I brought up this topic ages ago, but probably didn't express myself correctly nor sufficiently coherently, as no satisfactory answer was forthcoming.
Quicken calculates for investment accounts, on the fly so to speak, three sums which are reported in the lower right hand corner below the transaction register for such accounts. One of these sums is "Cash Balance:"
Well, my eyesight is shot for the most part, and when bringing up the reconcile window for investment accounts, I have to squint and look hard at that lower right corner of the screen to see the cash balance that is required to be entered in the reconcile window. Menu option "View > Use Large Fonts" helps a little, but distorts (for me) he rest of the screen.
As Quicken calculates and reports said cash balance, why can't it incorporate that figure in the reconcile window, so that reconciliation becomes as automatic as that for banking accounts, such as credit cards and the like?
I hope I have been clear in the posing of the situation and query.
The computation of the Cash Balance below the investment account transactions only occurs when a transaction is added, modified, or deleted; not when a reconcile is initiated.
The only time there is anything I would describe as "automatic" for checking/savings/credit-card account reconciles is when the user chooses the option to "reconcile to an online balance". And that option is only available for online-enabled non-investment accounts: it is not available any manual accounts of for any investment accounts.
The manual reconcile dialog for investment accounts is basically the same as the manual reconcile dialog for non-investment account - neither show the current cash balance as a separate field: not in the initial reconcile "balances" dialog, or in the larger reconcile dialog where the individual transactions are displayed.
But since both reconciles only consider the cash amount of transactions and the cash balance in the account, the amounts you see in both reconciles (for individual transactions, debit and credit sub-totals, and the Cleared and Statement Ending balances and the Difference), are all "cash" amounts.
Can you explain how and where you expect a separate visually enlarged cash balance to be displayed in investment account reconciles?
I forgot to add: and that Cash Balance is the account "ending" cash balance, which is not necessarily the cash balance the user will need to reconcile to.
Allow me to correct that sentence, which is wrong in a couple of ways.
First of all, it appears that Quicken now offers the option to "reconcile using online balance" for investment accounts. At least, I see that option on the Online Services tab of the Edit Account Details dialog for online-activated investment accounts in Q2020 R36.23. I was going by memory, which was further hampered by the fact that I never reconcile to an online balance.
However, when I elect "reconcile using online balance" for an investment account, then initiate a reconcile, I do not see what I would expect to see. The initial reconcile dialog (the one with the "Ending statement date" and the "Prior" and "Ending" balances, looks just as it does when the option to "reconcile using online balance" is not selected.
And, the second half of the original sentence should now read, " ... it is not available FOR any manual accounts."
We have always reconciled banking accounts including credit cards, etc. to ending balance or whatever Quicken uses and are pleased when things balance out and only unmarked transactions left are, say, the most recent (ie, a charge made last night)
The Cash Balance below the transaction register in investment accounts (together with Security Value and Total Market Value) is (the Cash Balance) the ONLY user-typed figure used to reconcile said investment account. It does NOT matter if that Cash Balance was just calculated after downloading and accepting the very latest stuff, or is from a week ago, it is THE amount to be used in the reconciliation window.
WHERE does that Cash Balance amount come from? QUICKEN CALCULATES IT AT SOME POINT. EVEN IF IT"S NOT STORED ANYWHERE, IT COUOLD JUST RECALCULATE AGAIN AND AGAIN FOR DISPLAY EACH TIME THE USER CLICKS ON THAT INVESTMENT ACCOUNT. SOOOOOO, if the Cash Balance amount displayed is the ONLY figure the user needs to enter to complete the reconciliation process, and said balance comes from a QUICKEN calculation, why not just automatically complete the reconciliation?
The current process for reconciling investment accounts reminds me (yes, showing my age) of the Betty Crocker cake mix boxes which, oh so many decades ago, instructed the user to add an egg or some milk. This was done exclusively for the psychological benefit of giving the home user (a housewife at the time) an idea they were actively making a cake "from scratch". I know, as I came up in the food industry.
I do NOT need psychological stroking to reconcile an investment account. I just need the process be completed!
I appreciate the attention paid to my posting. Paraphrasing George M. Cohan as he used to end his shows, "My eyes thank you, my ophthalmologist thanks you, my wife thanks you."
"Whatever Quicken uses" is determined by the type of reconcile you do. There are two types of Quicken reconcile: reconcile to a statement balance, or reconcile to the online balance. The two types are largely self-describing; but I will attempt to clarify somewhat.
It should be clear that you can online reconcile to an online balance if the account is activated for downloading. Not all banking (checking/savings/credit card) accounts can be activated for downloading, and some users - myself included - choose to reconcile to a statement balance ever for accounts activated for downloading.
It appears you are reconciling your banking accounts to an online balance. That online balance amount is a separately downloaded amount (it is NOT calculated in, or by, Quicken - it comes from the financial institution ... which is why it is legitimate to reconcile to) and the online balance is only as accurate as: the date of the last download and the accuracy of the downloaded amount (neither of which Quicken has any control over).
The Cash Balance below the investment "Transaction List" is always the total amount of cash in the Quicken "Transaction List". It is computed by Quicken, and includes all the transactions in Quicken and no other transactions. And it is NOT necessarily the correct amount to use in a reconcile.
In a reconcile, you want to compare what is in Quicken AS OF A SPECIFIC DATE, with what is at the financial institution AS OF THE SAME SPECIFIC DATE.
See above.
Comparing two balances computed by Quicken can not be the basis of a reconcile. Again: the purpose is to compare what is in Quicken to what is at the financial institution. There is NO downloaded "online balance" for investment accounts - there is no separately downloaded "online balance" to compare Quicken's cash balance to.
I don't perceive the investment account reconcile process to be that way at all.
[And I'm not sure all those home users cared whether they were "making a cake 'from scratch'": I know for certain that at least some users only cared that they were "making a cake".]
I have no idea what that refers to, but I assure you I do not engage in anything psychological, nor any stroking.
Perhaps the best way for you to get a handle on reconciling in Quicken, is to imagine reconciling your checking account as we used to have to do before there was an internet. The internet has made reconciling easier, but it has not changed the fundamentals of reconciling. The basics are that when you reconcile, you are trying to verify that your financial situation as reported in one place (pre-internet, that place was likely the transactions manually recorded in your check book - today it is the transactions recorded in Quicken, either manually entered or downloaded), agrees with your financial situation at another place (at your financial institution).
You want your transactions in Quicken transactions to be the same as your transactions at the financial institution. Comparing balances is basically a high-level way to start the process: if the two balances don't match, you know you have some more work to do. But even if your balances match, that is not a guarantee that all your Quicken transactions are correct - though typically, I think most users would consider matching balances a successful reconcile.
Using the Cash Balance below the Quicken investment "Transaction List" to reconcile to your financial institution is essentially comparing your Quicken cash balance to itself. You need to compare the cash balance in Quicken (the equivalent to the pre-internet balance in your checkbook) to the cash balance AT THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.
[Note the text in the initial Quicken investment account reconcile dialog which says: "Enter the following from your investment statement."]
For online-activated Quicken banking accounts, there is a downloaded "online [cash] balance" (from the financial institution) to compare to; there is no such cash balance for any other Quicken account.
[And, as I believe I noted in my original response; reconciling the cash balance in a Quicken investment account is just part of what is necessary to reconcile an investment account: you also need to reconcile your Quicken security holdings (shares held for each security) in the account to the security holdings at the financial institution ... as of the reconcile date.]
I have confirmed that the option to "reconcile using online balance" in investment accounts is not functional; and is only present because Quicken is using the same dialog for both investment and banking accounts.
Well, well, well! After all the yada yada all over the place from all sides it seems I am left with the current reconcile method for investment accounts. (Here I take one exception with John's excellent treatise in that the Cash Balance below the transaction register has ALWAYS been the needed amount too be entered in the little window. Any dyslexic keystrokes result in reconciliation failure until Balance is corrected.
Now, this state of affairs leaves me and my poor eyesight answering the question paraphrased as 'just what is it you want?' Well (again, sorry), how about a larger font for the area below the register so I can read the amount to be entered in the little window, WITHOUT ALTERING THE FONT SIZE OF THE REST OF THE SCREEN??
I must confess that despite my quiet desperation, there is one investment account which is a breeze to reconcile. I have a ROTH which form start was meant to be treated by reinvesting any interest, dividend, etc. into the security that generated it, which meant cash balance should always be zero. However, eons and a few financial institutions ago, some advisor overslept or sneezed or was distracted as ever since some income was NOT reinvested and the cash balance has been $5.31. Now THERE is a Cash Balance I don't have to bother looking at, I KNOW!
Your comment contains potential misinformation for other users ... and could easily affect you as well. I will do my best to correct any potential misunderstanding.
Let me start by attempting to state again, something I said previously: when you reconcile, you should be intending to determine that the data in a specific Quicken account is the same as the data in the equivalent real-world account ... in the real-world account at the financial institution where your transactions occur. In that process, Quicken already has ALL the information it need to supply its part in the reconcile (you NEVER need to - nor should you - "enter" any Quicken computed amounts in your reconcile). The only thing you need to supply to a Quicken reconcile are: the date whose balances are to be compared, and the balance amount AT THE financial institution you want your Quicken data to be compared to.
If you manually enter an amount computed by Quicken into your reconcile, you will simply be telling Quicken to compare its total to ... its total. That could only ever be right by coincidence. When you do that, your reconciles will ALWAYS appear TO BE RIGHT ... even when your Quicken data (for the reconcile period) is different than the data at your financial institution for the same period.
Below every Quicken banking account register; there is always, at least, one total: Ending Balance. If the account contains any transactions dated later than "today"; there will be at least two totals: Ending Balance and Current Balance. If the account is activated for downloading; there will be one additional total: Online Balance.
It is NEVER appropriate for a user to use the Current Balance or the Ending Balance in a reconcile (which is not to say that neither balance could ever be the balance to reconcile to - just that those balances are not the legitimate source, nor are they likely to be the correct balances to "compare to"). Balances computed by Quicken are never what is asked for in Quicken reconciles: Quicken uses the balances it can logically compute for reconcile purposes - without any assistance from the user.
I don't work for Quicken (but even if I did, I would not be able to address your request). If you want to request that Quicken be modified, you need to go to the Quicken Community
formatting link
and initiate an IDEA discussion. Many others have requested changes to the sizing of data in Quicken ... without significant success, so far.
One tool you already have available is the Quicken option to "Use Large Fonts"; found at View > Use Large Fonts.
Based on your comments in this discussion so far: I suspect you may have a much bigger problem than you think. It appears you may have been (unwittingly) telling Quicken to treat every account as "reconciled" - by comparing Quicken's computed account balance to ... Quicken's computed account balance.
The cash balances in my investment accounts are almost always $0.00: but that does not make my investment account reconciles any easier. I still have to know what the cash balance is at my financial institution ... and I have to determine whether my Quicken holdings are equal to the holdings at my financial institution. I use the Investment > Portfolio Value report (subtotaled by Account) for that. The Portfolio Value report also responds to the "Use Large Fonts" option. I suggested the Portfolio Value report earlier.
Based on everything said here, I'm not sure I understand how "sad" your "state of affairs" can be. I'm 80 years old, and I need glasses to see to read. When I encounter the odd amount/word/phrase/paragraph that I can't easily read for understanding with my glasses ... I break out my magnifying glass.
At some point, some people with vision problems (potentially myself included) are going to have to look further than they have in the past (for example: there is software that can read text to you). At some point, the cost of providing additional value to a subset of some product users will exceed the value of that benefit for all product users ... at some point where it is literally impossible to provide that additional value.
Obviously I have unwittingly touched a nerve, which I never intended, particularly in an exchange with someone whose knowledge and advice I have admired for a long time, along with a couple of others whom I don't see anymore in the forum. My sincere apologies.
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