strange symbols in chart of accounts

Hey there, @12Tania.

The accounts in the Chart of Accounts can be damaged when your data starts giving you error messages like the one in your screenshot above. You can fix this by resorting to your lists back to the default order. Here's how:

1. Choose the Lists menu and click Chart of Accounts.
2. Select the Include Inactive checkbox.

       3. From the Account drop-down, pick Re-sort List.

       4. Press OK when prompted.

Now your Chart of Accounts is in the original order that it started. If you still hit a snag, I suggest running a verify and rebuild of your company file. This will point out any data integrity issues and allow you to fix them.

Please don't hesitate to touch base with me here if you need any additional assistance. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Hi Anna,

Thank you for making some suggestions. 

The Resort List option did not work. I will have a look into verify and rebuild, however as I tried my file on another computer and everything looked great, so I don't think my data is corrupt.

I also upgraded my software after having this problem, so it's not the software either.

I talked to a local technician, and he suggested that Windows might be the problem. But before replacing our Windows and having to reinstall all my apps and software, I thought I'd check in with the Quickbooks community.

Thank you everyone for your help.

I appreciate all the steps you've done, 12Tania.

Let's perform another troubleshooting steps. We'll have to create a new account and then merge it to the account that has an error. This helps your chart of accounts arrange to the original listing.

You can check this article on what to do before preforming the said troubleshooting steps: Merge Accounts.

Before doing so, let's take note of the category type and the account name (the one that has an error).

To add a new account:

1. Select Chart of Accounts from the Accountant menu.
2. In the Account drop-down, select New.
3. Select the same category like the one you took note a while ago.
4. Click Continue.
5. Enter an Account Name, and then Save & Close.

Afterwards,you're good to merge the accounts. Here's how:

1. In the Chart of Accounts window, 
2. Right-click the new account.
3. Select Edit Account.
4. Enter the same Account Name.
5. Click Save & Close.
6. In the Merge window, select Yes.

I'm always right here if you still need my help!

If you have moved the data to another computer and it is working, go back to the first computer.

On that system, check the Regional Keyboard settings to make sure they are set to English/US for the language and the keyboard.

Setting the regional setting to something else will cause the program to see invalid characters in the data, because it is reading them incorrectly.