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If the financial institution's website isn't consistent no way the data to Quicken is going to be.

Chris_QPW

In general, I'm able to reconcile to the online balance, with both Chase and Citi I'm seeing that even on their websites they are always consistent.

Here is an example for Citi.

This will not reconcile:

-642.26 vs -1029.72.

Their website:

Notice the running balance is the same as in Quicken. Also notice that the Posted Total is the same as the Online Balance in Quicken.

What's missing?

Last Statement balance: $387.46.

1029.72 - 387.46 = 642.26.

Today, is the day that my automatic payment happens. It doesn't show up as "pending" or posted/cleared, but it has already affected the balance.

This isn't any kind of worry for me, I will just wait until it is consistent, but it does show what the challenges are when people think this kind of thing is going to be 100% correct.

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Comments

Jon

I already think people should reconcile to their monthly statements & not to the online balance. This is just one more reason to do so.

jacobs

@Jon said: I already think people should reconcile to their monthly statements & not to the online balance. This is just one more reason to do so.

Exactly! I may look at my various accounts at times during the month, for stray/missing/suspicious charges, but I only reconcile monthly, to the statement balance. And I therefore never have a problem in any account, because pending transactions are not part of the equation doing it that way.

[Deleted User]

I think it boils down to a timing difference where either the balance or transactions are either pending or lagging. I never rely solely on the transactions or balance reported online, or what's transmitted to Quicken.

At the end of each day, I take all of my receipts and enter them to Quicken. Then when the items actually post in Quicken, it is a double check of what was purchased and the amount. I have found errors using this method that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. There have been charges that I made and have receipts for that never cleared. There was one instance where a charge came though my Sam's Club Mastercard that I didn't make. It turns out it was a fraudulent charge and Sam's Club issued me a new card.

Optum Bank's website has inconsistencies similar to what @Chris_QPW describes. When I first noticed these discrepancies, I was a bit concerned and called them to report the "errors". Well that didn't work out well. The person on the other end didn't seem to really care, even when I pointed out the differences. Well, long story short, these discrepancies are still there today, and I simply know to ignore them because eventually all the different moving parts will catch up with each other and the differences will get ironed out.
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Chris_QPW

Personally, this is more of a curiosity to me than anything else. A bit of a peek into how the financial institution is doing things.

I hadn't really noticed these kinds of things (at the financial institution's website) until pretty recently.

It is one of those things where the public has one impression on how things in the world work, and it doesn't really line up exactly with the reality (but it doesn't matter because it will "sync up"/workout. People don't have to really know how electricity works to turn on a light).

As for reconciling to the online balance or not, personally I'm doing it because it is easy, and I don't get bent out of shape like some people that expect perfect or when things don't line up instead of finding out why they just put in a balance adjustment (and then don't know why that causes them problems).

Quicken is more of a hobby for me than anything else. I do find it easier to remember to do a reconcile after downloading then when each of the statements come in.

As for the rest, for fraud detection I get email for every transaction we make. I don't pre-enter transactions, we almost never use a check, so what do I really have to reconcile? Afterall it is the process of checking/bringing "my records/Quicken's" into alignment with the financial institution's. If I'm using the financial institution's there isn't anything to reconcile against.

[Deleted User]

I maybe write one check a year and only do so if I have to. But I have a lot of credit card purchases which I reconcile daily via OSU.

I have learned not to trust 100% what the FI reports on their website or their update file to Quicken. I have seen so many instances where they were wrong. So, I have learned to always double check.

And your statement - "If the financial institution's website isn't consistent no way the data to Quicken is going to be." is spot on. Sometimes users are too quick to point a finger at Quicken without looking at what's being reported on their FI's website.