Major Problems Getting My Data Right Personal & Business Classic

Mere

I downloaded Quicken on the first of the year. I set everything up and it all seemed great. Then something happened which made all my balances wrong and I could not figure out how to fix it. None of the backups would bring me back to before it happened. I spent hours trying to figure it out and gave up. Now I really need to use quicken for income reporting and I tried just starting from scratch, but it only goes back to march. When I try to restore from old files it won't let me reauthorize my Bank Account and the information stops at March 2026. Can anyone please help me figure out what to do. The sam ething happened to my new download. It is something when I am trying to set up the categories right it messes up my balances and I have no idea why. I suspect it was due to some being auto categoruized as Bills when they were actually Zelle transfers between my personal account and business account.

Tom Young

It sounds like you may need some local help in setting up and managing Quicken. There may be people in your area that know how Quicken works - local bookkeepers perhaps - that could lend a hand.

"I tried just starting from scratch, but it only goes back to march."

The financial institutions set the limit on "how far back in time" an initial download will stretch but they may actually have that information in other forms that could be downloaded to fill in the blanks, so search their sites to see if that's possible.

Simply "setting up Categories" should not change any balances. Categories are basically just buckets you use to drop financial transactions into that allows for summarized totals of the information in the manner you want to see it. There should be no changes in the overall Balances of each Account.

I'm not sure anybody here can reliably "figure out what to do" since we are not looking over your shoulder to see what you're doing.

Since you're starting over here I might suggest this: Create a new file and establish whatever Accounts you need but, initially, set them up as MANUAL non-dowloading Accounts. Having got that done then go to your personal bank Account and convert that one Account to downloading. You'll should get a new truncated list of downloads into that Account. You'll see Deposits, you'll see Payments and all those should show up with no Categories associated with them. Change the "Opening Balance" number in the Register so that the Balance of the Account matches that at the bank as of the date you're doing this. Then, one at a time, associate a Category with each transaction. No entry should change that Account's Balance.

Some of the transactions may actually be Transfers from or to your Business checking, so you record them as such in your Personal Account. That will have the effect of changing the Business bank Account's Balance in your file, and that's fine; when you get to point of setting that Account for downloading Quicken should find Matches for those transactions. Once you're done with your Personal bank Account go and do the same thing on the Business bank Account. Again, you should be able to go through that truncated list of transactions and Categorize them, one at a time, without changing the Account's Balance.

Perhaps that exercise will give you a better understanding of Quicken and how it works. Then you go on from there with the Accounts in your file.