fixing a reconcile offset

If you're really closing the account soon, why worry about it?

If not, and if I understand all these transactions were originally reconciled in the account, why not simply mark them as CLEARED if you are in the reconcile window, or manually mark the with a 'R' in your're in the register.

As long as the balances really don't change (or better yet,align with current reality), that's what I would do. Again, especially since account is going to be closed shortly.--

----------------------------------------------------------- Regards -

- Andrew

To belabor the obvious - make a copy of your qdf file first before you experiment.

Have these old transactions cleared in reality, or did the payees never deposit their checks, etc.?

} On 12/24/2021 7:52 AM, Bernie Cosell wrote: } > I reconciled my checking account and the register balances perfectly BUT my } > balance in the register is off by a few thousands dollars. In the } > reconcile window I see a bunch of [very old!!] transactions that exactly } > make up the "missing" money. They are all "not cleared" and I am prepared } > to declare them null and void [I'm about to close that checking account!] } } Have these old transactions cleared in reality, or did the payees never } deposit their checks, etc.?

The checks have never been deposited -- I can double check but I'm pretty sure they're not duplicate register entries for already-cashed checks. Quicken is still deducting their amount from my final balance. I'm wondering if it is as easy as changing their amount to "zero" to make the Quicken balance agree with the bank's balance...

/Bernie\

I would not change their values to zero. I would make an offsetting transaction for each, probably with today's date, and clearly referencing the original transaction. Then, reconcile and mark the original and the offsetting transactions are cleared.

And, most important of all, since the checks never were deposited, the money is still in your bank account, right?

Most U.S. banks have a stale check policy where they refuse checks more than six months old. Whether someone actually looks at the check to validate that at the depositing bank or paying bank is an open question, but I have seen checks returned for that reason.

How they get accounted for in Quicken is flexible. In addition to the suggestion above, you could set the amount to zero, then add a note indicating the original amount, not paid and mark the transaction as cleared.

Can also just right-click and select void.

True.

But Quicken's void process does not save the original amount anywhere; and that amount can be useful, if ever researching why a transaction was voided. Personally, I like to see Quicken improved its void process to retain more of the original transaction.

To deal with the Quicken void limitation, the previous suggestion to "... add a note indicating the original amount ...." was good advice I think.

And I believe that creating a permanent backup before making any of the changes contemplated for the original problem, would also be a good idea.

If the original amounts were used in reports or for business or tax purposes, an offsetting entry would be the better way to go.