Should I keep or disconnect personal account in Quickbooks? We set up new business account in January but payments still coming into old personal account.

Hello there, @ymcgarry1.

Let me ease your confusion about the received payments account.

For the personal bank account, you can still use it as the account where you receive the payments and transfer the amounts to your business account.

Here's how:

1. From the left menu, click Banking.
2. Select Transfer Funds.
3. In the Transfer Funds From, click the drop-down and choose the bank account.
4. Select the bank account on the Transfer Funds To drop-down.
5. Enter the transfer amount.
6. Click Save and close.

Another option is if you are using QuickBooks Payments, you can change the account to receive the payment from the Accounts and Settings. You can now disconnect the personal bank account and connect the business account.

I'm also adding this article as your guide to match transactions: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

If you need additional assistance about the receive payments account, you can leave a comment below. I'm always here to help.

Hi and thanks for the reply.

The issue is more about the impact that having the personal bank account in Quickbooks has on our overall accounts eg the personal bank account balance appears in the chart of accounts but its not relevant to the business (other than some legacy payments still coming in and out which I deal with as you have suggested).  Is there a way of excluding it from the chart of accounts or is it better practice to remove it entirely?  

Thanks,

Yvonne

Thanks for posting here again today, @ymcgarry1.

I'll be right here to share some insights about this banking concern. Although we recommend not to mix business and personal funds, we know it happens sometimes.

In cases like this, you can completely disconnect the personal account so it doesn't mix up with your financial report. Here's how:

1. Go to the Banking menu. Then select the Banking tab.
2. Select the tile for the bank account.
3. Select the pencil ✎ icon, then select Edit account info.
4. Select the Disconnect this account on save checkbox. Note: 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. Select Save and Close.

Then, if you need to add some transactions, you can manually upload bank transactions next time.

If you don't like that option, you may exclude the transactions in QuickBooks Online. Here's how:

1. Go to the Banking menu, then select the Banking tab.
2. Select the For Review tab.
3. Select the checkbox of the transactions to exclude.
4. Select Exclude.

Please post here again if you have other questions about this banking topic. I'll be more than happy to help you out. All the best.

Thanks Jen. I know how to do it, what I'm trying to find out is what implication that has for my overall accounts if I remove the account eg profit and loss, trial balance, chart of accounts etc. 

Hello there, @ymcgarry1.

Allow me to provide some clarifications about deleting an account in QuickBooks Online.

Instead of deleting accounts that connect to online banking, we recommend disconnecting them. It simply stops QuickBooks from downloading new transactions. If you disconnect your account from online banking, your existing accounting data will not change. You can reconnect it any time to start downloading transactions again.

All transactions already added or created within QB will not have any changes when disconnecting online banking as long as you do not delete the transaction. 

Here’s an article for more information: Disconnect or delete an account from the Downloaded Transactions page.

That should get you pointed in the right direction. Post again in the Community if you have any other questions about bank feeds. I’ll be more than happy to help. Take care and have a great day!

Excuse me for jumping onto this thread, but I have a similar question. I am a bookkeeper looking for clients, so I have transfers to my business account from my personal checking account. They are from the same bank and the personal account is NOT connected to QBO. But it still shows a balance of -855 and that is showing up on the balance sheet. I can't figure out how to delete it from there. Thanks

Hi there, @TxCatLady. I'm here to help you fix the balance in your Balance Sheet account in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Negative numbers shown in the accounts of the Balance Sheet report indicate that there is a credit balance that has paid the company more than expected.  You can resolve this by creating a Journal Entry to credit the accounts affected. Doing this will zero out the balance.

Before doing this, I highly recommend reaching out to an accounting expert to ensure you'll account for the transaction correctly and avoid messing up your books. If you're not affiliated with one, you can use or Find a Pro Advisor tool to look for one near you.

Once ready, here's how you can enter a journal entry:

1. In your QBO account, select the + New icon.
2. Then, choose Journal entry.
3. Fill in the needed fields to create your journal entry.
4. Once done, Save and close.

For reference, you can check this article: Resolve accounts receivable or accounts payable balances on a cash basis balance sheet in QuickBook...

In case you need to modify your reports to include only the important details, you can easily customise them in QBO. For the detailed steps, please read this link: Customise reports in QuickBooks Online.

I'm always here ready to lend a hand if you have any other concerns about managing your QBO account. Have a good one and stay safe. 

I had to laugh because I AM a ProAdvisor lol! Certified but definitely don't know everything. When I initially set up my account didn't consider the fact that my business and personal accounts were with the same bank. I have disconnected the personal a long time ago. But it still left the negative balance. I never reconciled it or anything. I had just read on here recently how to delete an account. So I deleted the personal account. But on the Balance Sheet it still shows as Personal Checking (deleted) with the negative amount. 

Thank you for getting back to us, TxCatLady.

Allow me to chime in and share some information about deleting an account in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks won't allow you to delete an account that has associated transactions. Instead, it will be marked as inactive, but it will still appear in your reports along with the transactions.

With that, it is possible that there were added transactions to your personal account when you initially connected it to QuickBooks, which explains why there's a negative balance in the account.

If you want to completely delete the account from your reports, we need to make the account active again, manually delete the transactions, and delete the account from there.

To make the account active:

1. Go to the Gear ⚙ icon and select Chart of accounts.
2. At the top of the Chart of Accounts window, select the small Gear icon then mark Include inactive.
3. Find the account you want to reactivate, then select Make active.

Once done, you can follow the steps outlined in this article to delete the transactions: Void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online. This should also resolve the negative balance shown in your reports.

After removing the transactions from your personal account, you can now proceed and delete the account. Use this link as a reference: Remove deleted accounts from reports in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to post again in the Community or leave a message in the comments section for other concerns in managing your chart of accounts. I'll be here to help. Take care.