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Adjusting "Online Balance?"

Dana Netherton

I'm using Quicken Deluxe for Windows, R55.15, on a laptop running Windows 10 Home.

Today I got curious about the difference between "Online Balance" and "Ending Balance," at the bottom of one of my account registers. I tapped "help" and got the article "Banking/Spending" / "Using the account register" / "About your three register balance amounts" BTW I don't see a date anywhere in the article, so I don't know how long ago it was written. (screenshot #1)

Adjust Online Balance 1 - Screenshot 2024-03-20 134254.jpg

(Oddly, the article only talks about two register balance amounts, not three. Does this reflect an older version of Quicken, with a third balance amount that has been removed at some point in the past? shrug Not fussed by that, moving on)

After explaining how the "online" and "ending" balance numbers can become different, it offers a way to adjust the online balance "if you use Pending Transactions." (screenshot #2)

Adjust Online Balance 2 - Screenshot 2024-03-20 134059.jpg

This looked interesting, so I set out to try it. Alas, I hit a wall on Step One. Step One says this:

"Select the Info icon next to Online Balance at the bottom of the register for an individual account (not All Transactions)."

Info icon? What info icon? (screenshot #3)

There's a "help" icon on the right of the line that shows various balances. But no "info" icon.

This isn't unique to this account. I seem the very same thing in the registers for our checking account, and for the five other credit cards for which I download transactions. No "info" icon.

Is the Help article obsolete? Did there used to be an "info" icon, at some point in the past?

Or am I missing something?

Thanks for your thoughts!

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Accepted answers

Dana Netherton

You wrote:

"there are FIs that have stopped sending pending transactions, but still include the pending transactions in the online balance number. So, pending transactions could be another component of the difference. I think that is why many users are having issues reconciling."

Ah, so FIs don't simply send the individual transactions; they also send a number for the account's balance at the time of the online update?? No wonder there's sometimes a discrepancy between the "online" number and the "ending [in Quicken]" number! There's no way an FI could know what Quicken thinks is the account's balance.

Thanks for the responses!

All comments

[Deleted User]

@Dana Netherton - twice, or more times in the past, Quicken attempted to add a "pending transaction" feature. That "Info" button was about using pending transactions. A user could toggle between using pending transactions or not. The last time they added this feature, it was then removed with the next update. It looks like though the documentation wasn't updated as well.

Dana Netherton

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20424843#Comment_20424843

Ah. So the "toggle" feature didn't last, but the documentation on how to use the feature did? Yeah, I can see how that could happen. (Wouldn't surprise me, with Quicken)

Or has Q also stopped using "pending transactions" to generate different numbers between "online balance" and "ending balance" — at all? If this is the case, would Manual Transactions (not entered from online data) now be the only thing that generates those different numbers?

[Deleted User]

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20425270#Comment_20425270

Well manual transactions that haven't match up yet to a downloaded transaction would be most if not all of difference. But, there are FIs that have stopped sending pending transactions, but still include the pending transactions in the online balance number. So, pending transactions could be another component of the difference. I think that is why many users are having issues reconciling.

Dana Netherton

You wrote:

Thanks for the responses!