Why so many balance adjustments lately, with the most recent being huge!

Question

I am using Quicken Classic Premier for Windows, release R56.9, Build 27.1.56.9 on a Windows 11 laptop. I have been using Quicken for a very long time - my check book register goes back to January 1997. As soon as was feasible, I converted to the electronic downloads for updates and reconciliations. Up until a few months ago, there has never been an issue. Since January, I have had four "balance adjustments" on one of my Citibank cards because the reconciliation would not balance, and none of the charges matched the difference. And these adjustments are growing. The first was for 1.01 in January, in my favor. In February, there were two, 15.68 against me and 31.44 in my favor about two weeks later. Today, a huge difference against me in the amount of 542.05. Again, no charges on my statements (paper or on line) reflect these amounts, and none of the pending charges showing on the Citi website today, added together, don't even come to 20% of this amount.

What could be causing this? What do I need to check other than printing out four months of statements and manually checking everything? This is my primary spending card we use for everyday living, in order to earn the AA mileage.

Thanks for any advice you can pass my way.

michaelrhodes1954 · Answer

Good suggestions from all. I have for years downloaded daily, even when on out-of-town trips, and have never allowed Quicken to use the auto-entry option - I never trusted that. I do like the idea of double checking beginning balances, working forward from the last good matching balance, and removing all balance adjustments. Since it's only one account that seems to keep having this issue, and it started in January, I've downloaded the Dec, Jan, Feb statements from the CITI website and will take the time to compare line by line the entries I have in Quicken. By making sure the opening balances are correct, and removing any balance adjustments, hopefully that will cure my problem.

Thanks…

GeoffG · Answer

One of the first steps I would suggest is to review the opening balance for each problem account. If you've ever had to reset the online account, Quicken has a nasty habit of changing the beginning balance to an erroneous amount.  This will of course alter any reconciled amount and make future reconciliations impossible without a balance adjustment. It's considered a best practice to enter the "true" opening balance in the memo field for future. You can open a backup (not overwrite) to verify the original opening balance.

Next step would be to remove all balance adjustments. They are not needed. They are forcing a balance to match, but simply means Quicken does not match the bank so force it. This is not a good choice. You do not state if you are using auto-entry, but if so, I would discontinue that as well. Nothing good will come from letting Quicken blindly enter any and all transactions without human supervision.

Ps56k2 · Answer

I would go back and try to find the last good matching balance.. and then work forward and see what is missing to offset the balance for missed downloads or bad timing of Pending transactions - or just an explanation of the scenario.. I’ve done this once or twice and now do a Reconcile to Online Balance every so often..