I have reconciled my visa account, and it is complete. But have a few items from years past that require clearing. (Before my time) How can I clear them? TIA

Hi pearson-m,

Congratulations on reconciling your Visa account! Sometimes it's necessary to make clear other items from the past and I'll be happy to steer you in the right direction. The good news is QuickBooks is designed to make the process as seamless as possible for you and I'd be glad to share more information. 

In order to make edits to past reconciled transactions, you'll have to unreconcile it first, make the necessary adjustments, then reconcile it again so your books balance properly. I highly recommend connecting with your accounting professional for expert advice on how to best handle this situation. If you need to unreconcile an entire reconciliation at once I'd highly recommend doing it through a ProAdvisor/accounting professional that has access to QuickBooks Online Accountant. They have the right tools and resources to automatically unreconcile transactions in bulk.

If you're not yet connected to an accountant and this is something you'd like to explore, feel free to search for one in your area here: Find a ProAdvisor. However, if you've got access to QBO Accountant, you can check out this article which shows you how to: Undo a client’s reconciliation in QuickBooks Online Accountant.

If you don't have access to an accountant, you can undo a reconciliation by manually editing each transaction from the register. Follow the steps below to see how you can do this:

   1. Select the Gear icon on the Toolbar.
   2. Under Your Company, select Chart of Accounts.
   3. Locate the appropriate account for the transaction.
   4. From the Action column, select Account History.
   5. Identify the transaction to edit.
   6. In the reconcile status column (indicated by a checkmark), repeatedly select the top line of the transaction to change the status of the transaction.

        Codes indicate the status of the transaction:
             C - Cleared
             R - Reconciled
             Blank - Not cleared or reconciled

   7. Select Save.
 

For additional tips on how to avoid undoing a reconciliation, take a look at this article: Avoid undoing a reconciliation. To see a more in-depth explanation of how to manually undo a reconciliation without an accountant, check out this article: How to unreconcile a transaction or undo a reconciliation.

Let me know if this info helps. I'll be here if you need anything else.

Thanks JamesM4. 
This is helpful. Unfortunately, the items are many years ago when someone else was doing the bookkeeping. How do I  unreconcile that far back without affecting the current years?

That's a great follow-up question, and I can clarify the options. Reconciliations are designed to work in chronological order since the opening balance of a current reconciliation depends on the closing balance of the prior one. Because of that, undoing all reconciliations back to where you need to add the transactions you're talking about would be in order.

Since they're from so far into the past, it may be more ideal to make some sort of adjustment entry so you don't have to undo all of those reconciliations. I agree with my colleague that this is a good situation to consult an accountant on just to be sure you're making the best decision for the books.

Keep in mind as well that if the books have been balancing in reconciliations up to this point, someone may have even made an adjustment in the past for those transactions that aren't reconciled. I've got a couple of articles hear that go over reconciliation adjustments and how to find them. Seeing if one already exists is a good place to start.

• Find previous reconciled adjustments

• Enter an adjusting entry for a reconciliation in QuickBooks Online

Wishing you the best!

Thank you, LauraAB. My first step was to chat with my accountant. She is just so incredibly busy at this time. She asked if I could ask someone else or wait. Perhaps I’ll wait until a less busy time - however I was hoping to solve the issue on my own. I’m already getting a good education from you all. 

Going back as far as these entries’ creation with reconciliations would be unnervingly time consuming and not good ROI as they are only a few entries. So making an adjustment is what I was seeking - I simply didn’t know how to do that. I will eagerly read the links you provided. Thank you! My last question, which may be answered in the links, is if I make the adjustments, will the entries finally stop appearing when I go to do my reconciliations? 

Thanks again! I truly appreciate everyone’s time and knowledge. 

I'm happy to help however I can. When you reconcile an account and the difference isn't at $0, QuickBooks Online won't allow you to save without making an adjusting entry. This is what the second article I shared with you outlines in terms of making the adjusting entry during that process.

Since those transactions are missing from earlier reconciliations, it could be that someone used the option to make the adjusting entry along the way like I mentioned in my other response. However, even if that entry exists, the transactions will still appear in the next reconciliation period because the program thinks that they haven't been taken care of.

Given that, what you can do is select the transactions next time you reconcile and then use the steps to have the program create an adjusting entry to account for the difference created by those transactions. Moving forward, they then shouldn't appear anymore when you reconcile.

I hear what you're saying about this being a busy time for accountants and wanting to see what you can accomplish on your own. That's great initiative! If you're still feeling uncertain, feel free to check with your accountant about the best way to approach this. I know how important it is for these kinds of entries to be precise,

I'll still be around if you need me. :)

That’s it. Of course it is. Now I feel foolish. It was so simple, and I even knew how to do that, but had decided it must be much more difficult than that. As my reconciliations have been zero the whole year I’ve been doing the books, I must’ve already adjusted, I just didn’t account for the adjustment. Now I need to either find the adjustments, and use them properly to clear (my first look) or simpler still, just make another adjustment with a clear memo. 
Thank you!!  Some strategies are so simple we overlook them for something more challenging. Particularly good lesson - as I offer it in my coaching and here have not practiced what I preach. Cheers. 

You're so welcome! Don't worry, I have times when I overthink things as well. It never hurts to talk it out with someone else to get back on track, and it can be useful for seeing things more clearly. I'm glad that this thread has helped do that for you and outline some solutions you can consider for the books.

In this case, creating a new adjustment may be the better option as deleting the old one would still mean needing to select those transactions now and create a new adjustment to account for the unbalance that causes or it would mean undoing all the reconciliations to go back to that period and move forward without adjustments. I encourage you to go with whichever solution is best for you and your books.

I hope you have a great rest of your day!