What is the best way to stop Quicken from changing reconciled and past transactions

creatingaccountagain

I've sort of got transaction download working after a reinstall. the problem is that downloads duplicates, changes transaction dates, and drops past reconciled transactions going back years.

For example it will drop some transfers to one account then change the all the dates on another recurring transfer to be the same, then some transfers will only appear in one account but not the source account.

I restore from backup, but downloading or fixing creates other errors.

Is there a way to truly lock past reconciled transactions?

splasher

There is the transaction password on the File menu, but I don't know that it will stop your issue since the changes aren't being done thru user interaction.

Are you using QMobile/QWeb by any chance? If so, it may be the cause of the issue. It works great for some and screws up data files for others.

Tom Young

The transaction password function will only work to prevent user entry error. Errors introduced with downloads, e.g., changing the Opening Balance in an Account, are not caught by that function.

I agree with @splasher re the QMobile/QWeb issue. It certainly has been known to cause problems of the sort you've described.

Unknown

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Chris_QPW

@creatingaccountagain I probably wouldn't find this product useful if downloads didn't work. In fact, when I first started using Quicken in 1992 downloads weren't possible, and I stopped using it after a year or two, until it was possible to download transactions. But the thing is that what you are describing isn't "normal".

The normally changing of the Opening Balance is a rare occurrence for people have had it happen to them more than others. for the rest it some of it is a "learning curve" on how to use Quicken, but there are also "problem features" like Sync to Mobile/Web that seem to be the cause of "strange problems".

Past that, there is always the chance that for some people that they will have something in their setup that just causes problems. And other than suggesting things like not using Sync to Mobile/Web, trying Validate and Repair or restoring from a backup before a given problem started, there really isn't much we as other Quicken users can suggest (and that probably goes for Quicken Support too).

There just isn't any system that is going to ensure against bugs/corrupted data or such. That goes for any software, but I would say is even more true of Quicken than say over a program like QuickBooks. Quicken wasn't designed to block such operations at the lowest level like a financial accounting program would. What's more it is very clear that Quicken Inc (actually starting with Intuit) has "taken liberties" to do things "for the user" behind your back". One of the main reasons I don't like Sync to Mobile/Web is that it does things in the background and doesn't allow the user to see what it is going to do, before it does it. This implies to me "great power" is given to this background operation to basically do anything it likes to the data file.

The fact that they can't fix the changing of the Opening Balance bug (and I have seen them try and get a bit better, but not fixed) implies to me that they are dealing with code they don't understand. That and maybe a "culture" that "99% is OK".

There is a valid reason for changing the Opening Balance, when online services if first setup not all of the transactions back to zero might be available and as such they need to set the Opening Balance to a known amount and they do this based on the current balance that they get, and then back calculate using the transactions. But the current balance download is known to be wrong, and this should only be done that one time, but the bug has it kick off at times like when someone resets the account.

If they would just put in a prompt that asks the user if they want to change the Opening Balance that would go a long way to help the problem. But they have never done that because I guess they don't want to bother the user, or maybe even more likely if they could find the right spot(s) to do that, then maybe they could just fix the bug (but maybe not the bug can be triggered by code in another spot).

Chris_QPW

For what it is worth, there is now an idea that Quicken shouldn't change "historical transactions" that you can vote on:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7951953/extend-the-set-password-to-modify-transactions-function-to-include-downloaded-transactions

It is my belief though that this is never going to happen because Quicken's design/code just isn't going to allow it.

This is the kind of thing you have to design in from day one. It is the same reason that network drives aren't supported. You have to design for things like that at the lowest level.

EDIT: And that "lowest level" has to be in place and taken into account to be able to "broadcast" that state up to the rest of the system when needed. Imagine if they implement at the lowest level that you can't change a transaction once it is entered. An accounting program might work that way, but then have a system for "correcting transactions", but Quicken has none of that. It is based on the fact that past transactions can be changed. And if you can change them, a bug/corruption certainly can change them.