Issue Reconciling a Quicken Brokerage Account

Updated Information: I did the validation and was surprised to see so many errors that could not be fixed. However, I fixed all of them. I still have the same issue so it did not help in this matter. I also ran the "Tool" which also did not help.

The problem still exist. Can anyone help. Thanks

Using Quicken 2015 Home & Business (Release 8)

I have a brokerage account that cannot be reconciled for this reason. When viewing the account in the normal window, it accurately displays the Cash Balance. However, when I try to reconcile the account each month, the Reconcile Popup shows a different Cash Balance as shown: Prior Cash Balance: -13,300.49.

For me to correct this negative number by adding an adjustment, will cause the Actual Cash Balance to be wrong it will be wrong when viewing the register mode. At the bottom it gives me 3-items: Securities Value, Cash Balance, & Total Market Value. All of these are correct as long as I don't reconcile.

Thanks in advance.

"JCO" wrote

Updated Information: I did the validation and was surprised to see so many errors that could not be fixed. However, I fixed all of them. I still have the same issue so it did not help in this matter. I also ran the "Tool" which also did not help.

The problem still exist. Can anyone help. Thanks

"JCO" wrote

Using Quicken 2015 Home & Business (Release 8)

I have a brokerage account that cannot be reconciled for this reason. When viewing the account in the normal window, it accurately displays the Cash Balance. However, when I try to reconcile the account each month, the Reconcile Popup shows a different Cash Balance as shown: Prior Cash Balance: -13,300.49.

For me to correct this negative number by adding an adjustment, will cause the Actual Cash Balance to be wrong it will be wrong when viewing the register mode. At the bottom it gives me 3-items: Securities Value, Cash Balance, & Total Market Value. All of these are correct as long as I don't reconcile.

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Quicken does not save the reconcile ending balance. Each time you initiate a reconcile, Quicken adds up the amounts of all existing reconciled transactions in the account and presents that amount as the reconcile opening balance ("prior cash balance" in investment accounts).

If that opening reconcile balance is incorrect, the net amount of reconciled transactions has changed since your previous successful reconcile. A previously un-reconciled transaction could have been marked as reconciled. A previously reconciled transaction could have marked as un-reconciled (or deleted). A previously reconciled transaction could have had its amount changed.

If the opening balance difference is preventing a successful reconcile, you will need to determine what got changed since your previous reconcile, and modify transactions accordingly before starting the reconcile. Since you're only reconciling the cash balance in an investment account, you only need to look at transactions that can affect the cash balance.

The concept you mentioned, I can agree with. But like I said, my balance is the exact amount as my monthly statements including the cash amount as long as I don't complete a reconciliation. So I fail to see that how something can be off, especially by that large amount. My cash value, lets say is $100K and when I try to reconcile, it shows $-13K, that?s going to put a $113K adjustment.

Current Procedure: At the end of each month, I can view the amounts in each fund, securities & cash by looking at the "Detail View" and setting the date, for example 6/30, the end of the previous month. The account balance including cash balance (which usually includes a few bucks cash value added for the month) shows the correct balance. It's just when I click "Reconcile" that the number "Prior Cash Balance" changes to some ridicules negative number.

I have 6-Brokerage Accounts and none of the others have this issue. Why would there be a problem with only one. I have, the past accepted the adjustment which throws the account off. So I end up deleting the adjustment to bring it back into balance.

"JCO" wrote

Updated Information: I did the validation and was surprised to see so many errors that could not be fixed. However, I fixed all of them. I still have the same issue so it did not help in this matter. I also ran the "Tool" which also did not help.

The problem still exist. Can anyone help. Thanks

"JCO" wrote

Using Quicken 2015 Home & Business (Release 8)

I have a brokerage account that cannot be reconciled for this reason. When viewing the account in the normal window, it accurately displays the Cash Balance. However, when I try to reconcile the account each month, the Reconcile Popup shows a different Cash Balance as shown: Prior Cash Balance: -13,300.49.

For me to correct this negative number by adding an adjustment, will cause the Actual Cash Balance to be wrong it will be wrong when viewing the register mode. At the bottom it gives me 3-items: Securities Value, Cash Balance, & Total Market Value. All of these are correct as long as I don't reconcile.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Quicken does not save the reconcile ending balance. Each time you initiate a reconcile, Quicken adds up the amounts of all existing reconciled transactions in the account and presents that amount as the reconcile opening balance ("prior cash balance" in investment accounts).

If that opening reconcile balance is incorrect, the net amount of reconciled transactions has changed since your previous successful reconcile. A previously un-reconciled transaction could have been marked as reconciled. A previously reconciled transaction could have marked as un-reconciled (or deleted). A previously reconciled transaction could have had its amount changed.

If the opening balance difference is preventing a successful reconcile, you will need to determine what got changed since your previous reconcile, and modify transactions accordingly before starting the reconcile. Since you're only reconciling the cash balance in an investment account, you only need to look at transactions that can affect the cash balance.

The concept you mentioned, I can agree with. But like I said, my balance is the exact amount as my monthly statements including the cash amount as long as I don't complete a reconciliation. So I fail to see that how something can be off, especially by that large amount. My cash value, lets say is $100K and when I try to reconcile, it shows $-13K, that?s going to put a $113K adjustment.

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" ... my balance is the exact amount as my monthly statements including the cash amount as long as I don't complete a reconciliation".

I think you're missing the point.

Imagine an investment account with only two transactions: a transfer of cash into the account for $13,000 and a Buy transaction with a Total Cost of $13,000. The cash balance of the account would then be $0.00.

If you reconcile the account, the reconcile opening (cash) balance would be $0.00 and the reconcile ending balance would be $0.00. At the conclusion of the reconcile, both transactions would have a Cleared Status of "R".

Now suppose you removed the "R" from the transaction that transferred the $13,000 cash into the account. The cash balance in the account would remain unchanged (still $0.00); but if you initiated another reconcile, the reconcile opening (cash) balance would now be -$13,000. That -$13,000 represents the effect of the Buy transaction that is still reconciled - remembering that the opening reconcile balance is the net amount of reconciled transactions in the account.

The bottom line is that you must fix the incorrect cash balance BEFORE you start the reconcile. [In the above example, you would just manually (re)mark the transfer of cash transaction as Reconciled ... then begin the reconcile.]

[To address the possibility of corruption or some unexplained problem with Quicken's computation of the account's investment transactions, you can try a Validate (it's usually a good idea to Validate a Quicken Copy of your file). When you do the Validate (File > File Operations > Validate and Repair), check the box to "Validate file" and the box to "Rebuild investing lots. If that does not change the reconcile opening balance, you are left with finding the discrepancy manually.]

I do not know how many transactions you have but essentially you have to go back to your last good reconcile and the remove all "C" and "R" entries from that point onwards. Then do a statement by statement reconcile until you find the error. After you find and correct the error just go to the last statement and reconcile it.

The problem is that Quicken does not remember past reconciles but computes the new starting balance using all "C" and "R" transactions in the account.

Therefore you must go back to the last correct reconcile and then delete all "C" and "R" entries on all transactions following. Now reconcile the next statement by selecting ONLY the transactions listed on the statement. That should highlight the error for you and contiue statement by statement until you are up to date.

Okay, I will review again. Thanks for the information. I will let you know.

The concept you mentioned, I can agree with. But like I said, my balance is the exact amount as my monthly statements including the cash amount as long as I don't complete a reconciliation. So I fail to see that how something can be off, especially by that large amount. My cash value, lets say is $100K and when I try to reconcile, it shows $-13K, that?s going to put a $113K adjustment.

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" ... my balance is the exact amount as my monthly statements including the cash amount as long as I don't complete a reconciliation".

I think you're missing the point.

Imagine an investment account with only two transactions: a transfer of cash into the account for $13,000 and a Buy transaction with a Total Cost of $13,000. The cash balance of the account would then be $0.00.

If you reconcile the account, the reconcile opening (cash) balance would be $0.00 and the reconcile ending balance would be $0.00. At the conclusion of the reconcile, both transactions would have a Cleared Status of "R".

Now suppose you removed the "R" from the transaction that transferred the $13,000 cash into the account. The cash balance in the account would remain unchanged (still $0.00); but if you initiated another reconcile, the reconcile opening (cash) balance would now be -$13,000. That -$13,000 represents the effect of the Buy transaction that is still reconciled - remembering that the opening reconcile balance is the net amount of reconciled transactions in the account.

The bottom line is that you must fix the incorrect cash balance BEFORE you start the reconcile. [In the above example, you would just manually (re)mark the transfer of cash transaction as Reconciled ... then begin the reconcile.]

[To address the possibility of corruption or some unexplained problem with Quicken's computation of the account's investment transactions, you can try a Validate (it's usually a good idea to Validate a Quicken Copy of your file). When you do the Validate (File > File Operations > Validate and Repair), check the box to "Validate file" and the box to "Rebuild investing lots. If that does not change the reconcile opening balance, you are left with finding the discrepancy manually.]

This is getting very confusing with both top and bottom posting!!!

This is getting very confusing with both top and bottom posting!!!

The problem is that Quicken does not remember past reconciles but computes the new starting balance using all "C" and "R" transactions in the account.

Therefore you must go back to the last correct reconcile and then delete all "C" and "R" entries on all transactions following. Now reconcile the next statement by selecting ONLY the transactions listed on the statement. That should highlight the error for you and contiue statement by statement until you are up to date.

-------------- JCO Wrote: I cannot clear "C" or "R" in a brokerage account. I know how to clear them in a checking/savings, but it does not allow me to do so in a brokerage account.

Also, I redid the validation and selected everything I possible could include. My file has no errors. Some account balances changed due to updating to the current price. The particular Brokerage Account that has the Reconciliation issue is the same. The Cash Balance is correct when viewing the registry but when I try to Reconcile, the Prior Cash Amount incorrectly shows $ -13K (plus)

Let me know if you have any other suggestions

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I think you can if you are using a linked cash account in Quicken and not mingling the cash brokerage account.

For bottom posting, try this:

In Windows Mail: Menu bar (ALT if not visible) > Tools > Options, Advanced tab, check Compose reply at the bottom...

"JCO" wrote

I cannot clear "C" or "R" in a brokerage account. I know how to clear them in a checking/savings, but it does not allow me to do so in a brokerage account.

Also, I redid the validation and selected everything I possible could include. My file has no errors. Some account balances changed due to updating to the current price. The particular Brokerage Account that has the Reconciliation issue is the same. The Cash Balance is correct when viewing the registry but when I try to Reconcile, the Prior Cash Amount incorrectly shows $ -13K (plus)

Let me know if you have any other suggestions

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You can certainly mark any individual investment transaction as not-cleared (blank), cleared (c) or reconciled (R). Investment accounts have a "Clr" column where you can toggle Cleared Status ... basically like non-investment accounts. Sometimes you have to widen that "Clr" column to access it.

I have no other suggestions: if Validate doesn't help, you'll have to manually find, and correct, the discrepancies that cause the net (cash) amount of Reconciled transactions in the account to be incorrect. You might be able to get a little help from the Banking > Transaction report which can list the transactions including their Cleared Status.

If you have backups from before you started having reconciliation problems, you could export register reports from the current version and the backup version and compare them. If you look at the differences, you should be able to see the source of your problem.

Alternatively, if problem is caused by a transaction having changed from reconciled to unreconciled, you might spot the problem by sorting the register by the cleared status and looking for uncleared transactions before you started having reconciliation. Unfortunately, this won't work if the problem is caused by a transaction that was changed from cleared to reconciled.

Hope this helps

Mike

This is getting very confusing with both top and bottom posting!!!

For bottom posting, try this:

In Windows Mail: Menu bar (ALT if not visible) > Tools > Options, Advanced tab, check Compose reply at the bottom...

Thanks Arnie

"JCO" wrote

I cannot clear "C" or "R" in a brokerage account. I know how to clear them in a checking/savings, but it does not allow me to do so in a brokerage account.

Also, I redid the validation and selected everything I possible could include. My file has no errors. Some account balances changed due to updating to the current price. The particular Brokerage Account that has the Reconciliation issue is the same. The Cash Balance is correct when viewing the registry but when I try to Reconcile, the Prior Cash Amount incorrectly shows $ -13K (plus)

Let me know if you have any other suggestions

-------------------------------------------------------------

You can certainly mark any individual investment transaction as not-cleared (blank), cleared (c) or reconciled (R). Investment accounts have a "Clr" column where you can toggle Cleared Status ... basically like non-investment accounts. Sometimes you have to widen that "Clr" column to access it.

I have no other suggestions: if Validate doesn't help, you'll have to manually find, and correct, the discrepancies that cause the net (cash) amount of Reconciled transactions in the account to be incorrect. You might be able to get a little help from the Banking > Transaction report which can list the transactions including their Cleared Status.

Well the good news is that I was able to clear the "R" in the register after widening it so that the dropdown is displayed. I redid the reconciliations from January. The Cash Value on the display and the Prior Cash are in agreement but I did not find where the problem was. Basically I have a XOut in January for -266,791.30 and another XOut in February for -41,390.14. Neither of these two are included in the Reconciliations. They do not have the "R".

So while the issue is not resolved, I guess I can live with 2-"XOut" transactions.

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