Accounting Talk

Bernie Cosell · Guest

This with Q2006 on XP/Pro: and some background. A while back [like 2 yrs
ago or something -- likely just when I was first installing q2006 or the
likely], I VERY mistakenly and unintentionally turned "online reconcile"
instead of the "paper" reconcile I've been using for forever now. When
they say it is hard to "go back" once you do online, they *MEAN*IT*. It
totally screwed up my register and I pretty much have never been able to
get things sorted out again [I didn't figure out what the problem was
[hadn't even *occurred* to me that it was online-reconcile!] until I'd run
off the end of my many backups. sigh]. Anyhow, after a lot of screwing
around trying to get things working from "paper" again, I eventually kind
of gave up, let Quicken put in a fake "balance adjustment" entry and kind
of got back to balancing my acct [against the paper docs again]. The
'adjustment' came because I *KNOW* that several very old transactions had
been carried forward in my register as having never been cashed and I
really tried to remember what they are [basically solving the knapsack
problem.. Surprised

)] to get the damn thing to balance, and just gave up.

Anyhow, I was pretty sure things were OK except about a month ago I got a
letter from someone I had made an online payment to last October: they had
misplaced the check that Wachovia had mailed them, and were afraid to try
cashing it now so they were returning it and asking me to send them a
replacement. That'd be fine, *except* when I looked at my register that
check was marked 'R'. WTF?? I went through my [paper] statements and I,
in fact, cannot find an entry that would correspond to that check actually
being cashed. And now I don't know what to do.

This also touches on the fact that I don't know exactly what happens when
Wachovia sends off a check for an online payment. I know that if I do that
with a handwritten check, *nothing* happens: if the payee mails me the
check back I can just destroy it and void the transaction, no harm no foul.
But I think I'm going to be in a bit of trouble if I try to do that with
this here Wachovia-issued check: I assume that I *cannot* just destroy the
check and void the transaction.... But what should I do with the check?

AND: what should I do about my register. Will things still balance if I
[somehow] cancel out that transaction, or will that now put me $900 out of
kilter with the online balance or something?

I was *so* close to believing that I had managed to get past the
online-reconcile debacle and now this... Thanks!!

/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

John Pollard · Guest

Bernie Cosell wrote:

Bernie Cosell · Guest

"John Pollard" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

} Bernie Cosell wrote:
} > This with Q2006 on XP/Pro: and some background. A while
} > back [like 2 yrs ago or something -- likely just when I
} > was first installing q2006 or the likely], I VERY
} > mistakenly and unintentionally turned "online reconcile"
} > instead of the "paper" reconcile ...

} I have no underlying problem comparable to yours; I have never,
} and will never, reconcile to an online balance.

Me, too: I did it entirely by accident... sigh..

} ... I asked them to return
} the check to me. I then emailed BofA (my online billpayor) and
} asked them what to do. They said, "no problem; we'll reverse
} the charge in your account."

OK, that mostly confirms what I thought: two points here. First, unlike
with a normal check, *do*not* just void the transaction and destroy the
check, and second, the money really is debited from your account when they
issue the check, *NOT* when they cash it. [which leads to the question:
where _is_ that money. It apparently is not still in my account [earning
interest, propping up my average-daily-balance, whatever] and the payee
doesn't have it... Sounds like the traveler's-check-deal: the banks get to
use my money during the 'float'...

I'll contact wachovia... thanks!

} > AND: what should I do about my register. Will things
} > still balance if I [somehow] cancel out that transaction,
} > or will that now put me $900 out of kilter with the
} > online balance or something?
}
} You have already reconciled a check that did not clear; nothing
} can be right about that.

I know.. UGH!

} Personally, I would unreconcile every transaction in my account
} (using Find/Replace), and I would note my most recent paper
} statement (real-world) balance/date. If that old check was no
} longer valid, I would delete that old never-cashed check
} transaction (if it is still valid, you can leave it, it won't
} appear in any "previous" statement, so it should not be
} pertinent to a re-reconcile). I would change my reconcile to a
} "paper statement", and re-reconcile all previous transactions
} through the most recent known paper statement balance date.
} Depending on how many statements there were for the account, and
} how anal I was, I would either enter one manual adjustment with
} whatever date suited ... or I would discover when any statement
} imbalance occurred and enter my adjustment there.

OK, I think can do the same thing, but less drastically, [because I'll have
something like 2.5 yrs of transactions popping up if I un-reconcile] by
doing three things:
1) call wachovia to cancel the transaction,
2) "void" [or delete or whatever] the bogusly reconciled
transaction, and
3) reconcile the account against the most recent paper
statement [which arrived just a few days ago], and
enter a balance-correction transaction against the paper
statement's balance.

Thanks!! /bernie\

--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

Bernie Cosell · Guest

Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:

}... about a month ago I got a
} letter from someone I had made an online payment to last October: they had
} misplaced the check that Wachovia had mailed them, and were afraid to try
} cashing it now so they were returning it and asking me to send them a
} replacement. That'd be fine, *except* when I looked at my register that
} check was marked 'R'. WTF?? I went through my [paper] statements and I,
} in fact, cannot find an entry that would correspond to that check actually
} being cashed. And now I don't know what to do.

Followup: I've gotten off the phone with Wachovia and everything has been
sorted out. What I didn't know is that when Wachovia prints "this check is
only valid for 90 days", they *MEAN*IT*. What happened [now that was told
to look in the right place in my register] is that my account was
*credited* for the amount of that check [about 94 days after it was
issued!], and so the 'R' is correct: both the check and the credit were
reconciled, the net on my acct was $0, and that's just right.

SO: all I need to do is reissue the payment and things will be just as they
should be.

I now understand (more clearly) that the funds for online payments are
immediately debited [and so the bank gets the 'float', same as with
travelers's checks!] and I also understand that Wachovia, at least, is dead
serious about the 90-days drop-dead-timer.

BUT: it does bring up a question I don't exactly understand: what's the
difference between 'c' and 'R' for online payments? It is possible that
that check went from 'c' to 'R' when the credit happened [I don't exactly
remember and can't find it in my paper statements].

And more generally: it is at all possible to find out from Quicken exactly
when an online payment was "cashed" -- from what I can see, the only dates
I can find in my check register on the processing dates for the online
payment (by clicking 'status'), but I can't find the *actual*date* that the
payment happened [or indeed, whether it happened at all]. Is that info
kicking around someplace?

Thanks!
/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

L · Guest

"Bernie Cosell" <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote in message
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Charlie K · Guest

John Pollard · Guest

Bernie Cosell wrote:

Bernie Cosell · Guest

"John Pollard" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

} Bernie Cosell wrote:
}
} > I now understand (more clearly) that the funds for online
} > payments are immediately debited

} With BofA (All Other States), my account is debited "no earlier
} than the Delivery Date". The Process Date can be anywhere from,
} the same as the Delivery Date, to 6 days (or so) before the
} Delivery Date ... depending on the method of delivery, and the
} timing of weekends and holidays.

I see that also in my register, this from Wachovia. But the one thing I
can't find is the *actual*date* the check was cashed, if it was at all.
The "status" seems only to include the processing info, not the actual
when-it-was-presented date.. Maybe I should try sending myself a check [so
I can know exactly when it went from nothing to 'c' to 'R', when I actually
received the check, and when I cash it, what happens in my register].

/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

John Pollard · Guest

Bernie Cosell wrote: