Is there a way to manually enter an item so it doesn't clear or reconcile?

Sherp

My boss lives in Switzerland. He wants EFT transactions entered into the registry with the date of initiation. He then wants me to use the downloaded complete EFT and use this to reconcile. I bet EVERYONE sees this as a double entry except my boss. Is there a way to exclude the manual transaction so the downloaded transaction is used for reconciling? Or does anyone have an alternate method?

There isn't any way to change the boss's mind, he's a literal genius in electronics and code writing. This is the way his brain works.

Quicken online for Windows. Chase banking.

Chris_QPW

I can sort of think of a way to do this, but there isn't any real way to "reconcile", which is the process of making sure your register matches what the financial institution has.

When you enter a transaction manually and isn't marked cleared it is sort of in the reconcile and sort of not. As in if you bring up the reconcile window you will see it there, but because it isn't marked cleared it will not be used in the total for the reconcile.

What prevents this from becoming a double entry is the fact that when you download the transaction Quicken matches that manual entry transaction to the downloaded one, and note it doesn't change the original date, but it does merge them together and mark them cleared. Now that merged transaction is what gets included in the reconcile.

So, one could "unmatch" the transaction and Quicken would split it back into two transactions, and you could reconcile just the downloaded one.

But this is going to cause major problems. First off, it is the merging that gets the downloaded transaction its category, so most likely that would have to be fixed too, but even more important is that the register is going to get filled up with these manually entered transactions throwing off the balance of the account. Which of course violates the whole idea of reconciling, because your records and the financial institution's will get farther and farther apart over time.

What might be a better solution that maybe your boss will accept is to point out that if you manually enter the transaction and then match it will the downloaded one, Quicken will retain both dates (select to the Downloaded Posting date):

Ps56k2

He wants EFT transactions entered into the registry with the date of initiation.
He then wants me to use the downloaded complete EFT and use this to reconcile.

if you manually enter a transaction -
and then later it also gets downloaded -
would they not then MATCH - like a Reminder -
and a 2nd entry is not created

Chris_QPW

I can sort of think of a way to do this, but there isn't any real way to "reconcile", which is the process of making sure your register matches what the financial institution has.

When you enter a transaction manually and isn't marked cleared it is sort of in the reconcile and sort of not. As in if you bring up the reconcile window you will see it there, but because it isn't marked cleared it will not be used in the total for the reconcile.

What prevents this from becoming a double entry is the fact that when you download the transaction Quicken matches that manual entry transaction to the downloaded one, and note it doesn't change the original date, but it does merge them together and mark them cleared. Now that merged transaction is what gets included in the reconcile.

So, one could "unmatch" the transaction and Quicken would split it back into two transactions, and you could reconcile just the downloaded one.

But this is going to cause major problems. First off, it is the merging that gets the downloaded transaction its category, so most likely that would have to be fixed too, but even more important is that the register is going to get filled up with these manually entered transactions throwing off the balance of the account. Which of course violates the whole idea of reconciling, because your records and the financial institution's will get farther and farther apart over time.

What might be a better solution that maybe your boss will accept is to point out that if you manually enter the transaction and then match it will the downloaded one, Quicken will retain both dates (select to the Downloaded Posting date):

q_lurker

Can you clarify what you mean by an EFT transaction and what type of account you are working with? I would expect you are talking about Electronic Fund Transfers.

• Does this then just mean transfers from one bank to another?
• Are 'debit card' purchases being included? Or similar credit card purchases where the transaction occurs one day and the cc posts the transaction 1 or 2 days later?
• Are multiple currencies involved (since you say he is in Switzerland)?
• Are investment accounts involved?
• Does any of this involve securities being bought or sold on one day and the the transactions settled 2 or more days later?

Ps56k2

He wants EFT transactions entered into the registry with the date of initiation.
He then wants me to use the downloaded complete EFT and use this to reconcile.

if you manually enter a transaction -
and then later it also gets downloaded -
would they not then MATCH - like a Reminder -
and a 2nd entry is not created