AMEX download causes balance to decrease to 0, not increase (:o/

gigaboy

Windows 11 Home, Quicken Classic Premier
I've been a 30 year user of this program, never have seen this occur.
Started last Friday Nov 29. I have two AMEX accounts which are connected. Only affects one of these.
As I do every morning, run an update. However, the one AMEX shows a declining balance for new charges, not an increasing balance, moving towards $0 (Oh how I wish this were the case in real life!). The declining behavior seems to have occurred after the last payment I recorded. I've attached a few screenshots.

I've run validate AND super validate, neither show any errors. Reset, detached and re attached the AMEX account, same problem. Reboot machine a few times. Windows 11 Update is current, as are system drivers and BIOS.

Tried this a few times on different days, thinking it was an AMEX black friday problem.

I've got backups galore, so no worries there. I presently have the AMEX account in question detached so I can continue to work on my other accounts. Other account (as did this one) uses Express WebConnect +. I log in entries manually on this misbehaving account.

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @gigaboy,

Did this issue begin after a recent update to your Quicken application? Did you notice any strange behavior, pop-ups, or error messages before this issue began? Are these accounts connected using the same instance? Or the same sign-in information?

Let me know!

NotACPA

@gigaboy The balance column in your graphic is BLACK. For a credit card this should be RED, indicating that you owe money.

SO, at sometime in the past you either overpaid the account, or you deleted Charge transactions in the account (but left the payments) thus driving it into what's called a "Credit Balance".

That's why the 1st transactions shown reduce the balance. The charges are reducing the amount that, according to the register, Amex owes you.

You need to pull out your old statements and go back to the last time that the amount on the statement and the Balance in Q agree. Then UNreconcile every transaction after that point and re-reconcile the account.

volvogirl

Look back through your transactions and maybe you'll spot one that was entered backward. Or a payment in the charge column or a charge in the payment column. Look around back where this first started happening.  Or maybe you are missing some charges? 

If the balance is in Black, it means you have a credit on the card.  Like if you overpaid the bill or got a refund for something you returned.   When you enter a charge it will reduce (decrease) the credit you have available on it.   And a payment will increase the balance.

Also make sure you have the right starting balance.  If it's zero you might need to add a beginning balance for when you started the account in Quicken.  Quicken has been resetting the beginning balance. So you should enter the balance in the Memo line in case it gets dropped so you know what it was.

gigaboy

I think this started after the last update. I remember that after the update, Q complained that AMEX needed to be Fixed (just this one account). When I leave this disconnected from Auto Update, and not run the FIX, everything is in balance, and mirrors the paper statements from AMEX.

Are these accounts connected using the same instance? Yes

Or the same sign-in information? Yes

volvogirl

There is a bug that shows up occasionally that changes the opening balance on the account like to zero. I think it’s when you have syncing turned on. In that case you when you fix the opening balance you should also enter it in the memo column so if it changes again you’ll know what it should be.

gigaboy

In october 1997, when I initially received the AMEX card, I recorded 0 balance, which still shows as the first line item. If I stay disconnected from auto update, everything is in balance with AMEX. It's only when I reconnect and re-update that the file from about November 1 forward shows a declining balance. As I've noted previously, I reconcile nearly everyday, so I would have picked up on this problem sooner. I still contend that it's a software update issue.