How to reconcile when a payment shows online as posted a day prior to when it was made?

bob2021

I have a credit card I want to reconcile using the current balance.

On my (online) credit card page, there are three charges that show as pending (they are listed in my Quicken account as well).

My online credit card page shows a running balance of $0.00 as of May 1, and that includes a payment I made today (May 2). I.e., the May 2 online payment is posted a day prior from when I made it. (This was not a scheduled payment; I made the payment ad hoc on May 2.)

In reconciliation, for: "Use current balance", I enter 0.00, and a date of May 2 (or May 1). After clicking Next, the difference is shown as a negative amount, which is the amount of the payment I made.

If i use the running total balance from previous transaction (April 30), then things balance.

Curious if the way I'm doing it so it shows as balanced is the best/only way to reconcile, under this unusual circumstance (of having my payment posted online a day prior to when I made it). It seems wrong, because the payment shows as posted.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Since you track everything manually, then I'm assuming the discrepancy is coming from the financial institution's practice of showing the payment with the date that they see that it's pending, instead of the date it's supposed to post (then updating it once it posts)?

If that is the case, there are a few things you can do. If your current work around is working, then you can keep doing that.

Alternatively, since you mentioned the financial institution does eventually update to reflect the correct posting date for the payment, you can treat it like a pending transaction, and subtract it from the current balance you're reconciling your Quicken register against.

Another option, which may or may not work, depending on when and how often you need to reconcile, is to wait for the payment to clear the financial institution and reflect the correct date before reconciling.

Thank you!

Quicken Kristina

Hello @bob2021,

Thank you for coming to the Community with this question. To better answer your question, please provide a little more information. You mentioned that the payment is showing posted on the financial institution side the day before you made it. Is that payment transaction already downloaded into your Quicken when you try to reconcile? If it isn't downloaded into your Quicken yet, then Quicken would have no way to see the payment to that account, which would result in a discrepancy.

The process you have been doing (backdating the reconcile to a day when Quicken and the financial institution were in agreement) is a good way to work around that issue.

Another possible work around is to put a manual transaction in your account register to force Quicken to see that payment, then mark that transaction cleared (Note: when the actual payment transaction downloads, you may need to match it to the manually input transaction).

I hope this helps!

bob2021

I manually entered the payment in Quicken (I don't sync.)

I've already reconciled and entered new transactions, so unless I reverted the new transactions and reconciliation, so I can't say 100%—but regarding the option you mentioned where the payment in my account register is marked as clear I believe was the case when I tried to reconcile, but it didn't work. If it happens again, I'll document everything.

Side note: Although it doesn't change the situation I was in when I tried to reconcile, today (the day after I tried to reconcile), the payment is now showing with the correct payment date of May 2 (and continues to be listed as posted on the web site).

Thank you.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Since you track everything manually, then I'm assuming the discrepancy is coming from the financial institution's practice of showing the payment with the date that they see that it's pending, instead of the date it's supposed to post (then updating it once it posts)?

If that is the case, there are a few things you can do. If your current work around is working, then you can keep doing that.

Alternatively, since you mentioned the financial institution does eventually update to reflect the correct posting date for the payment, you can treat it like a pending transaction, and subtract it from the current balance you're reconciling your Quicken register against.

Another option, which may or may not work, depending on when and how often you need to reconcile, is to wait for the payment to clear the financial institution and reflect the correct date before reconciling.

Thank you!