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Quicken Changing Opening Account Balances - Nov 2024

TSKinSV

This morning when I opened Quicken, my main checking account opening account balance was negative and I was certain I had a positive balance. This account has been in quicken for over 20 years. There had been no new transaction for a few days, and I had a positive balance the last time I looked. A friend had a similar problem with a credit card account in quicken just a couple of days ago. I helped her figure out what was wrong and found the opening balance was changed. It took us a while to figure out it was the opening balance as we started looking at month by month recent reconciliations as I thought a cleared transaction might have been deleted. But today, since I saw her problem, I loaded a backup quicken file to temp location and opened it, sure enough the opening balance was different. Changed the open balance back and now have correct current balance in my account. I wanted to bring awareness that this is happening in case you face similar problem. Quicken support is closed today so will have to report it to them tomorrow.

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Comments

Quicken Kristina

Hello @TSKinSV,

To assist with this issue, please provide more information. Is this happening in a manual account or one that is connected to a financial institution for download into Quicken? If it is a connected account, is it connected via Express Web Connect (EWC), Express Web Connect+ (EWC+), or Direct Connect (DC)?

If this is happening with an account that is connected in Quicken via EWC or EWC+, then it's a known issue. Please see this article for more information:

https://www.quicken.com/support/why-did-my-opening-balance-change-after-changing-ewc-quicken-windows/

If this is happening in an account connected via DC or a manual account, then it is most likely being caused by a file-specific issue.

To check what connection method your account uses, go to Tools>Account List, click the Edit button next to the account name, then click the Online Services tab.

If you see a set up now button, then the account is not connected/manual.

I look forward to your response!

Quicken Kristina

Hello @TSKinSV,

I haven't heard from you in a while. Do you still require assistance?

Thank you!

Ray

Quicken has been changing the opening balance periodically for years. Attached is an example. They need to fix it. In the meantime, that should at least have a notification that this has happened and show both the previous balance and the new balance.

Quicken Jasmine

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20472927#Comment_20472927

Thank you for joining this thread and for sharing more information!

NotACPA

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20472927#Comment_20472927

Which is why it's regularly suggested here that any account that you download into should have the CORRECT Opening Balance stored in the Memo field. So that, if/when it happens again you can easily spot it and know what the OB should be.

Ray

In addition to adding the opening balance to the Memo field, I also periodically export and save the whole register after a successful reconciliation. If I have trouble with a reconciliation, I export the current register and compare it its running balance to a previous (correct) export. I can then easily find the problem transaction(s).

UKR

Let me just add (again) that the Opening Balance Transaction should NEVER be changed during activation of downloading

UNLESS you are downloading into a brand-new transaction register which has no transactions already (except for the OB transaction created by Add Account.)

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20473090#Comment_20473090

I wholeheartedly agree with you. And that is the issue…..it does sometimes get changed. In my observation with connected accounts it only sometimes happens when making some change to the connection method (Reauthorize, Reset, Deactivate/Add Account or Deactivate/Set Up Now).

It also seems to affect EWC and EWC+ connected accounts, not DC nor WC connections.

It also happens when doing Add Account or Set Up Now for an account that was previously an offline manual account regardless of connection method but that is, for me, more understandable and acceptable.

This issue has been reported and posted about many times to both Quicken and in this Community over the last few years. For me it started happening sometime in the last 2-3 yrs. Come to think of it, that seems to correlate with the introduction of the EWC+ connection method. Is that just a coincidence or is there some sort of causality here?

Ray

I have 2 data files. The original and a newer duplicate. Each has Citibank institutions for personal, American Air, & Costco. Quicken continually loses connection requiring reauthorizing for Citibank. This morning, I had to reconnect Citibank's personal with 3 checking, a savings, and a credit card in both data files. After reconnecting, I checked the opening balances again the amount in the memo fields. My credit card's opening balance was changed from zero to $53.98 only in the old account.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20473106#Comment_20473106

For me it started happening sometime in the last 2-3 yrs. Come to think of it, that seems to correlate with the introduction of the EWC+ connection method. Is that just a coincidence or is there some sort of causality here?

I have multiple active data files. The first time for me was 4/3/2016 (prior to EWC+) as I made a date-stamped note. From my experience over the years, if I deactivate/reactivate my accounts, I am almost guaranteed to see the issue in a couple of random accounts, not necessarily the same ones hence unable to further narrow it down. I recognize that many SuperUsers do not connect their EWC accounts - well, I only have one DC account left and all others are EWC/+. As one of the SUs humorously quoted Mr. T years ago "I pity the fool"!

FYI, not only I have the opening balance written in the memo field, but also in a text file as a backup reference. I also make a note of my quarterly balance values in the memo field, where if something goes out of balance, I can narrow it down to a specific quarter to resolve it. I do this because I have had a few rare cases where a transaction disappeared, duplicated or never downloaded.