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Disconnect or reconnect a bank account in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•16• Updated 3 weeks ago

Learn how to disconnect, or reconnect an existing bank connection in QuickBooks Online.

Understanding the difference between disconnecting and making an account inactive

There's a big difference between disconnecting an account from online banking and deleting one from your chart of accounts.

If you have an account that's not connected to a bank or credit card and you don’t need it anymore, learn how to make an account inactive.

Disconnect your bank account

If you decide you don't want to get new transactions from your bank, simply disconnect the account. We'll also show you how to completely delete accounts if you don't need the data from them anymore.

Disconnecting accounts connected to online banking

Instead of deleting accounts that are connected to online banking, we recommend disconnecting them. This simply stops QuickBooks from downloading new transactions. If you disconnect an account from online banking, your existing accounting data won't change. You can reconnect it any time to start downloading transactions again.

When you disconnect, you’ll no longer see transactions that still need to be categorised in the For review tab. If the transactions are older than 90 days, you won’t be able to download them from the bank when you reconnect. In this case, you can still manually upload old transactions.

Deleting accounts

Deleting an account is permanent. You won't see it on menus or lists anymore. While you hold on to your existing data on financial reports, you may delete transaction records. It's very hard to get transactions back into the account if you decide to recreate it later on.

If transactions in a deleted account are tied to other accounts in QuickBooks Online, they will remain in those accounts. For example, if you delete a credit card account, but you made card payments from your current account, the record of those transactions stays in the current account.

Deleting an account from your chart of accounts is permanent. If you're sure this is what you want to do, here's how to delete an account and make it inactive.

Disconnect an account connected to online banking

Important: Don't disconnect an account if you see a bank connection error. This may download duplicate transactions when you reconnect it. Instead, follow the steps to fix online banking errors.

You can reconnect the account to start downloading transactions again.

Reconnect your bank account

Step 1: Review your bank transactions

Before you disconnect your bank account, it's important to go through the For review tab and make sure that all of the transactions are ones that you want to include in QuickBooks Online. There may be instances where you want to exclude certain transactions or manually add others that QuickBooks didn't automatically match.

If you don't review your transactions before disconnecting your bank account, you run the risk of losing data that you need. So take a few minutes to go through the list before you disconnect your bank account from QuickBooks Online.

  1. Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
  2. Select the bank account you need to disconnect.
  3. Select the For Review tab.
  4. Follow these steps to add, review or match transactions.

Step 2: Disconnect your bank account

Before you disconnect your bank account, make a note of the last transaction date. This will help you avoid downloading duplicate transactions when QuickBooks asks you to pick a date to start downloading transactions when you reconnect the account.

If the issue persists, sign in to QuickBooks using an incognito or private browser, or try other browser troubleshooting options.

  1. Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
  2. Select the tile for the bank account.
  3. Select the pencil Image of the edit icon. icon, then select Edit account info.
  4. Select the Disconnect this account on save checkbox.
    Note: If QuickBooks is downloading new transactions, you won't see this option. Wait a few minutes for the update to finish and try again.
  5. Select Save and Close.

Step 3: Reconnect the bank account

  1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions (Take me there).
  2. Select Connect account or Link account.
  3. Follow these steps to connect your bank feeds.

Troubleshooting tips

Can't get connected? Don't worry, here's how you can fix common connection errors.

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