Catching up after prolonged period

AES2

Hi, I was a dedicated Quicken user for about 15 years, then stopped entering data systematically about 10 years ago. I now need to catch up. I need the most accurate data I can get, all the way back to when I started neglecting my accounting. I have saved all my statements that will likely be needed for manual entry for some or many of the missing years. My question is how to start and how to avoid confusion. I would appreciate comments on the following plan:

1. Make backups of accounts up to last properly entered and reconciled date
2. Perform downloads of all accounts as far back as they will go from the institution
3. Go back to where I left off and start filling in missing data from paper records
4. Reconcile

Questions:

1. Does this plan look ok?
2. If I run into a road block of data I cannot find the paperwork - is there a way to bookmark that account and/or just address the time period I can download or enter?

THANKS!!!

jacobs

Let me start from an even more basic starting point: what version of Quicken Mac did you have then, have you been using Quicken Mac in the interim, and do you have the current Quicken Mac now? Have you been entering some data, or no data, over the past decade?

When you say "make backups of accounts", there isn't a (practical) way to back up individual accounts. What I think you want to do first is figure out where transactions stopped or were incomplete, on account at a time. If you do have statements going back to that point, then make sure you have or do a reconciliation as of that date, to confirm that you have the correct balance at that time, and to insure that all prior transactions have the green reconciled checkmark in the "Clr" column. For any accounts which have no reconciliations since version 6.1 (January 2021), when is when reconciliation history began being tracked, you should do such a reconciliation now to start building your reconciliation history for that account.

In terms of downloading the most recent transactions, be aware that most (not all) financial institutions will allow you to connect and download the past 90 days of transactions. But many will let you log onto their website and download the past 12 months, all of 2023, or possibly even longer, in "Quicken" or "QFX" format. If your financial institution only offers CSV downloads that won't help, as Quicken Mac doesn't import data in CSV format. (There are possible workarounds which we can discuss later if it's needed.)

If I run into a road block of data I cannot find the paperwork - is there a way to bookmark that account and/or just address the time period I can download or enter?

I'm not sure I exactly understand what you're saying here. I would make a list of your accounts on paper and make notes/mark them complete as you proceed. There is no bookmark for an account. You could create temporary adjustment transaction in an account, using a unique Pee name you can easily search to find later, if you want to plug in values to force your current account balance to be accurate. But if you're connecting to download transactions in Quicken, the program will create such an adjustment transaction for the difference between the financial insitution's reported balance and what you currently have in Quicken.

It might be easier to not connect accounts for downloading until after you enter all the historical transactions, just so you're not working in the middle of the transaction history and dealing with bogus adjustments keeping the current balance accurate.

You also showed reconcile as a final step at the end. Instead, I would encourage you to reconcile month by month or quarter by quarter, as you go through the old statements. If you wait to finish everything and then reconcile if your account doesn't reconcile correctly, you ave 10 years of transactions to re-review. If you reconcile each account each month, then if one month suddenly doesn't work, you know exactly that the problem lies in that month.

jacobs

Let me start from an even more basic starting point: what version of Quicken Mac did you have then, have you been using Quicken Mac in the interim, and do you have the current Quicken Mac now? Have you been entering some data, or no data, over the past decade?

When you say "make backups of accounts", there isn't a (practical) way to back up individual accounts. What I think you want to do first is figure out where transactions stopped or were incomplete, on account at a time. If you do have statements going back to that point, then make sure you have or do a reconciliation as of that date, to confirm that you have the correct balance at that time, and to insure that all prior transactions have the green reconciled checkmark in the "Clr" column. For any accounts which have no reconciliations since version 6.1 (January 2021), when is when reconciliation history began being tracked, you should do such a reconciliation now to start building your reconciliation history for that account.

In terms of downloading the most recent transactions, be aware that most (not all) financial institutions will allow you to connect and download the past 90 days of transactions. But many will let you log onto their website and download the past 12 months, all of 2023, or possibly even longer, in "Quicken" or "QFX" format. If your financial institution only offers CSV downloads that won't help, as Quicken Mac doesn't import data in CSV format. (There are possible workarounds which we can discuss later if it's needed.)

If I run into a road block of data I cannot find the paperwork - is there a way to bookmark that account and/or just address the time period I can download or enter?

I'm not sure I exactly understand what you're saying here. I would make a list of your accounts on paper and make notes/mark them complete as you proceed. There is no bookmark for an account. You could create temporary adjustment transaction in an account, using a unique Pee name you can easily search to find later, if you want to plug in values to force your current account balance to be accurate. But if you're connecting to download transactions in Quicken, the program will create such an adjustment transaction for the difference between the financial insitution's reported balance and what you currently have in Quicken.

It might be easier to not connect accounts for downloading until after you enter all the historical transactions, just so you're not working in the middle of the transaction history and dealing with bogus adjustments keeping the current balance accurate.

You also showed reconcile as a final step at the end. Instead, I would encourage you to reconcile month by month or quarter by quarter, as you go through the old statements. If you wait to finish everything and then reconcile if your account doesn't reconcile correctly, you ave 10 years of transactions to re-review. If you reconcile each account each month, then if one month suddenly doesn't work, you know exactly that the problem lies in that month.

RalphC

Going back 10 years to find transaction/financial institution data is a herculean task, and one that I don't think is possible. Banks and financial institutions are only going to have 18 months of data available to you, at best.

I would make this the first day of the rest of your life. Assume that the bank/financial institution is correct. Download current financial institution statements and make your registers agree, undoubtedly, with Balance Adjustments. And, going forward, you'll make daily transaction entries and monthly reconciliations to stay current.

AES2

Thanks for the responses. I have always used Mac and typically have updated QUicken as the new programs came along. It appears I entered some data up to about 6 years ago and the last program I have labeled before the current one is Quicken 2016. I have most or all of the paper statements and can manually enter data. I cannot just start from here because I need to reconcile some shared expenses.

thanks again!

RickO

If you have Quicken for Mac 2016, you can open that file with current subscription Quicken Classic and it should import just fine. Or, in fact, you can probably just continue to use QMac 2016 although you'll be missing a lot of upgrades (new reporting engine, for example) that have happened since then. And you run the risk of the program failing since it's no longer officially supported on current macOS.

We should clarify what you mean by "reconcile". Do you mean an actual reconcile of the account(s) against the banks records? Or do you mean some kind of reconcile of expenses only with/against the person(s) you have shared expenses with?

You indicate that you may be missing some of the paper statements. If you are trying to reconcile those against the bank's records, you will not be totally successful (if you have gaps in your paper statements) and you'll have to have adjustment transactions as @jacobs indicates above. If it were me, I don't see the point of trying to reconcile against the bank's records at this point. I'd just assume the bank records/statements are correct.

On the other hand, if all you're trying to do is create reports for reconciling shared expenses with another person(s), then you can enter all the data you have, generate reports, and just be cognizant that you may have some gaps for which you'll have to guesstimate the expenses.

As for entering data, @jacobs described above how you may be able to get more than 90 days of data downloaded from the bank(s). How much just depends on the bank. As an example, I just checked my Amex account and I can get a QFX file going back two years.

AES2

Thanks @RickO. My primary goal is to reconcile with another person who paid what for the past several years. Mostly I do not want have my own contribution underestimated (I estimate it is 100%). I think entering what I have on paper will work. Then, going forward, I will keep up with Quicken every month or two and it will be closer to reality.