Does the account-specific Balance Type setting actually do anything?

bob303727 · December 3

Hi,

I have some accounts that report a balance with pending transactions already debited; and, other accounts that report a balance preceding pending transactions.

It -appears- in both Simplifi documentation and in the user interface that you can tell Simplifi to interpret balances for individual accounts as with-pending or without-pending. HOWEVER … changing this setting for a given account under the Settings > Accounts screen neither changes its saved setting, nor alters what is actually shown on the home screen.

Unless I am mistaken, it appears that the home screen's displayed balances have to either be all bank-balance or balance-with-pending, and are governed by whatever Balance Type is selected under the options of the Accounts pane.

Am I missing something here? Is there another way to set a Balance Type for each individual account that I'm missing, so that the balances that pull up from different banks can be compared apples-to-apples?

Bob

Coach Jon · December 3

Hello @bob303727,

Thanks for reaching out! Quicken Simplifi gives you control by offering two options to view your account balance:

Balance with Pending – shows cleared and pending transactions—both manual (dated today or earlier) and those that were downloaded—in your balance.
Bank Balance (Default) – shows your exact bank balance, which may or may not include pending transactions (varies from each financial institution).

By navigating to Settings > Accounts and selecting Edit Account for each account you would like to change, you can change the Balance type; however, this will not take effect until the next successful refresh with the bank. So in this case, I would suggest waiting until the next refresh to see if that setting has changed for you. https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4202003-how-to-resolve-balance-discrepancies-in-quicken-simplifi

I hope this information helps!

-Coach Jon

DryHeat · December 3

@Coach Jon

I have always found the descriptions of the Balance Types a bit confusing. I would appreciate it if you (or anyone, really) would either confirm my current understanding (described below) or tell me where I am off base.

Bank Balance (Default) -- Simplifi displays the exact balance it downloads from the bank without making any adjustments to it.

Balance with Pending -- Simplifi takes the balance downloaded from the bank and adds or subtracts any transactions that are currently listed as Pending in the Transaction Activity list (even if the bank has already taken those pending transactions into account).

Neither setting has any effect on what balance is downloaded from the bank. The bank controls that. The settings only control whether Simplifi alters or doesn't alter that balance for display purposes.

Thanks to anyone who can confirm or correct this.

Coach Jon · December 3

Hello @DryHeat,

Thanks for the question. You are correct in your understanding of both, but remember that Bank Balance (Default) will vary with each financial institution on whether it includes pending transactions.

-Coach Jon

bob303727 · December 4

Thanks @Coach Jon. It seems like no matter how many times I try, or how long I wait, that the setting change I make in Settings > Accounts never "sticks" for a given account — even though I switch it to "Balance with Pending", it always reverts back to "Bank Balance (Default)".

Waiting until next sync (or waiting overnight) doesn't have any effect.

Is that a known issue?

SRC54 · December 4

@DryHeat Oh no, not this again. LOL. I spent several frustrating days fiddling with my local bank's settings in Simplifi when it was messing up last spring and counting the pending transactions in its downloaded balances. I finally was able to toggle Bank Balance to Balance with Pending, wait 4 hours and it worked, but the setting will always say the same thing, Bank Balance (Default), etc, which leads to much confusion.

Somewhere on here is my conversation detailing what I went through. And here is one from 2024 on the same theme:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/31538#Comment_31538

I made a vow never to fool with this setting ever again, but to use the toggle in the Accounts Bar settings!

EL1234 · December 4

Do you use Chase? The setting is hardcoded for Chase, I forget why. I spent a LONG time fussing with it until I saw it mentioned somewhere here in the community!

bob303727 · 12:53AM

Yeah… I basically have to now remember to switch to "Balance with pending" for some accounts, and "Bank balance" for others, all within the home screen (the "…" menu). I'm not with Chase but one of my accounts seems "stuck" on "Bank balance" in the Accounts screen no matter what I do. :-(

Seems vastly suboptimal. It'd be nice if Simplifi actually had a per-account setting that wasn't broken?

Does the account-specific Balance Type setting actually do anything?

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