Wrong Account Debited

knute97
knute97 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

I just had a $30 deposit from Paypal (which account still shows a CC-601 error) to my checking account that was erroneously charged to a Visa credit card. When I corrected the checking category to Paypal, the Paypal account debited, but the Visa credit card balance now shows a $30 difference between the Online Balance and the Ending Balance.

How do I correct this??

And what is causing the incorrect category to be charged??

Comments

  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    So the original deposit entry was:

    Debit (increase) Checking Account $30
    Credit (increase) Credit Card Account $30

    In the Checking Account Account you changed the "erroneous" Transfer by changing the name of the Account in the Category field from [Name of Credit Card Account] to [Name of PayPal Account]. That would move the $30 from the credit card Account over to the PayPal Account.

    IF the balance in the credit card Account was correct when the "erroneous" Transfer was still there - change the checking Account entry back to it's original "erroneous" state and see - THEN I have to conclude, absent some sort of data file corruption - that the original entry was correct. Go online and look at both the PayPal Account and the credit card Account and follow the money. If it is data file corruption the the first thing to try is a Validate & Repair.

    As to "what is causing the incorrect category (Account) to be charged??", then I have to assume that you're relying on downloads to "do your accounting for you" and Quicken can only make guesses when it comes to any Account or Category to use. There's no information coming from PayPal or the Credit Card or the Bank that says "here's the correct Category or Account to use for this transaction." So Quicken makes a guess - the process I believe includes looking for matching dollar amounts in other Accounts - and frequently guesses wrong.

    The best way to prevent these sort of errors - particularly Transfer entries - is to make your Transfer entries manually when you initiate them, then have the subsequent downloads for the two Accounts "confirm" (Match) your entries.