I updated my bank accounts an an entry from August 2020 appeared in my transactions list. Any ideas where it came from and how to get rid of it?

Hi there Kimberly,

It sounds to me like you've been using QuickBooks Online's bank feeds feature to pull transactions directly from your bank statement into your books. I love this feature and hope you do too! It makes recording your income and expenses so much simpler. When unexpected transactions appear it's important that you know how to handle them, so I'll help you out with this.

The first thing to do in this scenario is to check your bank statement from August 2020. You should have no trouble accessing this by logging into your bank's online banking portal. From there you can review your transactions and determine if it's meant to be there or not. Next up is to search for the amount or customer name associated with the transaction using the Magnifying Glass or search feature at the top of QBO. You can also navigate to the Chart of Accounts and filter the date range for the account in question to see if a transaction has already been recorded for this amount. 

If you find a transaction that matches and it's already been reconciled, the best approach is to navigate back to the Transactions menu and select the checkbox on the transaction, then hit Exclude. This'll move the transaction over to the Excluded tab so that it won't impact your books. Since it's already been added you won't need to worry about adding it in again, and there's no need to match if you've already reconciled for that account and period. 

If you think that the transaction belongs in QuickBooks but you can't find it in the Chart of Accounts or by searching for it, it may have been deleted. Navigate to the Gear then choose to view the Audit Log and look for a trail that shows what happened with that transaction, if and when it was entered and/or deleted. You can use the details to re-create it either from the bank feed or through the + New button, then match it to the bank feed. You'll want to check with your accountant before proceeding with this though if your books have been closed, accounts have been reconciled, and taxes have been filed. In order to undo these processes some complex work is involved and your accountant may give you advice that allows you to accurately account for this transaction in another way.

If you're working with an accountant, you can invite them to QuickBooks by navigating to the My Accountant tab. You'll also find the Find a pro to help button on this page where you can sift through our database of QuickBooks-certified accountants to find one in your area to help you out with your bookkeeping and accounting tasks.

Let me know if you need further support on this. I'm happy to help however I can. Take care!