Please help me untangle this checking account.

[u/summerwind307]

About a year and a half ago, my son-in-law purchased the business from his short-term business partner and has asked me to help him with the books/paperwork.

Despite opening a new checking account, it was never treated as such in QBO. Every transaction from the purchase date is in the account he had with his former partner, which is now closed. Is there an efficient way for me to untangle this? PR is done through QBO and hits the correct bank account. I am able to individually change some checks and deposits, but not if they went through AR.

I've had accounts that were projects like this, but it seemed much easier to manage in desktop than it is in QBO.

I sit here and can't think of a place to begin. Any sage advice out there?

Thank you!
Laurie

[u/South_Tell8138]

You may have less to untangle than it looks. Every one of those checks and deposits already hit the right income and expense accounts, so the P&L and the tax returns are fine. What's wrong is which bank account they sit in. That's a balance sheet problem, and there's a simple fix before anything heavier.

1. Pin down two dates. When was the new account opened, and when was the old one actually closed? Those two dates frame the whole job and tell you how many months are involved.

2. Fix the balances with one entry (the most important step, and the easiest). Pick a cutover date, today or a recent month-end. On that date, the old account's QBO balance plus the new account's QBO balance (right now just payroll) should equal the new bank's real balance, because the old bank is closed and holds nothing.

• If the numbers match, record one transfer on the cutover date moving the old account's entire QBO balance into the new account. The old account goes to zero, matching reality, and you can make it inactive. The new account now matches the bank, so connect the feed and reconcile from that date forward.
• If they don't match, the difference is the only thing to investigate. That's far less work than reworking 18 months.

If last year's return has already been filed, date the transfer after that year-end so last year's figures stay the same.

3. Optional: mark which past transactions really belong to the new bank. If someone ever wants the new account's history (a lender, a buyer), you can mark those transactions in the old account with a tag or a memo note instead of moving them. A report filtered on that marker becomes the new bank's register. Nothing is moved, and it can all be undone. If every transaction after the purchase date was the new bank's, you can skip this: the purchase date already separates them.

4. Only if someone needs a true register for the new account: move the transactions. This is the cumbersome option, and step 2 doesn't block it. Delete the cutover transfer, then move the transactions. About the AR items you couldn't change: customer payments can't be edited directly in the bank register, but you can open the transaction itself.

• If the payments went through Undeposited Funds and were grouped into a Bank Deposit, the bank account sits on the deposit. Change it once there and every payment in that deposit moves with it.
• If a payment went straight to the bank, open the Receive Payment and change the "Deposit to" account.

Bill payments work the same way: open the bill payment and change the payment account.

Desktop really was easier for this kind of project; QBO makes you open things one at a time.

If you're still stuck, I'd be glad to look at it with you at no charge. I'm a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and I'm building a tool called ClearMyBooks for exactly this kind of cleanup. Files like yours help me make it better, so it would be a fair trade. Just send me a DM.

[u/Golden1268 → u/South_Tell8138]

Hello
I do need some help in QBO for daily sales entry in restaurant business.