Balance going in wrong direction

Sunshine26 · 12:14AM

Hello,

I am hoping the community can help me with a perplexing problem.

I wrote the following with the help of AI so it could be as clear as possible. I apologize it is a bit robotic.

Subject: Payment into Asset account moves balance the wrong way — need a fix

I use Quicken Simplifi on Mac. I have an account called "Reimbursement Account," set up as an Asset account, that tracks money someone owes me.

The original debt entries (credit card purchases split between an expense category and the Reimbursement Account) show correctly as positive (green, with a +) in the Reimbursement account amount in the split transaction.

Steps I took:

A payment came into my Venmo account, imported with Category = "Personal Income." In the transaction list, it displayed as green with a + sign. In the transaction detail view, it displayed as black with no + sign.
I changed the Category on that Venmo transaction to Transfer, with "Reimbursement account" selected as the destination account. After this change, the detail view displayed as black with a + sign.
I checked the Reimbursement account balance. It had moved further negative — away from zero, not toward it. The corresponding entry in the Reimbursement account itself displayed as black with no + sign.

What went wrong: This transaction represents someone paying me back money they owed me. When that happens, the amount they still owe should go down. So the Reimbursement account balance should move toward zero (less negative, or eventually positive/zero once fully paid), not further away from zero.

What I've checked:

I can't manually fix the sign on the Reimbursement side of the payment transaction — Quicken reverts it automatically.

If someone can please tell me exactly how to enter these payments so the Reimbursement Account balance correctly decreases when a payment comes in that would be amazing.

Thank you for helping with this!

EL1234 · 12:18AM

That's weird, I've done this many times successfully so something strange is going on here. I'd try converting the Venmo transaction back to a generic "Transfer" transaction, which should delete the one in the manual account, and then recategorize it as a transfer to the Asset account, in case that fixes it. Otherwise maybe coaches can help (you'll probably need to send screenshots). Also, my manual account isn't "Asset", it's "Checking", but I don't see why that should change anything.

SRC54 · 10:10AM

To make sure I understand correctly . . .

So you get +$20 cash via Venmo and categorize it as a transfer to your Receivables account?

This is an asset account which should show a positive number because it's an asset (because you are owed a positive amount). So it should go down $-20 because now you are owed less, right? Say from + $300 to + $280.

You say it doesn't?

If that is true, then I would do as EL1234 suggests, and change the Venmo account category to just simple transfer. Then I would debit the Receivable account -$20 using the same plain Transfer category.

Let us know how it goes.

EL1234 · 12:28PM

@SRC54 is right. The reimbursement account should go down once you're paid back, as the amount you are owed (which can be thought of as an asset as opposed to actual cash) goes down. The key is that it should go in the other direction from expenses that are categorized to that account.

So an expense transferred to the manual account should make its balance go up, since you are owed more, and a reimbursement should make it go back down.

Let us know if that's what you are seeing!

DryHeat · 1:24PM

@Sunshine26

In addition to what @SRC54 and @EL1234 said, the part about moving further negative "away from zero" doesn't seem right. Your reimbursement asset account should have a positive (or zero) balance. When it moves further negative when you get a reimbursement (as it should), it should be moving "toward zero."

I checked the Reimbursement account balance. It had moved further negative — away from zero, not toward it. The corresponding entry in the Reimbursement account itself displayed as black with no + sign.

Images of the account transaction list (and balance), and of the transaction detail for the transaction that isn't working right, would help diagnose the problem.

Balance going in wrong direction

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