Reconcile method

Captain,

When you reconcile there should be a Radio Button to do this.

Oilcan

Yes, there is a radio button to do that. When you change from one method to the other you get a warning that if you change you may screw up. I screwed up and changed. I want to know now if there is any way to change back without being several hundred dollars off. That is what happens when I change the radio button you mention. Maybe I should just include the mistake of hundreds of dollars and go from there, but that may just add to the problem rather than fix it. The thought entered my mind to delete the account and start over. That is not an easy solution or one I want to consider.

It should not matter which method you use to perform the reconciliation. One is manual, and the other is automatic. Your ending balance is still the same number, the cleared transactions are the same.

That said, how do you get a difference of several hundred dollars?

I don't get a warning when I change from "Paper Statement" to "Online Balance"; only when I change from "Online Balance" to "Paper Statement". My experience also agrees with Quicken Help on the subject.

It's not really clear what "several hundred dollars off" refers to. If you change from reconciling to a paper statement to reconciling to an online balance, there is likely to be an inititial difference; the online balance is more current than your last printed statement balance.

If you're going to have problems, you should have had them when you converted from Online Balance to Paper Statement.

Again, it's not clear what the "mistake" really is.

I can tell you that if your financial institutions "pends" some transactions, does not download "pended" transactions (while they're pended), but does include "pended" transactions in the online balance; you will not be able to successfully reconcile to that online balance while there are pended transactions.

As a last resort, I think you should always be able to unreconcile all the transactions in the account (using Find/Replace), then re-reconcile once up through the most current known reconcile balance.

Laura wrote: > That said, how do you get a difference of several hundred dollars?

I changed from on line balance to paper statement.

That difference is usually due to timing issues but certainly not necessarily an error.

For example, the paper statement dated 10/31/07 has a balance of 1000. My online balance on 11/5/07 is 1500 because of a deposit on 11/1/07.

If you are using the paper statement to do the reconciliation then you enter a 10/31/07 date and a value of 1000. As long as you select the proper transactions to be marked cleared then your reconciliation is correct.

Just because you don't match the online balance does not mean that there is an error. The only time the paper and online balance will match will be the day of the paper statement providing there are no pending transactions showing on the website. Any other difference is a timing issue but again, as long as you can complete the reconciliation then everything is correct. Just ignore the difference.

That's exactly what I did.

That is when I had the problem.

The "mistake" was going from online balance to paper statement.

Thanks. I'll give that a try. If it doesn't work I can always go back through and be at the same spot I am now.

Can you restore an earlier backup that was done before you made the change? You'll have to enter the more recent transactions but that shouldn't be a big probem, I hope.