I have reconciled 2023 but have uncleared transaction for many years prior. QB balance doesn't match my bank balance. How do I reconcile previous years? I don't have the bank statements.

Let me assist you by providing steps to reconcile transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO), @margag. 

We can reconcile previous years by having all the transactions from your financial institution. We can obtain this by connecting the bank or credit card account to your QBO. However, some banks only provide the last 90 days of the transactions. Others will cater for up to 24 months. Since, you wanted to retrieve previous year's data, I'd suggest contacting your financial institution for details.

Here's how: 

1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions. 
2. Select Link Account.
3. Enter the URL or name of your bank in the Search field, then select the bank.
4. Enter your Sign info in the Login and Password fields, then select Continue. 
5. Select the account you want to connect and the date to pull transactions from the dropdown ▼. 
6. Select Next.
7. Select your account type on the Account type ▼ dropdown, and click Next.

Otherwise, we can manually upload transactions in QuickBooks Online. 

After downloading the bank transactions, we can categorize and match them to be ready for reconciliation. However, if you've set up bank rules, it'll automatically match or categorize. 

Furthermore, you can follow this article for the reconciliation process: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

I'd still recommend consulting your accountant to address the previous year's reconciliation since they have the expertise to provide the best advice that suits your concern.

In addition, I've added this article for you to learn how to close your previous fiscal year and prepare for the new one in QuickBooks Online: Year-end guide for QuickBooks Online.

Please hit the reply button if you need further assistance with reconciliation in QBO. I'll be glad to assist. Take care. 

This would be 10 years worth of data.  There is also some old bank accounts that the client doesn't have access to but all that info is showing on the balance sheet.  This is a QB desktop transfer to QB online after the partner that did the books passed away.  He obviously never reconciled the accounts with the bank statements.  Is there an AJE to clear the unused bank accounts, the bank balance is 0 but QB has a balance?

Hello, @margag.

I'm here to help you zero out the balances in QuickBooks.

To begin with, please take note that though the client may not have access to certain older bank accounts, the information about them will still be reflected on the balance sheet.

Moreover, using an Adjustment Journal entry is not  the most effective solution for clearing unused bank accounts. Since you mentioned that bank reconciliation has not been performed in QuickBooks Online (QBO) yet, it is necessary to mark all transactions up to the conversion date as reconciled. This ensures that only future transactions are considered for reconciliation. 

To reconcile all transactions, follow these steps:

1.  Click on the Gear icon and choose Reconcile.
2. A list of transactions will appear. Select the top checkmark boxes to choose all transactions.
3. Click Yes, select all.
4. Finally, click Finish now.

For further assistance or more detailed changes, it is advisable to seek advice and guidance from a professional accountant.

For future help, closing your books helps you prevent unwanted changes before filing your taxes. You can refer to this article: Close your books in QuickBooks Online

If you have further questions about reconciling your transactions, you can comment below, and we'll respond to you as soon as possible.

I hope this helps anyone experiencing issues with uncleared balances. This may also resolve discrepancies between the QuickBooks balance and the bank feed balance for your accounts. I discovered this fix in an unconventional way. Please bear with me as I explain the steps to my discovery.

After reconciling all my accounts, I noticed that the QuickBooks balance was significantly different from the bank balance. This was alarming, so I started searching online for answers. Unfortunately, there was no straightforward solution. I pieced together information from various sources and attempted to resolve the discrepancies, but it was a dead end. Finally, I considered the transactions themselves and how the automatic pairing and suggestions functionality worked.

In my case, there was a transfer between two accounts. QuickBooks Online pairs transactions based on similarities, such as date, amount, and type of transaction downloaded from the bank feeds. Like many users, I confirmed the transfer in one account and then confirmed the same transfer in the other account. This is where the trouble begins. Confirming in both accounts creates WHAT APPEARS TO BE duplicate transactions in each register. What actually happens is that the transaction in your registry will show two line items with the same dollar amount. The one with the “C” is the paired transfer, the one right underneath it that does not have a “C” is the expense that was created when you confirmed the transfer in the other account. Check this out. If you click on the transaction before confirming, you'll see a small print that says, "WHEN YOU CONFIRM, WE'LL RECORD THIS TRANSFER GOING IN AND OUT, SO YOU'LL SEE THE IMPACT IN BOTH BANK ACCOUNTS." This can cause issues if you confirm the transfer in both accounts.

Through trial and error, I found the solution:

1. If you have transactions downloaded from your bank feed that are transfers between accounts and are paired by QuickBooks, confirm only one of the transfers. QuickBooks will automatically record it for the other account.
2. Then, go to the other account and find the paired transfer. You'll see it categorized as an expense. If you click to confirm it, QuickBooks will record it as an expense, creating a duplicate entry. This discrepancy affects your QuickBooks balance.
3. To prevent this, click on the transfer and select "Match." A new window will open, hopefully showing the other confirmed transfer. If it is not the right match in terms of date, amount, etc., click "Find another match" and select the correct transfer.
4. Then go back to each accounts register that the transfer took place and manually mark the item from "C" to "R" if you have previously reconciled the transaction.  I would recommend not doing a bunch of these all at once because some have different dates. It would be best you do process these one at a time.

Refreshing your page helps QuickBooks update so that you can see any changes that took effect.