Checking Account Balance is WRONG

Steph772001
Steph772001 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
edited September 7 in Errors and Troubleshooting (Windows)

For a few months now, my checking account balance has been a couple thousand more then what is actually in it. I can't figure out why it is staying high. How do I begin to resolve this?

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Answers

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    edited July 18

    @Steph772001 go back to the last reconciled transaction that you can absolutely determine when your account was last in balance. From that point, compare your checking account statement transactions, or online transactions, to transactions on Quicken. You should then be able to determine when and why your account balances went off kilter.

  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Quicken, and computers generally, are pretty darn good and adding up numbers, so if the running balance in the Account is stubbornly higher than the bank is reporting either some "Payments" are missing in the Account or some "Deposits" are overstated, or some combination of the two.

    I think the only way to identify what the problem is requires you step back in time to some month where you're absolutely certain that you and the bank agree, then work forward. If you want to try and do that in Quicken then right after the "known good" date, remove all the Rs in the "Clr" column, pull out your month end statements, and go through the reconciliation process a month at a time. That's a disciplined method to see that every transaction reported in the statement - inflows and outflows - matches exactly (or doesn't) in Quicken.

    You can change all the Rs to blanks in one fell swoop. Click on the first transaction where you want to change the reconciliation status, scroll down to the last transaction to be changed and using the Windows convention, hold down the Shift key while clicking on that transaction. The selection will include all transactions in between. Then, with the cursor still in the selection, right click and select "Reconcile status."

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Extending, and agreeing with @Tom Young, it will be tempting to try to reconcile the entire account all at once.

    DON'T DO THAT!

    Because doing so will make it next to impossible to identify the precise error(s) that lead to your situation. 2 (or maybe even 3) months at a time should be OK, but any longer than 1 month period mostly serves to obscure the problem(s).

    If your issue was obvious, you would have already spotted it. By throwing more activity into the mix (i.e., a longer reconciliation period) you're mostly making it harder to spot the problem while saving only a trivial amount of time.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Another possibility, especially if you had to reset or reconnect your account around the time the balance went off, is that Quicken changed the account's Opening balance, usually the very first transaction in the register.

    QWin Premier subscription
  • ns303
    ns303 Quicken Mac Other Member

    I experienced a similar major overstating of my account balance by Quicken vs my bank. Reported it to Quicken Support and I balanced my checkbook via 'Adjustment Reconciliation'. The balance literally changed overnight without my entering anything and I triple checked the current month's bank statement as well as the prior month's. My first ever Quicken issue and I've been using its products for some 20+ years

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