permanently never doing "online reconcile"

Bernie, can't help you in your specific issue, but I am curious why you seem to be so adamant against this function? Besides downloading transactions, this is the single most useful feature I find in Q. I run through each downloaded transaction individually to make sure I have entered each detail correctly, and after 'DONE', the accounts (and I have about 20 of them) all auto-reconcile fine. Been using this function as long as I can remember (I started with Q for DOS in 1987).

"Bernie Cosell" wrote

a few times a year [!!] I discover that when I go to reconcile one of my checking accounts I find that it had been switched to "online reconcile" . I **NEVER** want to do "online reconcile" and I have no idea how it gets set that way -- it must be something I type by mistake or the like although I can't imagine what that might be [since I only ever paper reconcile]. Is there some way to *completely*disable* online reconciling so it never leaps up and bites me again?

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There is no option in Quicken to do what you ask. But there is no need for one: when you choose to reconcile to a paper statement, that should not change unless you change it.

[Just to be certain: make sure that both the Reconcile option to "Use online balance" and "Always use online balance" are unchecked). There is also an option to reconcile to an online balance on the Online Services tab of the Edit Account Details dialog of the account.]

If the option is changing without your input, then I think something else is wrong; perhaps some corruption in your data or your installation.

The way to address the former is a Validate (I suggest making a Quicken Copy of your data, then Validating that Copy).

The way to address the latter is to uninstall (see:

and I suggest using qcleanui regardless of whether you think the Windows uninstall was successful).

"John Pollard" wrote

The way to address the latter is to uninstall (see:

and I suggest using qcleanui regardless of whether you think the Windows uninstall was successful).

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That sentence should have had, " ... then reinstall Quicken" appended to the end.

I suspect its a generational thing. If you grew up doing monthly paper statement reconciles, the idea of floating date online reconcile seems very strange. OTOH, the whole idea of reconciling in an online world where accounts are always available and current is somewhat anachronistic.

I have mixed use. Checking and savings are online - why not?

Credit cards are manual because I need to schedule a payment and the reconcile process triggers the correct payment being generated.

} Bernie Cosell wrote: } > a few times a year [!!] I discover that when I go to reconcile one of my } > checking accounts I find that it had been switched to "online reconcile" . } > I **NEVER** want to do "online reconcile" ... } } Bernie, can't help you in your specific issue, but I am curious why you } seem to be so adamant against this function?

What happens with online reconciling in the case I just dealt with:

*somehow* quicken's transaction downloads downloaded a deposit twice. So I thought I had a fair bit more money in my account than I really did. When I reconciled it [just a few minutes ago] the reconcile told me that I needed to put in a balance adjustment because the bank's balance was smaller than the total of the 'reconciled' transactions.

When/how would "online reconcile" have told me that my balance was telling me I had more money in my account than I really did?

/Bernie\

Hi Bernie.

So in the methodology I use and described, even if Q did download the same deposit twice, that would be a problem since I look and ACCEPT each transaction ONE AT A TIME. If I had already accepted a deposit, I could immediately see that a second one was being presented and would DELETE that one before it even got into my register. I never use the ACCEPT ALL function.

Additionally, I do ALWAYS enter all my transactions ahead of time from receipts/charge slips so that I am additionally aware of anything out of the ordinary that I need to think about before hit ACCEPT. Example might be a restaurant charge that they didn't add my manual tip into the final bill since that is usually not part of the paper receipt one gets after paying your restaurant tab before writing in your tip amount which will show up in the downloaded transaction later.

} > *somehow* quicken's transaction downloads downloaded a deposit twice. } > So I thought I had a fair bit more money in my account than I really did. } > When I reconciled it [just a few minutes ago] the reconcile told me that I } > needed to put in a balance adjustment because the bank's balance was } > smaller than the total of the 'reconciled' transactions. } > } > When/how would "online reconcile" have told me that my balance was telling } > me I had more money in my account than I really did? } } So in the methodology I use and described, even if Q did download the } same deposit twice, that would be a problem since I look and ACCEPT each } transaction ONE AT A TIME. If I had already accepted a deposit, I could } immediately see that a second one was being presented and would DELETE } that one before it even got into my register. I never use the ACCEPT } ALL function.

That's nice in theory -- I do the same. BUT: note that when you accept transactions the register is about half-high and if the date on that duplicate deposit that I caught was far enough in the past it wouldn't have shown in what I could see as I accepted transactions. I then puts the new transaction at the end of the register, and only sorts it into place [where, if I knew to look, I might have noticed the duplicate] when I close and re-open the register. I *never* do "accept all" -- I, too, want to sanity check the transactions. In this case it was a legit deposit, just duplicated, and I can't remember what happened last week or two weeks ago so had no clue [until I reconciled] that I had a duplicate.

I can't recall another instance of this kind of thing happening, so it isn't a frequent problem, but still: I think that it would _never_ have gotten caught by doing 'online reconcile', would it??

/Bernie\

} } > *somehow* quicken's transaction downloads downloaded a deposit twice. } > So I thought I had a fair bit more money in my account than I really did. } > When I reconciled it [just a few minutes ago] the reconcile told me that I } > needed to put in a balance adjustment because the bank's balance was } > smaller than the total of the 'reconciled' transactions. } >

} > When/how would "online reconcile" have told me that my balance was telling } > me I had more money in my account than I really did?

} So in the methodology I use and described, even if Q did download the } same deposit twice, that would be a problem since I look and ACCEPT each } transaction ONE AT A TIME. If I had already accepted a deposit, I could } immediately see that a second one was being presented and would DELETE } that one before it even got into my register. I never use the ACCEPT } ALL function.

That's nice in theory -- I do the same. BUT: note that when you accept transactions the register is about half-high and if the date on that duplicate deposit that I caught was far enough in the past it wouldn't have shown in what I could see as I accepted transactions. I then puts the new transaction at the end of the register, and only sorts it into place [where, if I knew to look, I might have noticed the duplicate] when I close and re-open the register. I *never* do "accept all" -- I, too, want to sanity check the transactions. In this case it was a legit deposit, just duplicated, and I can't remember what happened last week or two weeks ago so had no clue [until I reconciled] that I had a duplicate.

I can't recall another instance of this kind of thing happening, so it isn't a frequent problem, but still: I think that it would _never_ have gotten caught by doing 'online reconcile', would it??

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That depends.

If the downloaded online balance was correct, the Quicken reconcile would not have balanced. You would certainly have noticed that.

If the downloaded online balance was off by the same amount as the duplicate transaction, the Quicken reconcile would have had no way to catch that. Just as if you reconciled to a paper statement and manually entered a current balance that was off by the amount of a duplicate transaction.

The problem that more often occurs is that the downloaded transactions are correct, but the downloaded online balance is incorrect. There is no way around that but to either: wait for another download that has correct transactions and a correct online balance; or reconcile to a paper statement where you reconcile to a balance that you manually enter.

One easy way to check for a single duplicate is to do a "FIND" for the exact amount of the error.

If multiple duplicates do a quick scan within the dates for transactions without a reconcile entry.

Since I am "on" Quicken virtually every day, my uncleared transactions are seldom more than a screen or two away, and as I mentioned, I enter them all ahead of time anyway. It's been interesting discussion.