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Occasional incorrect balances after accounts update - for a couple accounts, fixed by restarting

KarlSmith

I am using Quicken for Mac. I have experienced this problems in the last few versions, but since I just upgraded to 8.3.1 from 8.2.1 I do not know yet if this continues to be a problem.

For two of my accounts (a checking and a credit card with BECU), after I update and some transaction is added, on occasion the running balances will all (at least for a few years back) be incorrect (often wildly incorrect, but varies). I have found that if I quit and restart the program, the running balances will go back to being correct. A few times I have had to restart two or three times before the correct balances show up.

The checking account dates back to 2010 (when I first starting using Quicken) and is often where this problem shows up. The credit card only dates back to 2022 but still shows the problem on rare occasion. I have not seen this problem on other accounts, including a PenFed credit card dating back to 2021 and my other BECU accounts. At one time the checking account was set to download transactions after some date, which I reset some years ago to download all available transactions.

Just checking if this is a known issue. I know sporadic bugs like this are difficult to debug, but having incorrect balances show up, even though I know how to repair it, greatly reduces my trust in this program that I have used for so long.

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Quicken Kristina

Hello @KarlSmith,

Thank you for letting us know you're seeing this. You mentioned it's been happening for the last few versions. Do you recall when the issue started and which version it started happening in? When the balance is wildly incorrect, have you checked to see if there is any filter applied to the register, or if the sort order is set to anything other than date?

Do you keep your Quicken file directly on your local hard drive? Is the file synced with any cloud service, such as OneDrive, iCloud, or Dropbox?

I look forward to your response!

KarlSmith

I am sorry to say that I do not remember which version it start happening. I thought I had reported this before, but I do not remember.

There are no filters applied to the register, and the sort order is by date. When I restart Quicken (to "repair" the problem), everything is exactly as before, only with the correct running balances.

The quicken file is on my local hard drive. Recently it is backed up on IDrive, and it had been backed up (unintentionally) on Google drive until this latest version (when the install would not proceed in that configuration).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

I can see you mentioned the issue before in another discussion, but since it was a different issue from the OP's issue, the post didn't get much attention.

Since closing and restarting Quicken seems to "fix" it, the issue seems like some sort of display issue. Is there any pattern you've noticed to when this happens? Are you able to reliably trigger the issue, or is it more random?

If possible, the next time the issue happens, try testing if changing the sort order in the register "fixes" the issue.

Thank you!

KarlSmith

The previous issue(s) I reported were more than a year ago, and to something that I think looked a bit different from this site. At that time I think the posts were just by login name, not by a name you gave for your posts.

Unfortunately, the issue occurs rather erratically; thus, is not easily reproduced. It has not yet occurred in the current version (8.3.1), but I will post and try the reordering if it does.

In the past (I am not sure of which version), on a couple of occasions when this happened, I did try reordering to see if the difference between the show and actual running balance corresponded to some transaction amount(s) in the past, but I could not find such transactions. When I reordered by date, the running balance was still off.

There is one difference in behavior on the checking account from all other accounts (this behavior does not happen not the credit card that shows the problem on rare occasions): when I update early in the morning, sometimes the updated balance will reflect the amounts of transactions that I have entered manually, are showing as posted that morning at the bank, but are not present in the Quicken update. I reconcile, including the manual transactions. The next morning's update includes these transactions and updates their details. Often, all is fine. But when the running balance error occurs, I am pretty sure it is always after one of these "next morning" updates. However, the error in the running balance does not correspond in any way to the amounts of the reconciled manually entered transactions.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

To clarify, when you see this "next morning" issue, is the Online Balance in your Quicken reflecting the balance that includes those transactions, even though they haven't downloaded into your Quicken yet?

Thank you!

KarlSmith

Yes, the Online Balance (which I reconcile against on the first day) includes the manually-entered transactions which have not yet downloaded into Quicken.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Thank you for the additional information. It sounds like the financial institution, at least briefly, is sending an incorrect online balance, since it's showing a value that includes transactions that aren't yet available to download into Quicken.

What process are you using to reconcile when this "next morning" issue occurs? For example, do you reconcile against the statement balance? Do you create adjustment transactions? Are you manually changing transactions from cleared to reconciled in your register? I'm asking since the display issue seems to always follow the "next morning" issue, which means something about one issue may trigger the other.

Thank you!

KarlSmith

I am always reconciling against the online balance. On the first day, I include the transaction which is not yet available to Quicken but which I manually entered when I incurred the expense. The second day, when the transaction is in the Quicken download, Quicken just adds the details to the reconciled transaction (matches the new transaction to the reconciled manually-entered transaction). Much of the time everything is fine (this happened a couple of times in 8.3.1 without a problem), but occasionally I get the messed up running balance (not yet happened in 8.3.x).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

The issue you describe does not seem to be a known issue. I cannot find any open tickets that match the issue.

With how random it is, the problem will be tricky to troubleshoot since there may be a significant gap between the troubleshooting done and knowing whether it worked or not.

Since you mentioned it hasn't happened yet in the current version, you may want to wait and see if the issue is resolved or not. If it is not resolved, then a good starting point for troubleshooting is to try uninstalling and reinstalling the Quicken program.

I hope this helps!