Skip to main content
A
AngelaSong
April 22, 2024
Question

Bank Feed duplicating 15 months of transactions.

  • April 22, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Just last week right before the 15th, one of my client's accounts received 15 months of duplicated transaction in a bank update.  Because they have auto rules/auto accept turn on, most of those transaction went straight into the ledger.  I then found out that Intuit does not offer back-up and restore to most subscribers, only the higher level receives that option.   We spent the 2 days deleting thousands of duplicated transactions one by one and had to re reconcile everything.  This happened to one of my small accounts.  If it happened to a bigger customer with more transaction, I would not even know how to fix the problem.  I have been a CPA for 25 years, and I have mostly worked with enterprise level systems.  I am very new to QBO.  From what I gathered so far, there is no way to prevent this from happening again.  And if it happens again, there is no fix.  

 

Am I missing something here? Has this happened to anyone else?  Is there a way to manually back up QBO?  I could not find that option.  I could download a copy of the account, but there is no upload function to bring it back. Is there a way to bulk delete multiple transactions at the same time?  QB desktop has that function.  It really bothered me to find out that an accounting software does not have to provide backup/restore capabilities.  Intuit, as a software provider, is not legally required to not have to back up their client's data?   

 

 How do other QBO users deal with disasters?  

1 reply

K
Kurt_M
April 22, 2024

It isn't the experience we want you to have when using QuickBooks Online (QBO) to manage your client's books, Angela.

 

You can modify the active rule inside the company file to prevent QBO from accepting transactions that cause duplicates inside the account whenever you download bank transactions. We'll gladly write down the steps to get you going:

 

  1. Access your client's QuickBooks Online company.
  2. On the top-right corner, click the Gear icon and select Rules.
  3. Locate the active rule and in the Action column, click Edit.
  4. Make necessary changes to the rule to prevent it from auto adding duplicates to the register.
  5. Once done, click the Save button.

 

Also, you're right about the Backup and restore feature being available only in the Advanced version of QBO. For lower versions, the option they have would be to import downloaded files manually. To prevent books from being messed up, ask for another copy of the company file from your client and use it as a reference before making necessary changes.

 

There's also an option to batch-delete transactions depending on the page where you're performing it. In the Sales tab and the All Sales section, utilize the Batch Actions button. If you have converted transactions, they won't be deleted. Unselect those transactions to continue with the bulk deleting.

 

If they wish to upgrade to the higher version to utilize the feature, feel free to refer to this article: Upgrade or downgrade your QuickBooks Online edition.

 

Furthermore, here's an article to help you keep track and manage your clients inside QuickBooks: Manage clients in QuickBooks Online Accountant.

 

We're always open to help if you need further assistance or have follow-up questions about backing up QuickBooks or handling duplicate transactions inside the program. Keep safe.

J
JEllixson
July 9, 2024

We are having a similar issue of transactions being duplicated. We recently connected our bank account (Bank of America) to QBO. Since connecting, some (not all) transactions are being duplicated. I've look into editing rules as your suggest, however there is no rule that appears to apply. Is there another way to prevent duplicate transactions?

R
RhoiceW
July 9, 2024

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, JEllixson. I can help you manage your duplicate transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

 

When using the Bank rules feature in QBO, you can only set up a rule to automatically categorize your transactions. You're unable to use it in excluding your transactions.

 

Since you're having duplicate transactions, you can consider excluding them manually to prevent duplicates in the future.

 

Here's how:

 

  1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions.
  2. Select a bank account. Then, go to the For Review tab and tick the duplicate transactions. 
  3. A black box will appear at the top of all transactions, showing how many are selected. Select Exclude.
  4. To permanently remove the transaction, go to the Excluded tab. Then, mark check the box. Click Delete.
  5. If the transactions are already matched or categorized. Go to the Categorized tab and click all duplicate transactions.
  6. Click Undo. This will move them over to the For review tab.
  7. Go to the For review tab. Then repeat steps 4 & 5 to delete the transaction permanently.

 

If it still shows duplicate after you matched the transaction, you can consider contacting your bank support to review the information they sent into QBO.


In addition, you can refer to these articles to learn how to categorize your bank transactions and how to reconcile your account in QBO:

 

 

Comment on the post if you still have concerns about your bank transactions in QBO. I'm always here to help you.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement