Is there a QB "sandbox" where someone can copy your company data, try some transaction adjustments to see if they work, then transition back to the live books?

david-yellowthun · ‎April 04, 2021

JamesM4 · ‎April 07, 2021

I see what you're saying. The feature which closely resembles what you've described would be the Audit log. The Audit Log tracks user login/logout activity, changes to settings, customers, suppliers, and employees. In order to find the transactions you previously worked on, follow the steps below:

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Audit Log.
Select Filter.
Use the fields on the Filter panel to choose the appropriate User, Date, or Events filter to narrow the results.
If you've recently created these transactions, locate them on the Audit log screen, click on the blue link to open the transaction in question and if you need to delete unwanted entries, you can easily do that from here.
Select Apply.

With the Audit Log, you can see what changes were made to the account. If there any transactions you entered before and you'd like to trace back and see when and how they were entered, I'd recommend using the Audit log. If there are any transactions or work you need to re-enter or track, you can use the Audit log as a reference to re-enter or remove any unwanted transactions/work. Let me know if this info helps.

If you'd like to see more features that cater to your business needs, I'd recommend leaving feedback for our engineers. You can do this by clicking the Gear icon and looking for Feedback. Let me know if you have questions. I'm here to assist.

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Tammy_H · ‎April 05, 2021

Hi david-yellowthun,

I can appreciate you're not wanting to make adjustments to your account that you're unsure of. QuickBooks has a lot of great features and sometimes it takes a little time to get to know how to use them fully. I can give you some guidance with this.

QuickBooks Online does have a Test drive QuickBooks Online sample company that you can access. The sample company is a great place to try transactions or features you're not comfortable trying in your own account. This test environment is set up in a QuickBooks Online Plus account. For your security during test drives, bank connections aren't allowed in sample companies. Depending on the transactions you're looking to try you may need to look at other options.

Perhaps you need to try something within an Easy Start or Essentials account. If this is the case you could try a trial QuickBooks Online account which you can set up through QuickBooks Canada. If this is the option that best suits your situation you can export your data by clicking the Gear icon > Export Data.

In QuickBooks Online, the following reports can be exported:

General Ledger
Profit and Loss
Balance Sheet
Trial Balance
Journal

The following lists can also be exported:

Customers
Employees
Suppliers

You can import your data by clicking the Gear icon > Import Data. Importing data to QuickBooks Online details can be found in this article.

If you've specific questions about adjusting transactions you may want to reach out to an Accountant. If you don't currently have an accountant that you work with you can find one by clicking My Accountant from the left navigation menu. Then click the Find a pro to help, this can put you in touch with an accountant in your area that's familiar with QuickBooks.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. Have a great day!

david-yellowthun · ‎April 06, 2021

Thanks for the reply. It's not exactly what I wanted but it's better than nothing. I was trying to 'fix' something in our books that was entered incorrectly - which I'm not sure I could duplicate in the practice data.

Ordinarily in QB desktop, I would have copied the data file and "practiced" on it first. If the repair worked, I'd go back and do the transactions on my live data.

Perhaps I should have asked if it's possible to return online data to a previous state? That would be useful to know.

JamesM4 · ‎April 06, 2021

Thanks for reaching back to us. I'd be happy to help you from here. I'd like to make sure I'm on the same page as you. Could you elaborate more on what you mean by returning the data to the previous state?

david-yellowthun · ‎April 07, 2021

Let's say I made unwanted changes one day, and wished to roll back the data to 24 hours ago. I either made colossal mistakes that would be hard to undo, or perhaps a rogue employee sabotaged the data. It would be nice to know if I could "undo" any changes so the data reverts to a previous state (yesterday or last month).

JamesM4 · ‎April 07, 2021

I see what you're saying. The feature which closely resembles what you've described would be the Audit log. The Audit Log tracks user login/logout activity, changes to settings, customers, suppliers, and employees. In order to find the transactions you previously worked on, follow the steps below:

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Audit Log.
Select Filter.
Use the fields on the Filter panel to choose the appropriate User, Date, or Events filter to narrow the results.
If you've recently created these transactions, locate them on the Audit log screen, click on the blue link to open the transaction in question and if you need to delete unwanted entries, you can easily do that from here.
Select Apply.

With the Audit Log, you can see what changes were made to the account. If there any transactions you entered before and you'd like to trace back and see when and how they were entered, I'd recommend using the Audit log. If there are any transactions or work you need to re-enter or track, you can use the Audit log as a reference to re-enter or remove any unwanted transactions/work. Let me know if this info helps.

If you'd like to see more features that cater to your business needs, I'd recommend leaving feedback for our engineers. You can do this by clicking the Gear icon and looking for Feedback. Let me know if you have questions. I'm here to assist.

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Is there a QB "sandbox" where someone can copy your company data, try some transaction adjustments to see if they work, then transition back to the live books?