Parent Account preventing linking of SubAccounts

Hello there, elleholub.

This isn’t the kind of experience I want you to have when using the online banking features. Let me help ensure the connected accounts will show all the correct transactions.

Based on the scenario, you can disconnect and reconnect the accounts. Performing these tasks won’t change the existing data (categorized or reconciled transactions in the past).

To unlink an account:

1. In QuickBooks Online (QBO), tap the Banking or Transactions menu on the left panel and choose Banking.
2. From the list of accounts, click the Blue tile icon and choose the one you’re working on.
3. Press the Pencil icon and select Edit account info to open the Account screen.
4. Navigate to the Connected to section and tick the box for Disconnect this account on save.
5. Click Save and close.

After disconnecting all accounts, you can start connecting each one in QBO. Here’s an article that will walk you through the process: Connect bank and credit card accounts.

For additional resources, the links will guide you on how to set up a bank account or credit card account with multiple cards associated with it. You’ll also learn about classifying and matching downloaded data.

• About bank or credit card subaccount setup
• Categorize and match online bank transactions 

If you have further questions or need a helping hand in managing online banking entries, let me know in the comment section below. I’ll jump right back in to assist further.  

So are you saying that in order to link the sub account after the parent is linked the only way to do this is unlink the parent connection and then reconnect making sure to link all sub accounts at the same time?

If that’s the case that is extremely unfriendly, and had I known that I would have done them all at once, but being a noob to your product thought I’ll just add the sub account later. 

BRUTAL.

I unlinked parent/sub accounts, and relink both at the same time, it still gave a message saying the sub account can not be linked because the parent account linked. So there is either parent or sub account can be linked?

Thank you for joining the thread, ThuyH.

I want to ensure this gets sorted out as soon as possible. Before anything else, can you tell me more about your query? Would you like to connect existing sub-accounts to your parent accounts inside QuickBooks Online (QBO)?

Feel free to leave a comment below. I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Stay safe, and have a nice day!

I am struggling with the same issue of trying to save an account as a sub account. I disconnected the account from I  wanted to identify as a sub account from online banking & then reactivated it.  When it was reconnected to online banking, I tried to set it up as a sub account and got the message,  "You can't change the parent of this account to "XXX" (Parent Acct for reconciliation) because it or its parent account is already set up for Online Banking or Web Connect.  Do I have to disconnect the parent account also?  What will I lose?

Hi lost123,

I'm here to help you fix the error you encountered so you can continue working on your bank transactions.

It's possible that both the parent account and the sub-account are connected to online banking. Thus, the system prompts you with that error message.

To fix this, let's ensure that either of the accounts is connected to online banking.

Moreover, I've added this article as your guide in categorizing transactions: Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Keep me posted whenever you have banking concerns.

I have the same issue and there is no good solutions. I have been struggling with the problem for more than 3-4 years. It is so sad why this cannot be resolved with some programming.

I see that it has been challenging on your end to set up your parent and subaccount in QuickBooks Online (QBO) for years, @hrent1.

For us to provide the exact fix, I'd like to know if there's an error when you try to set up and link parent and subaccount.

Click the Reply button below if you have additional info. I'll assist you as soon as possible. Have a good day.

I'm facing the same issue. I need to connect BOTH the parent bank account and the sub-bank account to QBO. As there are some transactions that only show on Parent Bank. Like payback to the parent's credit card and interest charged on the parent's credit card.

If I cannot see these transactions in QBO, I cannot categorize them and cannot reconcile the bank transactions.

I want transactions to appear in their respective parent or sub accounts, not mixed up.

I can see you're having difficulty connecting your bank accounts to QuickBooks Online, Keyla.  Allow me to ensure that you'll be able to get back to working and resume managing your business.

Before we proceed, it's important to understand how your bank sends the downloaded transactions.

If your bank downloads transactions to a single account, connecting only the parent account in QuickBooks Online is best. This way, all the transactions will be captured in one place, making management and reconciliation easier.

On the other hand, if your bank downloads transactions to individual subaccounts, it's recommended that the subaccounts be connected directly to QuickBooks Online. This ensures that the transactions are accurately recorded in their respective subaccounts, maintaining the proper categorization and organization.

By following this approach, you can ensure that the downloaded transactions are correctly assigned to the appropriate accounts within QuickBooks Online. 

In addition, keep in mind that you only need to reconcile the parent account because all transactions in the subaccounts roll up into it. 

Feel free to visit this article for more information about The bank or credit card subaccount setup.

Also, you can contact your bank's customer support if you need help with how your bank sends the downloaded transactions. They can provide information on how the transactions are structured and guide you on the best way to connect your accounts in QuickBooks Online. 

For your reference, you may refer to this article on how you can review downloaded bank and credit card entries by matching or adding them to put in the correct accounts: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance with connecting parent and subaccount, please don't hesitate to let us know. We're here to help. Have a great day!

Hi  AileneA， thanks for getting back to me. We use BOA credit cards. The bank downloads transactions to individual subaccounts. But as I mentioned, there are some transactions only under the parent's account, not the subaccount. That's why I need to connect both parents and subaccounts. 

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Hello, Keyla. 

I can see the importance of how you want to connect both parents and subaccounts to QuickBooks Online (QBO). While this isn't possible, you can download your bank statement for the parent account and disconnect that account from your online banking. You can create a journal entry to ensure your books won't mess up. I also recommend reaching out to your accountant. They'll be able to give you the best course of action for your business.

If you want to achieve the option to connect both parent and subaccount, I suggest sending feedback directly to our product developers team. They will carefully review your feedback, identify areas that require enhancements, and consider incorporating them into future updates. Here's how:
 

1. Hit the Gear icon at the top, then select Feedback.
2. Type in your product suggestions.
3. Click Next to submit feedback.

To get updates about the status of your feedback, you may visit the Customer Feedback page.

For the missing transactions that only show up under the parent's account, you can import them to QBO using a CSV file.

You're always welcome to post a reply if you have other follow-up questions about bank accounts in QuickBooks. The Community team is always here to assist. 

I am having the same issue with BOA credit card. BOA Credit card Parent account imports all the Payments made and BOA Credit card Child Account imports all the expenses. The Credit card Statement has one balance to reconcile but there are 2 Accounts in Quickbooks. How to do the reconciliation.

1. Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions).
2. Select the tile for the bank account.
3. Tap the pencil icon, then select Edit account info.
4. Select the Disconnect this account on save checkbox. 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. Click Save and close.
   
   

1. Make sure you match and categorize all of your downloaded transactions.
2. Go to the Gear icon and then Reconcile. If you're reconciling for the very first time, select Get started.
3. From the Account dropdown, select the account you want to reconcile. Make sure it's the same one on your statement.
4. Review the Beginning balance. Make sure the beginning balance in QuickBooks matches the one on your statement. Here's what to do if they don't match.
5. Enter the Ending balance and Ending date on your statement. Some banks call the ending balance a "new balance" or a "closing balance."
6. If you see it, review the Last statement ending date. This is the end date of your last reconciliation. Your current bank statement should start the day after.
7. When you're ready to start, select Start reconciling.
   
   

I am also having the same issue using Bank of America.  It will only let me connect either the parent account or the sub account.  However there are transactions that appear on both.  So when only one is connected, the other's transactions are not being recorded and categorized.  So far the only "fix" is that I go in an manually make journal entries for all payments/transactions involving the disconnected account.  I am doing this for the parent account as the sub account has more transactions in general so I left the sub account as the connected account.  From all my research, it appears to be a software issue with quickbooks online we all would love to have fixed.

having the same issue with Chase ink. I just watched a youtube video showing that the parent and sub accounts can be linked and how to do it. I followed along in QB doing the same thing the video showed but received this error that the sub account cannot be linked because the parent account is already linked. He did it in the video but I can't do it sooooo apparently something has changed with QB and it can no longer be done.

Good day, @Lawnkingoftexas. I appreciate you joining the thread and letting us know that you're experiencing the same issue. 

Let me share some important information about linking your subaccount to your parent account.

Before linking to online banking, it's important to understand how your bank delivers downloaded transactions. If transactions are downloaded to a single account, only connect the parent account. If they are downloaded to separate subaccounts, connect each subaccount but not the parent account.

Bear in mind that it's not possible to link a parent account and its subaccounts simultaneously. Attempting to do so will result in a notification stating that the account is already connected.

If it's not too much trouble, could you kindly share the link to the video you mentioned? We want to ensure the content is legitimate and possibly from QuickBooks. 

For comprehensive guidance, please refer to this article: About Bank or Credit Card Subaccount Setup.

For future reference open this link: Manually add transactions to account registers in QuickBooks Online.

Keep your posts coming if you've got additional questions about it. Your satisfaction is our priority, and we're committed to helping you succeed.

We've had Bank of America business cards for years and found this to be the best approach. Unfortunately, QuickBooks Online doesn't let you connect both the parent and sub-accounts to bank feeds. Here's the solution we found works well.

Initial Setup (Credit Cards and Bank Feeds)

1. Create a main Credit Card account for the Corporate account (e.g., "BofA 1234 Unlimited"). At one point, we had 3 corporate accounts with multiple cards below each one. We had both Unlimited and Customized Rewards cards, so including a description is a good idea.
2. Create the Credit Card sub-accounts for each individual credit card under that account with a friendly name like "Brian 6789". Credit Cards will display like "BofA 1234 Unlimited:Brian 6789" for transactions.
3. Link account and/or Manage Connections in Bank Transactions (QuickBooks Online). Match each individual Credit Card sub-accounts. DO NOT Match the "parent" corporate account.
4. Now, when looking at the parent corporate account, QuickBooks will combine all of the transactions, which is really nice for a quick glance and tracking the overall open balance.

Statement (Journal Entry)

1. Create a new Journal Entry when the credit card statement is received each month.
2. Use the Statement Date as the Journal date
3. Use something like the "BofA1234 2025-03 STMT" as the Journal no.
4. Add a Journal Line for each individual card with its statement balance in the Debits column.
5. [Optional] Enter any Journal Line(s) for additional corporate account level rebates, fees, or discounts.
6. Add a Journal Line for the New Balance (from Statement) in the Credits column.
7. Click Save

BONUS: You only need to create these journal from scratch ONCE. In the future, just grab last month's statement journal and choose More > Copy, adjusting the Date and Amounts.

Payment

We like to schedule the payment immediately when the Statement is received. We schedule the payment at our bank's Online Banking website, but record it in QuickBooks too.

1. In QuickBooks Online, use the Pay down Credit Card feature and choose the parent corporate account when prompted, Which credit card did you pay? In QuickBooks Desktop, we just used a Check transaction. We found entering a Bill seemed unnecessary, since the payment is already scheduled.
2. Set the Date of payment to be in the future, based on when you scheduled the payment to process.
3. The payment should Match in your Checking account once it's processed, assuming that's also connected to bank feeds.

Reconciliation

I wanted to share the above information in this thread, but I'm not going to walk you through the reconciliation process. At least with Bank of America, you'll be reconciling the parent corporate card account. Unfortunately, you can't download statements since your bank feeds are connected at the individual cards, but that's usually not a big deal. If you're sync'ing the individual card transactions, the monthly reconciliation process should be a breeze!

I would really like to know how to do that please. The parent account was created and connected when we first opened this company. Other authorized users' credit cards have been added after but since the parent account is already connected to QBO, there is no way to create them as subaccounts. So I can see 4 different credit cards in the "Bank Transactions" screen and they all sync to their respective accounts on my chart of accounts. But I only have one statement, for the parent account, and it seems impossible to reconcile them correctly.

We can still reconcile these credit card accounts, NCIS0110. The process can be tedious, but it will allow us to correct the account setup.

First, let's categorize the remaining downloaded transactions in the Bank transactions page. Then, we'll need to disconnect the affected credit card accounts, along with the parent account, from the Online Banking. To do this, please refer to the instructions provided in this article: Disconnect accounts connected to online banking in QuickBooks Online.
 

Next, let's go to your Chart of Accounts and correct the account setup of your credit cards. Here's how:

1. Go to the Chart of Accounts and look for the credit card account that we need to correct.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to View register, and select Edit.
3. Mark the Make this a subaccount box.
4. Enter the Parent account.
5. Save the changes.
6. Repeat the Steps 1-5 for the other credit card accounts.

After correcting the subaccounts setup, we can now reconnect them to your bank websites in the Bank transactions page. We only need to connect the subaccounts. Make sure the parent account is no longer connected to Online Banking. With this, we can assure that we are only downloading the transactions specific to the subaccounts. You can visit this article to know more about the setup: About bank or credit card subaccount setup.
 

When reconnecting your subaccounts, it will download 90-days worth of transactions. You can exclude those transactions that were already added to your register and continue categorizing the others.

Lastly, we can start reconciling the parent account using your statement.

Are you looking for ways to take your QuickBooks experience to the next level? I'm excited to share that you can connect with our QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted team. They are here to help you manage your transactions and ensure the data integrity of your account. Let us support you on your journey to financial success.

Moreover, closing your books will complete the accounting process.  We can already start a balanced data for the upcoming months.

Feel free to reach out if you need further help with managing your bank accounts and transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Hello, thanks for the reply. I spoke to 2 different people yesterday and none of them could tell me this. It sounds like it could work if it wasn't because the parent account has its own transactions and all the payments go towards it. Would I have to manually add the transactions for the parent account? Thanks!

Yes, in that case, NCIS. Since the parent account conducts its transactions and receives payments in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

To handle this efficiently, you can utilize the Classes or Locations feature in QBO to effectively track and distinguish transactions of the parent account from its subaccounts.

Also, consider setting up recurring transactions if regular payments or bills are related to the parent account. Automating this can save time and minimize manual entry errors.

Moreover, always ensure to double-check the data for accuracy after entries.

Furthermore, to simplify linking it to your bank and matching up downloaded transactions in QuickBooks Online. Visit this article to know more about the setup: About bank or credit card subaccount setup.

Once everything is in order, you can start reconciling the parent account using your statement.

Inform us below if you have more questions or require further assistance managing transactions in QuickBooks Online.