Reconcile problem

You didn't say what version of Quicken you're using, and you didn't say how you were trying to reconcile.

Your description differs from what I observe in Q2010 Premier R9 (and, I'm pretty sure, previous versions).

1.) The "Cleared Status" column is only the leftmost column in investment accounts. 2.) I have no problem manually changing the cleared status of a transfer transaction in an investment account to its linked checking account ... I only see the problem when trying to manually reconcile the counterpart, the transfer transaction that appears in the linked checking account (and I believe the message telling you to "make this change from the investment account" is misleading, if not incorrect).

I think your description of #1 and #2 is backwards.

I believe you have to use the manual reconcile (one transaction at a time) to reconcile transactions in an investment account with a linked checking account.

And I suggest you use the Quicken reconcile dialog to reconcile the linked checking account transactions. A checking account reconcile can be initiated from the drop down "Account Activities" button in the account (Q2010); or by placing the Quicken Reconcile icon on the Quicken Toolbar (clicking that icon will initiate the appropriate/allowed reconcile dialog for whatever Quicken account is "open" when you click the toolbar icon).

Sorry, John. My head is a bit in the clouds, I guess. I'm using Quicken 2010 Premier Release R10, and for the most part it works very well. I'm well pleased with the overall setup, but need to get this problem resolved to make sure my data will be ready and available come tax time next year.

I did indeed have these reversed. If I open the Investing pane the R for Reconciled column along the left edge works well, but even with this showing a specific item as reconciled, it won't be reconciled in the Banking pane.

If I try to manually reconcile an item in the Banking pane it seems to work in that the R shows up as expected, but when I press the Enter key to move on to the next item I get the error message;

You should make this change from the investment account to avoid losing transaction detail. Click Go to Transfer from the Edit menu.

When I comply and go to the Investing pane I'm back to square one. The R shows at the right of this pane and the item looks like it is reconciled, but for some reason this won't transfer the reconciled state to the Banking pane.

I've tried this. In fact, I deleted all the recently keyed in, un-reconciled items from both the Banking and the Investing panes, then tried keying them in again, one item at a time, keyed in from the Investing pane. This didn't work, either.

I've tried this, as well as just clicking on the left-most column in the Investing pane then selecting the R. This works in so far as making the item reconciled in the investing pane, but the same item in the Banking pane remains unchanged.

The thing that is weird is that this reconciled function was working properly before I did an on-line update for Quicken. I'm thinking there may have been some flaw in this update.

Gordon

Antares, what you are describing is the way Quicken has always worked for me when brokerage cash is shown in a linked checking account. To get the transaction to display properly, do this:

First give the transaction a posting date by:

1) Right-click on the transaction in the checking account 2) Hold down CTRL key while clicking on "Copy Transaction" 3) Enter a posting date.

Then mark the transaction as "Cleared"

1) Start a reconciliation 2) Mark the problem transaction as Cleared 3) Choose "Finish Later", and answer "Yes"

You could also just reconcile and make the transaction "Reconciled" if you are ready to reconcile.

As I tried to say; this is the way it should work. You should be able to reconcile individual transactions in the investment account (and - I believe - you must reconcile the investment account transactions that way); but that will not cause transactions to be reconciled in the linked checked account.

I think you need to totally forget about any link between the two accounts as far as reconciling is concerned: I believe you must reconcile the two accounts totally independently ... using a different reconcile method in each account.

Are you sure?

Here you're telling me you "tried this" for my suggestion to use the Quicken reconcile "feature", but all the rest of the paragraph is not about what happened when you initiated a reconcile in the linked checking account ... but back to talking about what does not happen when you change an investment account transaction. That shouldn't be any part of the description of what happens when you open a Quicken reconcile dialog, mark one or more transactions as reconciled, and click "Finish".

Again ... in the linked checking account: Account Actions > Reconcile. Mark each transaction you want reconciled, then (assuming the reconcile "Difference" is 0.00) click "Finished".

I just tested my approach in Q2010 Premier R10 (the newest release of Q2010) and it works as I have suggested.

Thanks, Bob and John for your suggestions. I've tried them and still can't get the problem resolved. I'm going to delete all entries dated later than the date this problem began, from both the Investing and the Banking pane, then key them in again. It may be that I keyed them into the wrong pane, or in the wrong chronological order.

I have always keyed this kind of information into the Investing pane and let Quicken automatically transfer the information to the Banking pane. This is talking about things like Dividends Paid and Reinvesting these Dividends funds.

In the Investing pane, all entries show the reconciled R in the left column and all balances check out okay, against my paper statements.

In the Banking pane there are a few entries that do not show the reconciled R, and when I right click then select Reconcile - Reconciled, the R shows up but I can not move on. That is, when I press the Enter key I get the previously mentioned error message. I end up having to cancel this reconciled action and go back to a blank in the reconciled column for that entry. Yet, the balances all check out okay. I can't find anything that would inhibit reconciling these entries.

Gordon

That's not what I suggested.

With the checking account open to the "Transactions" tab, click the "Account Actions" button (above the transactions and to the right). Then click "Reconcile". No right-clicking involved.

You'll know you're in the right place when you see the "Statement Summary" dialog box that shows the statement beginning balance and the statement ending date, and has an empty box for the statement ending balance. Clicking OK in that dialog, will display all the transactions elibible to be reconciled. You "mark" the ones you want to be reconciled ... when all is in balance, you click "Finish".

Thanks, John. This worked this time. I had tried it before but got the same error message. I deleted all entries later than the one just before this problem showed up. Maybe this cleared the cobwebs out or somehow removed the blockage.

Anyway, I'm up and running, again. I'll go ahead and key in the remaining items, in chronological order, and let you know if this worked out okay.

Thanks, Gordon

Everything is working okay, now. I think the problem somehow had its roots in some error I had keyed in and couldn't get resolve, but I still don't understand how all the figures balanced in agreement with my paper statements. Anyway, all is well that ends well. I certainly do appreciate your help and guidance. I might never have gotten this resolved without it.

I'm still not able to understand why my old method of right clicking the R column for a given entry then selecting Reconcile always worked before but would not work after keying in my January 2010 statement info. Maybe the new Quicken update changed some underlying settings for this.

Gordon