Lost reconciliations after importing Accountant's Copy

Hello there, raini.

Let's check if your accountant deleted the reconciled transactions. When importing an accountant's copy, you'll have the option to review what are the changes made. You can also save a copy of the changes by selecting Save as PDF or print it by selecting Print. If your accountant deleted it, you'll want to contact your accountant about it. 

Also, if you'll use your own backup file, you'll unable to see the changes made by your accountant.

See Import accountant's changes as your reference. 

You can always get back to me if you have other concerns. Have a great one!

I, too, experience this issue every year and it's extremely time consuming to re-reconcile 3 or 4 accounts!

Alex, please explain how the accountant can delete the next year's reconciliations if all they were working on was the prior year? I don't understand. Thanks for any insight!

Hello @Majikal,

Your accountant can’t delete any transactions on the Accountant’s Copy. But they can edit the transactions on your company file.

If you sent a copy of your company file to your accountant, they can edit it, including your reconciliation. But if you sent them an Accountant’s Copy, they can only view it and make the necessary changes to correct your books.

Also, when sending the accountant’s copy, you can choose the dividing date which tells which fiscal period your accountant can work on.

I have here some articles that you can read:

• Use the Accountant's Copy
• Import Accountant's Changes
• Create an Accountant's Copy to Send to Your Accountant

Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. I’ll be around to assist you.

This is a glitch in the software I've seen first hand. I am a tax accountant and have had a client send me the accountant's copy in the spring and we have to wait until fall to complete the tax return. When I sent them back the changes, when they imported them they lost all of the bank recs they had done over those several months. We do not delete or undo any of the bank recs!

SAME PROBLEM HERE. JUST IMPORTED ACCOUNTANT'S CHANGES AND ALL OF MY RECONCILIATIONS FOR THREE COMPANIES NEED TO RE-INPUT. SO VERY ANNOYING AND WASTEFUL OF TIME.

I TOO AM EXPERIENCING THIS "GLITCH".  I JUST RECEIVED ACCOUNTANT'S CHANGES AND ONCE I IMPORT THEM INTO MY QBOOKS ALL OF THE YEAR'S RECONCILIATIONS NEED TO BE RE-ENTERED.

SO VERY ANNOYING AND SO WASTEFUL OF TIME.

Hi, Jack49.

This isn't the type of service we want you to experience. I'll take note of your feedback regarding the lost bank reconciliation after importing the Accountant's copy in QuickBooks Desktop. In the meantime, we can re-enter those reconciled transactions.

I would also recommend reaching out to our Customer Care Support Team. They have available tools to take a look into your account and might have an easier way on how to handle those lost transactions. Here's how:

1. Go to Help, then choose QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Enter the details of the issue in the box, then click Continue.
4. Select Start a message to connect with a live agent.

Check out our support hours and contact us at a time convenient to you.

We're always here if you have any other concerns.

I have also experienced lost reconciliations after importing Accountant's Copy. This is a unsettling issue that really needs to be addressed! So much time and effort lost! I reviewed all of the accountant's changes and none them should have effected the reconciliations. We will probably be looking into new software if this issue is not resolved.  

I wish I could make it better, @HPS2020.

Since you're still unable to reconciliation from an accountant's copy of your company data, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Care Support.

They can pull up you're account, securely, and create a case or ticket ID to be submitted to our engineers for further investigation about this unexpected behavior.

1. Go to Help.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Click Contact Us.
4. Enter Lost Reconciliation in the Tell us more about your question: field.
5. Select Search.
6. Click Message an Agent.

In addition, Here's an article you can read to learn more about our support hours and types: Support hours and types.

Lastly, I've got you these helpful articles you can read for ideas about how you can manage your account and related transactions: Help Articles for QuickBooks Desktop.

If there's anything else that I can help you with, let me know in the comments. I'll be happy to help.

We tell our clients not to do any reconciliations while an accountant's copy is out.  If we are going to sit on the file for a while before adjustments are made, we have them cancel the accountant's copy and send a new one when it's time to work on their file.

We do adjusting journal entries in a separate trial balance software.  So, I often just have clients provide a backup and then ask for the accountant's copy once the trial balance work is completed and then add the AJEs into that copy and return changes to them within a day or two.  Or we even do a remote access meeting and enter AJEs into their live file.

Another option: The accountant's editions of QB allow the accountant to make journal entries in a copy of the client's QB file and then export those journal entries in a format the client can import to their live file.  I'm sure there are limitations to this process that I'm not aware of. I often wonder about things like what if I add a GL account in the copy and use that in a journal entry.  Will that account be added to the live file when the transactions are imported?  Or, what if the client changes the name of an account or inactivates an account that I use in a journal entry.  So, I've got some research to do but have used this approach many times successfully,   I find the import process easier for the client than importing accountant's changes.

Regardless of how it's done, I try to limit the time between the client providing the QB file (in whatever format) and the time I sent back changes.

We run a CPA office and every year we have a handful of clients that have this same issue. I have tried every combination of shortening the time the acct's copy is outstanding to having the clients not work on reconciling AND we still have this issue. 

I believe this is a glitch in the QuickBooks software. Hopefully, it can get fixed but this has been happening to us for years so I am not holding my breath. 

Having this exact problem, 6 months of bank reconciliations have been wiped out. 

Any solution to this yet?

Thanks for joining this thread, @WJS22.

Let’s work together and get to the bottom of this. You’ll want to ensure your Accountant’s Copy and your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) versions are compatible. That way, you’ll be able to import and see the changes made to your Accountant’s Copy.

You can read through this article for more details about the uses and limitations of the Accountant’s Copy: Use the Accountant's Copy.

Additionally, outdated software causes uncommon issues within your company file. You’ll want to ensure your QBDT is up to date to isolate this issue. I’m here to guide you how:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
3. Click the Update Now tab. 
4. Select Get Updates to start the download.
5. When the download finishes, restart QuickBooks.
6. Then accept the option to install the new release when prompted.

You can also refer to this article for more detailed steps: Update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release.

If the issue persists after going through the suggestions above, I recommend running the Verify Rebuild utility tool. This tool scans your company file for issues and resolved it right away.

Furthermore, in case you run into some errors when working on your accountant’s copy, you can utilize this article on how to handle the situation: Resolve errors when creating or working on an accountant's copy.

You’re always welcome to post a reply in this thread if you have other follow-up questions about the accountant’s copy and reconciliation. I’m just a few clicks away from you. Take care and keep safe!

We were given an Accountant Copy file with a divide date of 12/31/19.  We worked on the file and pulled the changes we made into the client file, following all directions.  The client continued to work in their file for 2020 and had reconciled many bank accounts for many months.  The reconciliations have been lost.   It seems that this is a common problem.  Has a resolution been found? 

Thanks for joining us here, Michelle.

Let's make sure first that we're working on the correct file. It's possible that the reconciliation is on a backup or different company file.

Also, I suggest reaching out to our Customer Support Team so they can further assist you with it. They can take a look at it and see what's causing this issue.

1. Go to Help and select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us and enter Lost Reconciliation in the Tell us more about your question: field.
3. Select Search, then click Message an Agent.

You'll want to check this article for additional details: Resolve errors and unexpected results when importing accountant's changes.

Keep on posting here if you have more concerns. We'll respond as soon as we can. 

Has anyone else asked about, when redoing the reconciliations they didn't match up to the previous ones? Mine are not. Accountants copy has been out since end of July, I have been able to continue completing them each month, until now. When I tried to do Novembers' it told me I couldn't with the accountants copy out. When she sent it and I uploaded it all reconciles from 8/1 on were gone. When I tried to redo them, the numbers are not matching up.

Let's get this sorted out, GCC13.

In QuickBooks Desktop, eliminating or adding a reconciled transaction will affect your beginning balance for the next reconciliation. To isolate the issue, you might want to check if there were changes made before redoing the reconciliation.

If there were transactions that have been modified, this will not match up your accounts. It would be best to have the old copy of the reconciliation while redoing it so you can determine what's missing and what's been changed. Doing so will help you ensure the accuracy of your financial records.

You can refer to the following write-up to help guide you in reconciling your accounts in QuickBooks Desktop: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop. This will provide you link as well on how to deal with discrepancies.

Keep me posted with any further questions. I'll be right here to provide additional assistance. Have a wonderful day!

I think I found where the discrepancies were, just not how to fix it. When I started over, I enter the merchant fee on the beginning screen and it auto creates a payment and highlights it. Once finished checking all payments and deposits the difference is the amount of the merchant fee. I can uncheck it and then reconcile, but then it is just left on next one as uncleared.

Hello @GCC13! Happy Friday. :)

I'm glad you know where the discrepancies are, that's usually the hardest part! It's possible that the merchant fee hasn't cleared your bank yet, and that's why it's off by that amount. I'd recommend taking a look at your bank statement just to verify you see it there.

It may have been linked earlier in the thread, but this article is helpful when trying to fix different issues when you're reconciling: Fix issues when you're reconciling in QuickBooks Desktop.

This other article more specifically refers to the accountant's copy and errors you may come across: Resolve errors when creating or working on an accountant's copy.

If you need any further help, feel free to reply to this post! We're happy to help you.

I have a similar problem from the other side. I'm an accountant working on a client's copy. The client doesn't do his own bank reconciliations. When I had the accountant copy file for 2019 I did one large reconciliation that cleared junk that had been in his QB since 2016. After the 2019 taxes were done we sent back his changes and he incorporated them. However, when I got his accountant  copy this year for 2020 taxes, I noticed that the enormous bank rec I had done the previous year was missing. The rest of the changes seemed to have taken just fine, including a smaller bank rec that I had done for 2019 on a different bank account had gone through OK and was still balanced. But his main account was back to being a mess with uncleared transactions going back 3 or 4 years. I had to do it all over again. Most frustrating. I hope this glitch can be sorted out before 2021 tax season. 

I don't know why QuickBooks doesn't address this.  As a rule, a client cannot perform any reconciliations when the accountant's copy is out or all the reconciliations will be lost. It's not some clients, it is every client, every single time.  I have been in public accounting for 8 years and it has been a problem from day 1.  It is not a bug, it is simply a limitation on the functionality of QuickBooks.  They should really fix it but for some reason they pretend like it is some specific problem to each person that it happens to. Everyone is wasting their time trying to figure out what they did wrong.  They didn't do anything wrong, this is just how it works.   

The original post is from two years ago, and the software developers still haven't fixed this issue?  This is a pretty serious glitch.  Come on, Intuit.  Please don't make it even more burdensome for our clients who are awaiting the Accountant's Changes.  Making customers have to re-reconcile several months' worth of all bank and credit card accounts sends a very clear message that you do not value their time.  

Yes. The message is evidently clear. I never look forward to what lies ahead when I incorporate the accountant changes. Loss in productivity, for sure.

I wasn't talking about the client being unable to perform reconciliations. I'm the accountant, and the reconciliations that I did the previous year and sent back with the accountant changes had not been correctly incorporated into the client's QB file. So all of the other changes I did were in there, but I had to re-do the reconciliation from the previous year before I could start looking at the current year's work. 

When an accountant does a reconciliation and sends it back to the client with the rest of the changes, ALL changes should be incorporated. But what's happening is that apparently if the reconciliation clears items that are more than a year old, it simply ignores them when it incorporates the change file.