is run. Since automatic reconcile runs after the download, you have no chance to do that if the transactions are downloaded directly into the register. For when using the Downloaded Transactions tab, the automatic reconcile isn't kicked off until someone finishes accepting the transactions into the register and closes the Downloaded Transactions tab (and only the transactions accepted in the register will be subject to the automatic reconcile).

Jim_Harman

I use Auto Reconcile, but you should be aware of the following:

Even if you carefully review and categorize all your downloaded transactions, there are situations where you may be blissfully ignorant of problems after using Auto Reconcile'.

1. If the transactions for an account stop downloading without any warning as happened to me recently because the accounts needed to be re-authorized, no reconciliation is done and the register will be out of date.
2. If the Reconcile to Online balance box is un-checked by a Quicken update as happened to me recently, no reconciliation is done and the register will be out of date.
3. If a payment or deposit is recorded in the register but is never downloaded, i.e. not paid or credited, you are not notified. You must review the register to find any missing "R"s. This can happen if a payment was lost in the mail or if you forget to enter payment instructions on your bank's website.

TedHoward

"Reconcile using online balance" is checked for all of my accounts
Ctrl-R in any of my accounts shows me a dialog with a list of 'Charges' on the left and 'Payments' on the right. There are no checkboxes in this dialog.

I do the 'One-Step Update' when I launch Quicken. This used to auto-reconcile some but never all accounts. Now it does none. I cannot locate the option to auto-reconcile. In nearly all of my accounts today when I hit 'Ctrl+R' the charges&payments balanced and Quicken balance matched online balance, so any auto-reconcile would have reconciled the transactions. The update completed and finished back in Quicken. There is no "Done" button to click (referencing "The next time you click on Done after downloading and accepting transactions")

Jim_Harman

It appears that to set up auto reconcile, you must first un-check Reconcile using online balance box on the Edit account details > Online services tab if it is checked. That is consistent with what @Chris_QPW said in his post above if you read it carefully.

Then when you do a Ctrl-R you will get the Reconcile setup dialog where you can check the Reconcile using online balance and Auto Reconcile boxes. This will re-check the box on the Online Services tab and the Auto Reconcile will start working again.

This workflow is broken or at least very confusing IMO. It looks like Auto reconcile was tacked on after the initial implementation. When they realized later that there was no way to turn it off, they added the checkbox on the Online Services tab.

Chris_QPW

I definitely think this workflow is messed up but note it has been like this since they put it in place.

And there is something else that isn't obvious. This is a perfectly good setting:

Automatic reconcile will kick off with these settings using the online balance.

What the "Alway use Online Balance for this account. Don't ask me again" is make this dialog not come up when you start the reconcile. (and if any changes are needed you have to get back to this dialog by going to the Account Details → Online Services tab and deselecting the "Use online balance checkbox".)

Again, like I said about mixing automatic transaction entry mode and automatic reconcile is very bad thing to do, these settings probably shouldn't have been allowed in certain combinations.

If you are using automatic reconcile then it isn't really a big deal that you will go through this dialog if you kick off the reconcile manually, since the belief is that you would do that rarely.

On the other hand, my workflow is to download the transactions directly into the register, review them, and then kick off the reconcile using the online balance. It really isn't much of pain to go through this dialog in this case either, but since I'm always using the same combination, it is a "nice shortcut".

TedHoward

Solved!
There's an important step missing, at least for my installation/setup. Step #8 below which imo is highly counter-intuitive. Why would I have the option to use the downloaded transations to reconcile ONLY when I am NOT downloading transactions!!??

1. Edit account
2. Turn off 'Use online balance' checkbox
3. Exit Quicken
4. Start Quicken
5. Go to account
6. Ctrl-R
7. Dialog below
8. Select "Reconcile without downloading"
9. THEN I get the dialog with "Auto reconcile downloaded transactions"

TedHoward

Thanks all!

Chris_QPW

• Select "Reconcile without downloading" comes up when you haven't downloaded transactions since the start of the day (midnight) and then start a reconcile.