Quicken will not let me reconcile unless I have checks to check off

I have a small checking account that I seldom use. This month, I ran into an unusual problem. Quicken will not let me balance my account unless I check off some checks -- but I don't have any this month! I tried several times and finally had to balance by entering the small amount of interest manually, then checked it off like a deposit. That gave me a correctly balanced account, but it is strange that Quicken would insist that I check off non-existent entries. Has anyone else run into this, and is there a correction for it? I am using Quicken Deluxe 99 running under Win XP-Home Edition.

Thanks, MaryL

Reply to
MaryL
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Mary,

But if there have been no checks since the last balance, and presumably no deposits, there is nothing to balance, is there?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hollidays, etc.

Ed

Reply to
Ed

Yes, there is, because there is both a service charge and a small interest payment. Admittedly, they are small and I could enter them manually -- but I use Quicken every month and like to have an exact balance.

Thanks, MaryL

Reply to
MaryL

Never experienced that. I just go online to my bank to get the transactions. Bank charges and interest payments then appear in the register just lik a check. They appear with a C meaning they have clearred and reconciliation proceeds normally. But I'm using the latest version of Quicken.

Ed

Reply to
Ed

Mary - Are you saying that when you clicked 'RECONCILE', even though ALL the entries in your account were cleared, you did NOT get the data input box where you enter opening and closing balances as well as the bank charges and interest section?

I have a small account that I keep open in a local commercial bank that had no activity in the past month except for .10 interest. I balanced that, and things were fine. (When doing that, I did have to enter .10 in the 'Enter and categorize your interest...' section of the reconciliation panel. After doing that reconciliation, I hit RECONCILE again and STILL GOT the data entry box even though EVERY ENTRY in the account has been marked 'R'. So I don't understand what I am doing differently than you did, but yet, I can indeed enter the RECONCILIATION process. Am I missing something in your process?

Reply to
Andrew

No, I did get that box. I entered the the closing balance and also the service charge and a tiny amount of interest. Then I clicked OK, and reconcile opened to the page where I usually click on cleared checks. Since there was nothing to clear, I checked "finish." That's where the problem was. I tried a number of times and always got a message that said something to the effect that I had to check off entries to proceed. I could not get past that box. Finally, I cancelled the reconcile and entered the service charge manually (like entering a check) instead of entering it in the opening "reconcile" box. Then, I could check on "finish" and complete the process. But, this really doesn't make any sense.

Thanks, MaryL

Reply to
MaryL

When you got the ORIGINAL box, did you enter a closing balance that was different from the opening balance as well as the service charge? Then you should have received the dialog with the service charge already entered as 'C' without any other transactions listed, I think. At that point, you should have been able to finish. I think the key here is that you need to ensure that your closing balance in the original dialog box was *different* from the opening balance, as well it should have been since you had that bank charge.

Reply to
Andrew

Yes, I did all that, and I did it several times -- that is, I entered the new closing balance and entered the interest and service charge in the original box, and they were marked with a "c" when I went to the next stage (transaction list). However, Quicken would *not* let me finish -- each time, I got the dialog box indicating that *I* must check off something. When I said I did it several times, I mean that I checked the box to finish later without saving, then started the process all over again, and still got the same results each time. I was finally able to reconcile only when I did

*not* enter anything except the closing balance in the original box, and I manually listed interest and service charge as transactions. Then I checked them off like cleared checks -- and Quicken then accepted my "perfect" balance. It's really puzzling and non-functional.

Incidentally, I know the version I am using (Quicken Deluxe 99) is now many generations out-of-date. However, I have purchased several updates, tried them out and didn't like them as well. I only tried them for a short time because Quicken is not backward-compatible and I did not want enter so much information that it would take a lot of time to re-do if I returned to the earlier version. That is really unfortunate. Other programs that I use (such as WordPerfect -- not a financial program, obviously) are backward-compatible, and I even use different versions at home and the office but am able to transport files back and forth with no difficulty. I don't do online banking and only use Quicken for my checking. MaryL

Reply to
MaryL

OK Mary - well, I'm out of ideas here, with the one proviso that I am using Q2006 P, so perhaps there's a bug in your level of Q that's been since fixed. Sorry bout that.

Reply to
Andrew

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