Account balance graph has incorrect amount = Q2006 R3

You will have to be much more specific about what you call "the Account Graph" and what, if anything, you have done to customize it.

I'm not sure I understand why you say "even though ....". All it would take is one sufficiently large "bill" (or multiple smaller bills), scheduled during the next two months, to cause the future balance to go negative. Have you actually examined all your Scheduled Transactions to see if all are correct for amount/frequency? (Note: December is a month when many annual payments get made: things like property taxes, and charitible contributions which can bump up "expenses" for the period).

I've got Q2006 running in a sort of test mode; it's got mostly valid data, but I don't keep the data completely up to date. I see the balance in one checking account going negative in January, but that is simply for the reason noted above ... and I will need to transfer some money into that account before the end-of-year spending causes an overdraft. None of my other accounts, including a couple of other checking accounts, show any negative balances coming up - largely because there are no year-end transactions large enough to cause that to happen.

If everything else checks out and you are still certain you should not see a negative balance in January; you could try reverting to release R1 (that is what I am running) to see if it makes any difference (I am skeptical that it would, but it's easy enough to check).

Earlier this year, there were a number of problems with the cash forecast functionality in Q2005 reported. Do you now think Q2006 has improved the situation? When I tried Q2005 forecasting, I found (in my case anyway) that the forecasts matched reality so little that they were of no use.

Would the OP perhaps be better off using something like a spreadsheet?

Thanks

Mike

I don't use the Cash Flow Forecast either; but I have poked around in it when questions have arisen. I think you are right that there is something wrong with the Forecast and it does not seem to have been fixed in Q2006. I seem to recall Intuit saying something about it was fixed, but it still did not appear to be working correctly. But there is a caveat to my comments: I am still running Q2006 R1; if there were improvements in R2 (R3 just fixed a printing problem), then I would not be aware of them.

If looking for sophisticated forecasting, perhaps so; I am not personally familiar with spreadsheet's ability in this area.

But I interpreted op's concern to be about the graph that is at the bottom of the Scheduled Transactions List and which can be made to appear on a Quicken Home tab. There was one complaint about that graph which I could never duplicate; I actually use that graph and my experience has been that the Scheduled Transactions graph is accurate for its designed purpose ... a purpose more limited than a full blown cash flow forecast, I think.

If I misinterpreted op's problem, and it was in fact a problem with the Cash Flow Forecast, I wouldn't have any better suggestion than yours.

I am referring the the graph that is listed at the botton Scheduled Transactions list. You can also see if this in the Quicken Home Tab under "Bills and Scheduled Tranasctions" when the "Show graph" is checked. This graph seems to be accurate for the current month and the next month. When I look at May 2006 the entire month is in negative figures. All of my payments and deposits for my checking are scheduled to the point that I could not be in total negative figures for that entire month. I checked for a large one-time payment in that time frame. I did run a super validate on my quicken file and found no errors. At this point I am using this feature for the current month and next month. Anything after that time frame I do not believe to be accurate.

BTW - I did look at the cash flow forecast with R3 and it does seem more accurate. The graphing features are very limited for this report.

For the benefit of future readers, I've upgraded to Q2006 R3 and confirmed that the cash forecast still doesn't match reality. I selected several accounts and compared the balance for today with the balance that the net Worth report showed for the same accounts. The forecast balance for today was $-3700 while the net worth report showed $11,700.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be way to examine the details behind the Cash Balance Forecast for a specific date.

Mike