Auto reconcile for checking account inaccurate

wounddoc

Hello,

I have Quicken Deluxe for Win for 20 years and have always reconciled my bank accounts with the paper statements. Since paper statements are essentially gone, I decided to auto reconcile to online. I started this maybe 6 or 8 months ago and never really paid attention until about a month ago when I noticed first that there were checks that were not "cleared" form 2016, 2018, etc. Not many but there were some. I thought this odd because I was always able to 100% reconcile manually with the statements and didn't have errors. I also noticed now that my reconcile difference was about $2000 +. I ignored it for awhile but now I would like to fix this.

So first I checked in the register and saw that those old checks were marked uncleared, which could not have been because my reconciles from those years were always good. So I deleted them thinking maybe that would correct this issue. Of course it did not and I still have about $2000 off my reconcile.

How do I approach to fix this? At this point I am also willing to just be able to make an entry to correct the error unless someone has a potential fix.

Thank You

Boatnmaniac

It could be that your Opening Balance transaction dollar amount is incorrect. Sometimes, when an account is Reset, Deactivate/Reactivated or Reauthorized, the Opening Balance transaction dollar amount gets changed.

Do you have a backup file or account register report dated from before when you first noticed this issue occurring? If so restore or open the file to see what it shows for the Opening Balance transaction dollar amount. If it is different from what you see in your primary data file, correct it in the the primary data file and see if that resolves the issue. (Of course, back up your primary data file before you make any changes to it.)

If this works, also enter the correct dollar amount into the Memo field of the Opening Balance transaction in your primary data file. Then if you have this issue in the future it will be easy to identify and know how to correct. In fact, this would be a good thing to do with all of your Spending accounts (i.e., checking, savings, credit card, etc.) since this can happen with any connected Spending account.

If this does not resolve the issue for you, scroll back through the account register looking for duplicate transactions. If you find any, delete one of them and retain the other.

Post back here whether or not any of these steps resolved the issue for you.

wounddoc

Although I have used Quicken for at least 20 years, I have never had to restore an account and I am nervous to go back and try. I have always backed up my accounts routinely. You mentioned "or open the file to see what it shows". How do you do that without restoring? Also, do you mean the opening balance like the first ever since I started using Quicken?

Thank You

Boatnmaniac

@wounddoc - Yes, to open a backup file is to restore it. But you can relax. Just go to File > View/Restore Backups which opens a popup where you can view all of the backup files on your system. Select the one you think you might need, then click on Restore Backup. During the restoration process you will be given the opportunity to give the restored file a new name or to keep it with the same name. I suggest you give it a new name…TEST would be good. Then your primary data file will not be overwritten or changed.

If you want additional security, backup your primary data file just before you restore the older backup file. That will help ensure that you can always recover your current primary data file just as it was.

When you are done making note of what the dollar amount of the Opening Balance transaction is, you can close the TEST file, reopen your primary data file and compare the Opening Balance dollar amount you noted in the TEST file to what it is in your primary data file. If they match each other, then it proves that is not what is causing your $2K balance issue. If they do not match, change the dollar amount in your primary data file to match what your TEST file showed it is.

The Opening Balance is the very oldest transaction in the Account Register. When you set up downloading for a new account in Quicken the 1st transaction that will be entered is called the Opening Balance. Opening Balance is the Payee name of this transaction. Here is a picture of what that transaction looks like in one of my account. The YELLOW shading is the Payee ("Opening Balance") and the register opening balance amount. The GREEN shading is the Memo field where I manually entered the Opening Balance as a proactive measure to help in identifying when the register amount has gotten changed and to help me know how to correct such an error.

When you have completed this, you can delete the TEST file you had restored.

Does this resolve the ~$2K account balance issue?

If not, look for duplicate transactions in the account register and resolve them as suggested in my previous post.

wounddoc

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20480527#Comment_20480527

Thank you very much for the very clear explanation. I will try as you suggest and get back with results in the next few days.