Is Your QBO Out of Balance?

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Did you know, QBO transactions can become delinked/weird/funky just like in desktop?   I managed to surprise Diamond support in Tucson with just such a case.   

I was in the routine process of creating a cash basis financial documents for a tax preparer, when I noticed that my client’s total assets & total liabilities did not match.  

I thought, "Huh…but wait…I’m in QBO, not QBDT. What do I do?"  

Well, just like QBDT, I did a balance sheet by year, then by month, then by week and finally by day to locate the offending transactions. I found it all had to do with one customer. For some strange reason, one invoice had two payments received against it on two different days.   

Further, the invoice had an additional discount line and this discount line zeroed out the invoice entirely. The customer record showed a zero balance. No funds showed owed to or due to the customer.

I realized three things. One, some transactions need to be deleted and re-entered. Two, tech support would love to see this issue.  Three, I want tech support looking over my shoulder as I delete and re-enter, because I cannot restore the file if disaster strikes.

Let me walk you through the scenario.

First, the balance sheet. It’s off by $1,460.

Next, the first payment received against invoice #3056 on 3/18/2014 (note the online banking match):

Then, the second payment received against invoice #3056 on 4/28/2014 (this one does not have an online banking match):

Next, let’s look at invoice #3056:

Notice, the upper right corner.  Normally, the upper right corner shows a payment status of PAID and information about the payment.  Further, a discount line was entered to get the invoice to a zero balance.

Here’s how a paid invoice would normally look:

The solution (with tech support screen sharing):

Delete the 2 payments. Delete the invoiceRe-enter the invoice (w/o the discount line)Receive the payment on 3/18/2014 (it had the online bank match)Re-accept the match for 3/18/2014 in bank feedsReconcile the now unreconciled 3/18/2014 deposit to the most recent reconciled date & amount

Here’s the result:

I found this all quite….well, quite….simply….fascinating.   

Christy Bertani is the semi-retired founder of Christy Bertani Bookkeeping, a "2016 Insightful Accounting Top 100 ProAdvisor" firm. These days, she continues to assist small businesses with their bookkeeping needs, from manual journal entries and general ledgers (the "Jurassic" period, as she calls it) to the Cloud, QuickBooks Online, Xero and its accompanying apps.