American Express Bank Ending Balance Incorrect and Keeps Increasing

micdif

Quicken R64.30 on Windows

Completed One Step Update. Went to do my monthly reconciliation for American Express Bank. It didn't balance and I spent hours trying to figure out if I had entered a transaction incorrectly.

I went back and even compared the monthly statements back for the last two years. This didn't really make sense since the reconciliation balanced last month. I finally gave up and added a balance adjustment for the difference (~926.00). The Online Balance and the Ending Balance now matched.

I ran another update and an alert was generated that the connection to the bank couldn't be made.

I went to the American Express Bank Online Banking setting and reset it. I went through the steps to connect and everything seemed to work fine. After the online update, I noticed the Online Balance and the Ending Balance were now off again. The Ending Balance was now off by $2,400.

The Online Balance matches what is in my actual account but the Ending Balance displayed keeps changing for no reason. There were no new transactions to account for this and I can't locate anything new that was downloaded or are duplicates to account for this Ending Balance!

Quicken Kristina

Hello @micdif,

Thank you for letting us know you're seeing this problem. To troubleshoot this, I recommend that you start by checking the opening balance for the problem account. While the opening balance should not be changing, there is a known issue where it sometimes does with Express Web Connect/Express Web Connect+ accounts. See this article for more information:

https://www.quicken.com/support/why-did-my-opening-balance-change-after-changing-ewc-quicken-windows/

If the opening balance is the culprit, then manually correct it, and put the correct balance in the notes or memo section also to make it easier to verify in the future.

I hope this helps!

micdif

@Quicken Kristina,

Thanks for the feedback but I don't understand what the article you linked wants me to do. I went to the first transaction and I'm supposed to add a deposit? That would increase my ending balance which would widen the gap even more. The first transaction is a mortgage payment and I don't have an opening balance.

I have more details. My online balance and current balance amount appears to be the exact amount of my paycheck. My current balance is over exactly by that amount. It seems like there must be an extra deposit recorded in Quicken but I have gone through the transactions and there is no extra deposit.

The other option would be that I have online deductions that aren't recorded in Quicken but I have manually checked transactions for the past year+. I've spent hours on this. I'd guess it's another Quicken bug which is frustrating paying an annual subscription fee.

Any other leads is greatly appreciated.

micdif

@Quicken Kristina,

I see what you're linked article wanted me to do. I located the Opening Balance transaction and subtracted the difference and changed the Opening Balance deposit to reflect the mismatch difference.

Still not sure if this is correct but I guess it's better than the Balance Adjustment transaction that I had used which would show up on reports.

Assume changing the Opening Balance has no impact on anything. Hope I don't have to change the Opening Balance often for issues. Still seems odd that the difference in amount was exactly a paycheck deposit amount.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

You shouldn't have to change it often. The Opening Balance typically shouldn't change, but due to that known issue, on rare occasions, sometimes it does.

If the issue returns, please let me know!

micdif

@Quicken Kristina

How would I know if the opening balance was changed to save myself hours of trying to locate a transaction or going back reconciling a years worth of statements?

volvogirl

When you get a good opening balance and that is the first transaction in the register. Then also enter the opening amount in the memo field so if the opening balance accidentally gets changed you can edit it to the right amount.