Balance Issues
I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon correcting mistakes in my checking "register", both made by me and this program and/or bank data sent to the program.
Everything matched, pending transactions were correct and the balance was spot on.
This morning I open my Simplifi account on the web, it updates, and shows a negative balance of over $1200 in my checking account.
Jeez! Every day it's wrong until mid day and it seems to correct itself. We'll see what happens today.
Is this program always such a disaster?
Comments
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@TheReal702, thanks for reaching out to the Community!
To better understand the issue, please provide more details:
- 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:
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:
- Make all of the accounts with the bank manual by following the steps here.
- 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.
- 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 so we can best assist!
-Coach Natalie
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- Is the issue occurring with a specific account or multiple accounts?
Checking and savings - so far. I've had no transactions in other accounts since starting Simplifi
- Is the account(s) manual or connected to the bank?
All accounts are 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?
Single bank - Bank of America
- When the balance is incorrect, do you have any pending transactions entered into the account?
Yes
- When the balance is incorrect, are there any pending transactions on the bank's website?
Yes
As expected, around 9am west coast time a refresh brought my account back to the correct balance.
Then, I transferred $500 from checking to savings and manually entered it into Simplifi. Balances remained correct.
But then around noon - a refresh made savings and checking haywire again. Checking is off by -$500 and savings is off by +$500. With regard to this particular transaction, it only shows it as pending once. Once in each account that is, $500 out of checking, $500 into savings. It seems like my manual entry has been doubled by the banks data, but it doesn't show it as being doubled.
If I switch from balance with pending to bank balance, it's off by a few thousand bucks.
Stay tuned and I'll report what it does in a few hours, then again tomorrow.
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Additionally, I have un-linked and re-linked the BOA accounts, and the 2 times I've done it the errors were corrected. I shouldn't have to do this.
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Hi @TheReal702
Fellow user here. I'm sorry you keep having problems with your bank balances going wacky. I've been using QS for almost 3 years and have not had the problem you are describing. I don't bank with BOA except for a seldom used credit card so I don't have any experience with BOA data downloads to QS. I do active connected accounts with WF, CapOne, Synchrony, Chase and Citi and QS has successfully managed the data imports from these banks with only a couple of glitches since I've been using QS. Nothing like what you're seeing. One difference is that I don't enter pending transactions manually which is one of the reasons I even use an app like QS… I don't want to make manual entries… did that for years back in the days of checkbooks and monthly hard copy bank statements accompanied by all the canceled checks for the month. But that shouldn't matter.
I hope this gets worked out soonest for you.
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
I re-linked again since my last post here, and didn't manually re-enter the transfer from checking to savings. With the exception of that transaction missing, the account balances are correct. I'm waiting to see if it will resolve itself whenever the next update occurs. As you mentioned, maybe the trick is to avoid manual entries. <shrug>
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm trying real hard to like this program, but after 2 weeks of frustration I'm not very impressed. I want it to work, so I'll give it more time.
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@TheReal702 So your bank is still counting cleared transactions at pending when you do your morning update, but the next time you update, it fixes the balance? Do I have that right?
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
Microsoft Money (Windows) 1991-2009
Dollars & Cents (DOS) 1987-19910 -
I believe that BOA only does clearing at night/overnight, and never on Saturday or Sunday night. With that said, if I load the Simplifi web page at 5am, the balances are haywire with or without pending transactions. Then mid to late morning it's accurate again. But if a new pending transaction occurs, it's haywire until the next day - mid to late morning. Rinse and repeat for the last 2 weeks that I've been using this program.
I'm going to try and let it do everything for a few days. No manual posting. If I can help it. I've let this thing get in my head. Regular Quicken Classic works so well, but this should be better for when I travel if I can get it to work.
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Here is an article that you may find helpful:
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
Yes, thanks. I've read that.
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Laugh with me……
It's 3am, decided to see how things are going with this program.
I first went to my BOA account online on their website. Everything is cleared, including a new payment received for a rental house I have and the transfer I made from checking to savings yesterday. Nothing pending. Everything is in order and accurate.
Because of the issues I've been having with Simplifi, I've continued to simultaneously use Quicken Classic since I still have a couple weeks until my subscription expires. So, I open Quicken Classic on my desktop, hit the update button and everything updates. Everything is cleared, manual and downloaded transactions look good. Everything is in order and accurate.
Life is good right?
Then I open Simplifi (website). It's a disaster. Everything that showed as pending last night still shows pending. A couple of additional pending transactions are added, including the rental house deposit, a bill reminders is showing as late even though it was paid 3 days ago, and my checking balance is again in the negative. There are also several duplicate transactions. The manual entry that I made for the transfer from checking to savings then deleted before re-linking Simplifi to BOA populated as pending in both the savings and checking accounts. The savings account balance is accurate, which includes yesterday's transfer that still shows as pending.
This tastes really bad.
I'll try again every hour or so………lets see what happens, and when.
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Thanks. My checking account at the local bank does the same. It doesn't update the balance on weekends b/c the Central Bank doesn't clear anything on weekends. But it will download any debit card purchases as pending on weekends. Simplifi is all about the Pending Transactions, b/c it just subtracts those from the balance that the bank gives. I asked you to explain b/c I wanted to ascertain if your checking account is acting like mine. I'm not sure it is exactly the same, but it is similar. My balance doesn't go "haywire" except in the morning. But I think I know what it's doing, but I don't know why Simplifi gets confused if it is Simplifi's fault, but I think it is. It could be the OAuth connection though I don't see why. Bear with me as I walk you through what happens to me last two weeks. Every bank is slightly different. My bank mostly takes two days to clear debit card transactions.
My bank balance goes bad during the week but once it fixes itself the second time on Saturday, it is right until Wednesday. This has to do with my usage habits. I typically don't use the debit card on weekends. On Monday, I go to Publix and I use my debit card though Apple Pay (which shouldn't make a difference). I usually let the bank download it, then I "fix it" (I split it into categories and fix the payee name if necessary). Simplifi subtracts the transaction from the bank balance and all is well. On Tuesday (today), I will go to the other grocery store and make another debit purchase. It will download and my balance will be correct. I will verify this later. Tonight probably, my bank will download the Publix transaction again but with today's date instead of tomorrow's. Now Simplifi may recognize this and merge them BUT probably won't so it will show a duplicate transaction to Publix. I will merge them manually if I can; otherwise, delete the duplicate. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, (unless this has been fixed which I doubt), Simplifi will show my balance wrong as it will still be counting Publix twice and Winn Dixie once. It will resolve when I update again. Thursday, it will be wrong again as then it will count Winn Dixie twice (having downloaded a duplicate with a different date Wednesday night). It will resolve on second update Thursday morning. Repeat for other purchases on Friday.
Now BOA is a national bank and they should clear debit transactions faster. My other bank, Capital One will clear them immediately if I use a PIN number and not Apple Pay. I have little trouble with its balances typically. And if it is a debit charge without a PIN number, it will clear in two to three days. Capital One won't download pending charges, which may be a blessing but it leads to its own peculiarities, whose details I will spare you. It sounds like BOA is even more messed up than my bank, but I shared these details to see if it helps you make any sense of what BOA is doing
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
Microsoft Money (Windows) 1991-2009
Dollars & Cents (DOS) 1987-19910 -
It sounds like our issues are very similar. Thank you for posting, at least I know it's not just me doing something incorrectly.
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515am - hit the refresh button
Checking - the pending has resolved with one exception, and it's a double of my mortgage payment. Balance went from a negative $600 ish to a negative $1500 ish. It has gone from being way off, to way way off.
Savings - balance is now wrong. Shows $500 over what it should be, with no pending transactions. $500 is the amount I transferred from checking yesterday.
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@TheReal702, please allow 4-6 hours for the next successful refresh with your bank to see if the balance clears up. If so, we can get you added to the existing escalation. We will need the following data from you:
- The names of the accounts the transactions reside in, as they appear in Quicken Simplifi (both checking and savings, please).
- The Date, Payee, and Amount of the mortgage payment transaction in the checking account.
- The Date and Payee of the transfer from checking that's in your savings account.
- The current balance for each account in Quicken Simplifi (please take note of this now).
- The current balance for each account on the bank's website (please take note of this now).
- The balance for each account in Quicken Simplifi after they become correct.
The above data will allow us to present a timeline with specific details. Please also submit your logs via the 'Send Feedback' option:
- Log into the Quicken Simplifi Web App.
- Select Profile from the left-hand navigation bar.
- With the Profile menu open, hold down the Option key for Mac or the Alt key for Windows, and then click Send Feedback.
- Leave all boxes checked, add a brief description of the issue, and then click Send.
Thank you!
-Coach Natalie
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Had the same issue this morning too. Also BofA. Not the first time the balance is WAY out all of a sudden. My ADHD doesnt allow me to read ALL the above posts, just commenting I had the same issue this morning and the balance was the worst out of sync it has ever been. Also seems to be the Rent payment except its $17.80 out and no other transaction of $17.80 or combination of others adding up to $17.80.
When you wake up and open Simplifi to see what surprises you have for the day, Negative $2500 is NOT a good one!
Aside from these ongoing balance issues and increasingly incorrect auto Payee/Rules, I really like this app. I used Excel to track my cashflow but this is way better and easier. Its not without its faults, more so lately (3 to 6 months) but still great.
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Every day is like a bad dream with this program. I'll give it till the end of the week, if it remains a PITA, I'm done with it. It shouldn't be as bad as it is.
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945am - hit the refresh button.
BOA Savings has resolved itself. Balance is accurate, transactions are accurate.
BOA Checking - balance with pending shows a negative balance of ($390.24)
There are 2 pending transactions.
One is for a mortgage payment on a rental house of $921.60. This is an accurate pending transaction
The other is a mortgage payment for my primary residence of $1582.05 and is a duplicate of an already cleared transaction. If I were to delete this transaction, my checking account balance would be correct. Shall I delete this or let it ride and see what happens next refresh in 4-6 hours?
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@TheReal702 have you tried merging the duplicate $1582.05 transactions?
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
@TheReal702, if the duplicate transaction is an actual duplicate entry in the register, you can merge it as Danny mentioned. I'd personally wait to see what happens with the next refresh just in case, but it does sound to be a different issue if it's a duplicate register entry.
Thanks!
-Coach Natalie
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@DannyB, I'll have a look at that after the next refresh
@Coach Natalie It's definitely a duplicate of an already cleared transaction. I'll wait and see what happens.
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Following these instructions I was able to determine that the duplicate (pending) transaction is a manual entry that didn't get matched with the bank download.
I have done so much trying to make this work correctly that I don't remember doing this manual entry, but shouldn't it have matched up with the bank download?
I will simply delete it, and let the rest of it soak and see what happens going forward.
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One thing that seems to trip folks up with QS is the way the Bank account data is handled. I've mentioned this in other conversations and not sure it makes much difference, but I believe it is important to understand.
The QS bank account balance and transaction module is not meant to function as a ledger or a dynamic account register. It's not meant to function as a digital check book register. QS is set up to show your actual bank balance on a given day based on what your bank reports it to be on that day. QS will take into account pending transactions and has built in the ability to adjust how pending transaction affect the bank reported balance based on how a particular bank handles pending transactions on the banks side (does the bank download a balance that includes pending transactions or does the bank report a balance that does not include pending transactions ON THEIR SIDE). But when it's all said and done, the balance showing for any one of your bank accounts in QS should reflect the actual balance shown at your bank on any given day.
If you manually enter a transaction with a date earlier than the current day, this entry will not change the balance in QS since the balance reported in QS already includes all transactions processed and/or pending at your bank. If you make a manual pending transaction with the current date of a future date, QS will deduct the amount from the QS balance. But, keep in mind, that the balance reported in QS is the balance as of the most current actual download from the bank minus pending (future) transactions only with the exception noted above about how your bank handles pending transactions in the reported balance.
OK, this is getting way too long. I don't know if this will be helpful, but just an attempt to point out the uniqueness of how QS handles account data in the Accounts and transactions list.
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer1 -
@DannyB Thank you for taking the time to lay all of that out.
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Day 14, 330am
The one pending transaction in my checking account cleared in my bank overnight, and is also no longer pending in Simplifi.
Checking & savings ledger are accurate, as are the account balances.
Credit card accounts have not been an issue, but haven't been used with the exception of a refund that was automatically downloaded & processed by Simplifi and handled without any issues.
Thank you all for the tutoring and patience as I muddled through this.
Fingers crossed that it continues to work correctly.
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@TheReal702, thanks for the update!
I'm glad to hear that the issue has cleared up for you now. If it pops back up again, please gather the following data and reach back out to us:
- The name of the account with the issue, as it appears in Quicken Simplifi.
- The Date, Payee, and Amount of the transactions that seem to be impacting the balance ahead of actually downloading, or are being double-counted in the balance.
- Confirm whether these transactions show as "pending" in Quicken Simplifi.
- Confirm whether these transactions show as "pending" on the bank's website.
- The current balance for the account in Quicken Simplifi (we need this when it’s incorrect).
- The current balance for the account on the bank's website (when it’s incorrect in Quicken Simplifi).
- The balance for the account in Quicken Simplifi after the transactions download/clear and everything becomes correct again.
- A timeline of when the balance is incorrect and when it becomes correct again in relation to the above transactions downloading and/or clearing in Quicken Simplifi.
Please also submit your logs via the 'Send Feedback' option:
- Log into the Quicken Simplifi Web App.
- Select Profile from the left-hand navigation bar.
- With the Profile menu open, hold down the Option key for Mac or the Alt key for Windows, and then click Send Feedback.
- Leave all boxes checked, add a brief description of the issue, and then click Send.
-Coach Natalie
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At least with CITIBANK i am also having strange balance issues similar to what's reported here. On CITI's website, it shows $0 balance. On Quicken Simplifi it's showing a $108 pending transaction on the top right (which is already entered and cleared), which is also reflected in the QS balance. The balance should be zero but it showing $108.61 credit I believe.
I'll answer the questions:
- Citi Costco|20.49%|$4k
- Nov 5, 2024, "Citi google one", $108.61 (credit)
- No, not pending, it's cleared just like on the citi webbsite, but yet at top right of the account register page, it shows
4. It's in the posted section on citi website:
5. QS Balance:
6. Bank Balance:
7. It hasn't become correct yet
8. It's incorrect today, I suspect at some point it will correct.
I'll send feedback.
—
Rob Wilkens0
