Advanced troubleshooting for balance sheets out of balance

An inventory return and discount on an invoice

A discount entered at the customer level and applied at the job level

A journal entry linked to a credit memo

Unconventional inventory transactions

• Your Accrual Basis Balance Sheet is in balance for Dates = All Dates, but out of balance for any other date range.
  1. Back up the QuickBooks company file
  2. Go to the Lists menu then select Chart of Accounts.
  3. Right-click the Uncategorized Expense account, then select QuickReport.
  4. Select Customize Report. From the Dates drop-down, select All.
  5. Go to the Filters tab, then from the Filters list, select Posting Status.
  6. Select Either, then select OK. Search for transactions with an amount but with no item or account.
  7. Repair each transaction.
  8. Repeat step 7 until you have verified each transaction, then rerun the Balance Sheet report.

• Your accrual B/S is out of balance but your cash B/S is in balance.

  To fix this, you need to identify damaged income or expense accounts that have a balance but have no transactions, then merge them into new accounts.

  1. Determine the difference between assets and liabilities
     1. Go to the Reports menu, then select Company & Financial and then Balance Sheet Standard.
     2. Select Customize Report. From the Dates drop-down, select All, then set the Report Basis to Accrual.
     3. Write down the difference between the Assets and Liabilities & Equities.
  2. Locate the damaged account

  1. Export your Chart of Accounts, then open the file in Microsoft Excel.
  2. Highlight the first two rows of the spreadsheet, then delete them. These are header rows that you do not need.
  3. Highlight Column G onwards, then delete them. These columns are not needed for our purposes. You should see OBAMOUNT in Column F, Row 1.
  4. Select the cell above Row Header 1 and left of Column Header A to highlight the entire spreadsheet.
  5. Sort the entire spreadsheet by Column F.
  6. Find the row whose Column F amount is the difference between the Assets and Liabilities & Equities.
  7. Be sure to write down the name of this account.
  3. Fix the damaged account

  1. In QuickBooks, run a QuickReport for All Dates on the account noted in Step 3B-8. above.
  2. If there are no transactions then this is the problem account.
  3. There should be no balance if there are no transactions.
  4. Create a check for one cent ($0.01) to this account.
  5. Run the basic data damage troubleshooting on the company data file.
  6. QuickZoom (double-click) on the account and delete the check for one cent.
  7. Run the accrual basis balance sheet to be sure it is in balance.

• After Condensing your data, your balance sheet is out of balance and the JE's show amounts without associated accounts (applies to US only).

  This issue may occur if you change the associated account on a payroll item after it was used on a paycheck and then run the Condense utility. To fix this, you need to correct the affected Journal Entries.

  1. Restore your company data file from the backup you made before you condensed your data.
  2. Create a Transactions List by Date report. Go to the Reports menu, then select Accountant & Taxes and then Transactions List by Date.
  3. Filter the report for Transaction Type: Journal and All Dates.
  4. Scroll down and find any Journal Entries showing an amount without an associated account.
  5. Double-click the report entry to open the Make General Journal Entries window. (Optional) To print the entry for reference before you delete it, choose the Print icon near the top of the window.
  6. From the Edit menu, choose Delete General Journal.
  7. From the Edit menu choose New General Journal, and then re-record the journal entry you deleted in the previous step, entering the correct account.
  8. Select Save & New, and then repeat Steps 5 through 8 for the other affected Journal Entries.

• One column setting (e.g. Total Only) shows out of balance, other column settings (e.g., by Year) show in balance.

  When viewing a Balance Sheet, total assets match total liabilities and equity in some column views, but not in others. For example, the report balances when you set columns to display Total only, but the report does not balance when you set columns to display by Year. One or more of your accounts may be damaged.

  To fix this, identify the damaged account and merge it into a new one.

  1. Determine which view of the report data is out of balance:
     1. From the Reports menu, choose Company & Financial, then Balance Sheet Summary.
     2. Select the Dates drop-down arrow and choose All.
     3. Select OK to display the balance sheet.
     4. From the Columns drop-down arrow, choose Total only and note whether Total Assets match Total Liabilities and Equity.
        1. If the totals do not match in at least one column, note the column heading of the earliest instance where the totals do not match and continue with Step 2.
        2. If the totals match, continue with Step 1.E. 
     5. From the Columns drop-down arrow, choose Year and note whether Total Assets match Total Liabilities and Equity for all columns on the report.
        • If the totals do not match in at least one column, note the column heading of the earliest instance where the totals do not match and continue with Step 2.
        • If the totals match in every column:
          1. Repeat this step selecting progressively smaller time increments in the Columns field (Quarter, then Month, then Week, and then Day).
          2. Stop when Total Assets do not match Total Liabilities and Equity in at least one column on the report. Note the column heading of the earliest instance where the totals do not match and continue with Step 2.
  2. Identify the damaged account:
     1. Select the Reports menu, then Company & Financial and choose Profit & Loss Standard.
     2. Enter a date range in the From and To fields that match the column heading you noted in Step 1.e. For example, if the column heading was a year, enter the first and last dates of that fiscal year. If the column heading was a month, enter the first and last dates in that month.
     3. Select OK.
     4. Audit the integrity of each account on the report:
        1. Note the amount next to the first account displayed on the report.
        2. Double-click the amount to open the Transaction Detail by Account window.
        3. Scroll to the bottom of the report and note the total in the Balance column.
           • If it matches the account total on the Profit & Loss report, continue.
           • If it does not match the account total on the Profit & Loss report, note the account number and continue.
        4. Close the Transaction Detail by Account window.
        5. Repeat Steps 2.d.i through 2.d.iv for every account on the Profit & Loss report to create a list of one or more damaged accounts.
  3. Merge the damaged account(s) with new one(s).

• Your B/S is out of balance on both Accrual and Cash bases.

  To fix this, identify and repair transactions that do not have accounts assigned. Run the following report:

  1. Run the Custom Transaction Detail report (Reports > Custom Reports > Transaction Detail)
  2. Set the Dates to All.
  3. Set the Basis to Cash.
  4. Set Total by to Account List.
  5. Add the Item column.
  6. Select OK.

  Scroll to the bottom of the report. If the last group of transactions has the heading No accnt and the Account column is blank, then these transaction Targets have no accounts assigned to them. Try the following:

  1. Open the Edit Item window for the Item.
  2. Change the Account and select OK.
  3. Reopen the Edit Item window.
  4. Change the Account back to the original account and choose OK.
  5. Repeat Steps 1 - 4 for each transaction on the above report that does not have an account.