I accidentally deleted historic 2016 reconciled credit card bill payment. Starting balance is now off to reconcile. *Bank acct that orig paid bill is in balance. How2fix?

cathlene · ‎January 09, 2021

I have all the details (date, amount, account, etc) of the deleted transaction. I understand I need to make a new, replacement transaction. But in doing that I don't know how to create it without throwing off the starting balance in the bank account that originally paid the bill (the connected Account). That bank account is currently in balance/reconciled. *By the way

JessT · ‎January 10, 2021

It's nice to see you again, Cathlene!

I like it that you're asking questions when things aren't clear for you. I'll be happy to continue helping you with this. The screenshot helps a lot, by the way.

Let's have a summary of the situation. You've deleted a reconciled bill, which was a credit card payment and was paid by your bank account. As a result, your credit card balance and reconciliation are off, but the detached payment stays in your bank register and shows as a credit in your A/P aging report.

The solution is to recreate the bill or enter credit card credit and link it to the detached payment. Then, mark it as reconciled. Since you're entering a credit card credit, we'll just continue with that. I'll guide you through screenshots.

Enter your credit card credit, as shown below.

Link the credit card credit to the detached payment by creating an expense transaction.

Go to your credit card register and mark the credit card credit as reconciled (R).

That's it. As always, feel free to reach back out if you want to clarify something. Have a good night!

View solution in original post

JessT · ‎January 09, 2021

Hi Cathlene,

We all make accidental mistakes sometimes, so this is just understandable. Let me help you out.

What you think is right. You'll want to re-enter the credit card payment transaction. Since the payment was from your bank account, both the bank and credit card accounts will be affected here. Recreating the transaction will fix the balances of your credit card and bank registers.

You also want to mark the transactions in both registers as reconciled since they were originally reconciled before. This step will fix the beginning balances of those accounts when you reconcile.

After recreating the transaction, click Accounting on the left menu.
Go to the Chart of Accounts tab.
Click View register and look for the recreated transaction.
Under the Reconcile (✓) column, click on the blank field to mark the transactions as reconciled (R).
Click Save and select Yes to confirm the action.

That will do it. If you need more help, you can always go back to this thread. Have a good day!

cathlene · ‎January 10, 2021

Hi Jess,

Thank you so much for your timely reply. I so appreciate that. (-:

I want to please clarify something before I proceed with the instructions you provided.

• First thing: The way this mess started is because I was cleaning up old BILLS that I thought were never used (not reconciled).

• Recently I switched from Mac desktop version to QBO

• When I switched over I decided to 'clean house' a bit. I had old Bills (2016) that I thought were not connected to anything. These old Bills from 2016 had been generated when I finished reconciling my credit card statement. (*I don't create Bills for CC payments anymore.) Somehow these old Bills were still hanging around even though my bank and CC accounts have long since been reconciled.

• I decided it would be okay to delete them since it was so long ago.

• Ouch... I earned the hard way I can't do that!

• After deleting the old BILLS I found out two of these old BILLS were actually reconciled transactions. )-:

• So now, when I go to my CREDIT CARD Chart of Accounts, (2) payments are missing.

BUT... when I go to myBANK ACCOUNT Chart of Accounts (that paid the CC Bills) those 2 payments to the Credit Card company are still there, and show as reconciled (R).

• In addition; when I make an AP Aging Report I have (2) transactions still there. (I've attached example)

— I'm still a bit unsure of what to do to clean this all up! So please review what I plan to do:

1) Click on (+ New) in left column of QBO

2) Under VENDORS click on Credit card credit

3) Recreate the deleted transaction using the information I collected from my Audit Log.

. . . . . .

4) Here's where I need a little more help...

By recreating this transaction it will generate a line item (payment received) in my CC Chart of Accounts, AND it will also generate a line item (outgoing payment) from my BANK account. As a result I will then have a duplicate payment transaction there. One that is reconciled and one that is not.

What should I do from here??

Can you please advise so I can proceed with confidence. (-:

THANK YOU!

Cathlene

cathlene · ‎January 10, 2021

Hi Jess,

Thank you so much for your timely reply. I so appreciate that. (-:

I want to please clarify something before I proceed with the instructions you provided.

• First thing: The way this mess started is because I was cleaning up old BILLS that I thought were never used (not reconciled).

• Recently I switched from Mac desktop version to QBO

• When I switched over I decided to 'clean house' a bit. I had old Bills (2016) that I thought were not connected to anything. These old Bills from 2016 had been generated when I finished reconciling my credit card statement. (*I don't create Bills for CC payments anymore.) Somehow these old Bills were still hanging around even though my bank and CC accounts have long since been reconciled.

• I decided it would be okay to delete them since it was so long ago.

• Ouch... I earned the hard way I can't do that!

• After deleting the old BILLS I found out two of these old BILLS were actually reconciled transactions. )-:

• So now, when I go to my CREDIT CARD Chart of Accounts, (2) payments are missing.

BUT... when I go to myBANK ACCOUNT Chart of Accounts (that paid the CC Bills) those 2 payments to the Credit Card company are still there, and show as reconciled (R).

• In addition; when I make an AP Aging Report I have (2) transactions still there. (I've attached example)

— I'm still a bit unsure of what to do to clean this all up! So please review what I plan to do:

1) Click on (+ New) in left column of QBO

2) Under VENDORS click on Credit card credit

3) Recreate the deleted transaction using the information I collected from my Audit Log.

. . . . . .

4) Here's where I need a little more help...

By recreating this transaction it will generate a line item (payment received) in my CC Chart of Accounts, AND it will also generate a line item (outgoing payment) from my BANK account. As a result I will then have a duplicate payment transaction there. One that is reconciled and one that is not.

What should I do from here??

Can you please advise so I can proceed with confidence. (-:

THANK YOU!

Cathlene

JessT · ‎January 10, 2021

It's nice to see you again, Cathlene!

I like it that you're asking questions when things aren't clear for you. I'll be happy to continue helping you with this. The screenshot helps a lot, by the way.

Let's have a summary of the situation. You've deleted a reconciled bill, which was a credit card payment and was paid by your bank account. As a result, your credit card balance and reconciliation are off, but the detached payment stays in your bank register and shows as a credit in your A/P aging report.

The solution is to recreate the bill or enter credit card credit and link it to the detached payment. Then, mark it as reconciled. Since you're entering a credit card credit, we'll just continue with that. I'll guide you through screenshots.

Enter your credit card credit, as shown below.

Link the credit card credit to the detached payment by creating an expense transaction.

Go to your credit card register and mark the credit card credit as reconciled (R).

That's it. As always, feel free to reach back out if you want to clarify something. Have a good night!

cathlene · ‎January 11, 2021

Jess,

Thank you soooo much for your detailed steps with reference images! Your instructions were easy to follow and worked perfectly!

I really appreciate your time and expertise!!

All the Best…

Cathlene

cathlene · ‎January 11, 2021

Jess,

Thank you soooo much for your detailed steps with reference images! Your instructions were easy to follow and worked perfectly!

I really appreciate your time and expertise!!

All the Best…

Cathlene

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I accidentally deleted historic 2016 reconciled credit card bill payment. Starting balance is now off to reconcile. *Bank acct that orig paid bill is in balance. How2fix?