reconciliation issue

seanp

I’m reaching out to request escalated assistance with a persistent and time-consuming reconciliation issue in Quicken Classic Business & Personal for Windows.

Despite being a longtime user who is well-versed in proper reconciliation workflows—including validating files, using backups, and clearing transactions—I’ve encountered a significant error that cannot be resolved through typical user-side measures.

Issue Summary:

• My Checking 2 account was fully reconciled through March 2025, verified by me and submitted to my tax preparer at that time.
• When reviewing the file weeks later, I discovered that prior reconciled months (as far back as January 2023 and earlier) were suddenly no longer reconciling—even though no visible transactions had been deleted or changed.
• I validated and repaired the file (including rebuilding investing lots), which reported no major corruption aside from legacy transfer flags.
• I restored a backup from March 2025 that I am 100% confident was reconciled—and now even that backup fails to show completed reconciliations and is off by exactly $16,600 during months that were previously balanced.

This behavior appears to reflect a deeper issue with Quicken’s internal reconciliation metadata, which may have become corrupted or overwritten despite the integrity of the visible transaction history.

What I’ve Already Tried:

• Manual comparison of the full register from 1996 to 2025
• Exported and cross-referenced CSVs from working and broken files
• Revalidated file structure
• Examined and corrected all uncleared items, broken transfers, and placeholders
• Used backups and side-by-side review of affected months
• Attempted to re-reconcile known-good periods—only to find inconsistencies Quicken should not be introducing

Request:

I would appreciate a review of this file or account data by your engineering or advanced technical team, and clear guidance on:

1. Whether this is a known issue related to reconciliation metadata or cloud/mobile sync overwrites
2. If there is any recovery or repair process that preserves reconciliation history
3. If metadata corruption like this can be prevented or manually corrected

Best,

Sean

CaliQkn

@seanp please forgive me if I am asking the obvious but have you double checked that the opening balance for the account is correct? I only ask because this has become a common reconciliation issue.

Also, what other troubleshooting steps have you tried besides a data file validate?

seanp

yes and quite a bit of stuff :)

• Manual comparison of the full register from 1996 to 2025
• Exported and cross-referenced CSVs from working and broken files
• Revalidated file structure
• Examined and corrected all uncleared items, broken transfers, and placeholders
• Used backups and side-by-side review of affected months
• Attempted to re-reconcile known-good periods—only to find inconsistencies Quicken should not be introducing

I tried narrowing down when my reconciliation issues began, and I discovered that things started going off in March 2020. I double-checked from that point forward, and while the transactions themselves appear intact, the reconciliation differences have been wildly inconsistent — sometimes off by $60,000+, then settling more recently at $16,600.

With these kinds of swings, it’s clear this isn’t just a missing or altered transaction. I believe there may be deeper issues going on — possibly corrupted reconciliation metadata or broken transfer links between accounts. I’ve already validated the file, restored from backups, and verified cleared transactions, but nothing is holding consistently.

Any help or insight would be appreciated.

seanp

does anybody have any ideas ?

No matter where I try and reconcile in the past the numbers are off, nothing is static. I cant believe its one entry.

RalphC

With such large errors ($60K, really?) this sounds like you inadvertently deleted or corrupted an account(s). To preserve your data history going forward, I'd just assume the bank is correct and accept the balance adjustment. The other, more tedious, option would be to start a new, clean data file.

Jim_Harman

When you say "prior reconciled months (as far back as January 2023 and earlier) were suddenly no longer reconciling" and the balance is off by $16,600 and other amounts, is that both the starting and ending balances for those months?

If so, and even though it has already been mentioned, I would be very suspicious of the account's Opening Balance transaction. This generally has a Payee of "Opening Balance," is the very first transaction in the account's register, and is a self-transfer. If the account name is Checking 123, the Category would be [Checking 123]

Sometimes Quicken will change this transaction years later with no notification or warning, even if it is marked as Reconciled, causing all balances in the account to be off by the amount of the change. This often happens when you reset or re-authorize the account for downloading.

So please look carefully at that transaction and any other self-transfers in the account. If possible, compare the opening balance to what it was in a backup from before your troubles began.

See this Idea post for more information on this issue

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7963511/dont-modify-opening-balance-without-warning-when-linking-or-re-linking-accounts

jvalan

I'm having the same issue. It started late 2025. All the numbers are correct and I still having a problem with previous balance. I hate using adjustments every month.

jvalan

I have been using some form of Quicken for 35 years. I just want to keep track of our income and expenses. Now I'm seriously looking at other "simple" programs that can do just tracking expense and income. Quicken just kept adding more uses to attract more users. I believe in KISS.