Incorrect balance from bank causes incorrect projections (edited)

everydave

I've posted previously and was kind of hand waived away, but you can see my previous posting on that…

The short version, as best as I can tell, is that the projected cash flow takes into account whatever the current balance is being reported from an account, regardless if that aligns with the transactions it's been able to download.

The simplest example: If I have a starting balance of $200, and then have an "upcoming" transaction of $50 for a given date, the projected balance for that date should be $150.

However, at some point when the account syncs with simplified, the balance reported by the bank is $150 (taking the transaction into account), but they aren't reporting the $50 dollar transaction to simplifi, for whatever reason. So Simplify adjusts downwards: the current balance now is $150, but it still thinks there's a $50 transaction coming, so the projected balance shows as $100…which will never be the case in reality.

The problem is worse (and has real world consequences) going the other way with mismatched deposits.

The solution seems simple, to me anyway, because it's basic math: don't alter the balance unless you've got a transaction that can account for it, that would solve the entire problem and I don't understand why the system doesn't do this, and why when I brought it up last time it was blown off. I was told to make a feature request, so here it is.

Related, because of this, the projected balance for the "past" (to the left of the current date line) gets shifted as well…this shouldn't shift at all, this should 100% be based on transactions as all of that data is recorded.

As it is, the project balance is all but useless to me right now, yet it's the primary feature that first drew me to simplifi over the competition.

Is there anyone that can help with this?

Coach Jon

Hello @everydave,

Thanks for reaching out! To help us understand your situation better, can you let us know the following information?

• Is the issue occurring with a specific account or multiple accounts?
• Is the account(s) manual or connected to the bank?
• If the account(s) is connected to the bank, is the issue occurring with a specific bank or with multiple banks?
• When the balance is incorrect, do you have any pending transactions entered into the account?
• When the balance is incorrect, are there any pending transactions on the bank's website?

We also have an article here that goes over troubleshooting balance discrepancies in Quicken Simplifi that I'd suggest taking a look over:  https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4202003-how-to-resolve-balance-discrepancies

Additionally, if the issue is occurring with a specific bank, I'd suggest establishing a completely fresh connection with that bank to see if it fixes things moving forward. You may do so by following these steps:

1. Make all of the accounts with the bank manual by following the steps here.
2. Once you see the account(s) listed in the Manual Accounts section under Settings > Accounts, go back through the Add Account flow to reconnect to the bank.
3. If the connection is successful, carefully link the account(s) found to your existing Quicken Simplifi account(s) by following the steps here.

Please let us know, thanks!

-Coach Jon

everydave

Jon,

I appreciate the response, but as I had mentioned, I posted about this previously so it's in my history. If for some reason you can't look that up, all of the questions and suggestions your posting were asked by Natalie and answered there:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/10051/cu-balance-updates-but-not-transactions-make-cash-flow-projection-useless

The short version is pretty much what I listed: This is an auto connection to my credit union, which brings down the current balance but not the current transactions. This throws the projection off, making it useless until some time later when the transactions come down that match. This is a math and timing problem. And I'm really not at all sure how I can make it any more clear than the example that I gave. I can appreciate that maybe the credit unions is only supplying the balance and not the transactions at that time, but in that case, Simplifi should NOT be updating the balance unless it's also updating the transactions that literally account for that balance. It's this erroneous math that is causing the whole problem.

I've not checked my other accounts because those projected balances don't matter to me as this account in particular is used as a clearing house, as it were, so the projected balance is very important.

Please advise,

Dave

Coach Jon

Hello @everydave,

Thanks for the reply. I do not see in the previous thread where you answered some of the specific questions I asked. Since it is a specific account with this issue as you have stated, may we know what financial institution this account is connected with?

Additionally, we will want you to try making the account manual and then re-linking to see if it does fix things before we can continue. If you can follow the instructions I sent previously, this would be helpful in determining what is occuring as well as what to do next.

Thank you,

Coach Jon

everydave

Jon,

The account is with Mountain America Credit Union.

I can certainly try re-linking the account, but two concerns:

1. I don't see how this would change anything: the nature of how Simplifi is syncing the account data is the problem: They are getting a current balance, and updating it, without getting the the transactions that account for that balance. Why would re linking the account change that fundamental behavior.
2. It could take days for this to show up again, but in the interest of troubleshooting I'll go through that process and report back.

Dave

Coach Jon

Hello @everydave,

I can understand your concern. In order to proceed with further data gathering, we will need to verify if doing the manual account/re-link steps fixes teh issue or not. If the issue persists we can then continue with further steps and data gathering at that point.

I do thank you for your patience and be sure to let us know if afterward the issue persists!

Thanks,

Coach Jon

everydave

Jon,

I've converted that account to manual and then reconnected it. I still need to set up my reassuring transactions since those were lost in the conversion, but one note: when connected to my credit union there are now two options "WC and Direct" previously it was on WC as that was the only option, this time I picked the Direct option. Maybe that'll make the difference.

I'll report back in a few days time.

Thanks,

Dave