Why does a closed bank account show a non-zero balance?

perkin-warbeck
perkin-warbeck Member
edited February 12 in Troubleshooting

I transferred the balance of bank account A to account B and then closed A. In Simplifi, there are matching transfer transctions in in the two accounts, one minus and one plus. Account A now shows as Disconnected and the Transaction Activity for account A shows "($0.00) 449 transactions found," which is correct. However in the Accounts panel (on the left side of the Simplifi screen) account A shows a balance that is approximately DOUBLE the balance in account B. I don't see any transactions that could explain this.

I could probably fix this with a balance adjustment, but I'd like to understand why this happened and whether it's a bug or I did something wrong to cause it.

Best Answers

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin
    Answer ✓

    @perkin-warbeck, thanks for posting back with additional details!

    My guess is that the issue was caused by making the account manual versus marking it as closed. Since Quicken Simplifi uses the balance provided by the bank for connected accounts, that balance does not always equal the sum of the transactions listed in the account register. However, manual accounts use the sum of the transactions in the register, so I'm thinking that's where things went awry. To resolve this, I'd suggest marking the account as closed to $0 out the balance.

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/5149428-marking-accounts-as-closed

    Please let us know how it goes!

    -Coach Natalie

  • perkin-warbeck
    perkin-warbeck Member
    Answer ✓

    Today Simplifi shows the balance as $0.00. It took a week for it to happen, and I didn't do anything to cause it.

    By the way, I did not mark the account as closed because I thought I had read that doing so would erase all the transactions. But after reading the link you provided, I see that is not the case. I'll know better in the future.

    Thanks for your help. Problem solved.

Answers

  • Did you try deleting account A? See if that helps.

  • Deleting an account deletes all the transactions associated with that account. I need to retain those transactions for my records. So I marked the account as Closed.

  • Coach Kristina
    Coach Kristina Moderator admin

    Hello @perkin-warbeck,

    To assist with this issue, please provide more information. Is this happening in the web app, the mobile app, or both? Have you tried toggling Show Closed Accounts off and back on again, to see if that corrects the wrong value that you're seeing? To do that, click on the 3 dots at the upper right of the account list and deselect Show Closed Accounts, wait for the account to vanish from the account list, then reselect Show Closed Accounts.

    I look forward to your reply!

    -Coach Kristina

  • I'm in the Web app. Unfortunately, the Accounts list (Settings → Accounts) does not have three dots at the upper right:

  • Coach Kristina
    Coach Kristina Moderator admin

    Thank you for your reply,

    You'll find the three dots at the upper right of the accounts list at the left hand side of the screen when you're on the dashboard.

    I hope this helps!

    -Coach Kristina

  • Thank you for your suggestion. I turned off Show Closed Accounts and did a refresh. Nothing changed. I turned it back on and refreshed again. Still no effect.

  • Coach Kristina
    Coach Kristina Moderator admin

    Thank you for your reply,

    Are you able to post screenshots of the issue, with any personal information redacted?

    Before the account was closed, did you have any scheduled transfers that would have affected the balance of the account once posted? If so, did any of them post after the account was closed?

    I look forward to your response!

    -Coach Kristina

  • perkin-warbeck
    perkin-warbeck Member
    edited January 10

    I waited to close the old account until all transactions had completed. I closed the old account at a branch office, so I know the process was handled correctly. The balance from the old account was deposited into a new account at the same bank, leaving the old account with a zero balance. The bank closed the old account later the same day. I later got an email from Simplfi telling me the balance on the old account was $0.00.

    The next time I went to Simplifi and sync'd with the bank, Simplifi could no longer sync with the old account because the account no longer existed. I marked the account as disconnected (rather than closed) because I did not want to lose the old account transactions.

    I seem to recall having to create the transfer transaction manually because Simplifi had seen the deposit, but not the withdrawal. I think I deleted the deposit and then created the transfer transaction manually. In the screenshots I have renamed the two accounts old and new.

This discussion has been closed.