Occasionally, new information comes to light that results in the need to change something about a transaction.  QuickBooks is quite forgiving, and can allow alterations to transactions quite easily.  Often times, that is a good thing; however, reporting issues can arise due to that forgiving nature when the transaction that needs refinement is in a prior period - especially when the account containing the target transaction has already been reconciled.  QuickBooks allows the administrator to set a period closing date to prevent careless altering of prior period transactions.  If the adminstrator has set a closing date subsequent to the date of the transaction that needs to be edited, you will have to obtain the administrator's authorization to make the changes.

Otherwise, generally speaking, modifying a previously reconciled transaction can happen without causing too much trouble.  However, it really depends on the type of adjustment being made.  If you are simply changing the date, number, payee or account allocations of a reconciled transaction, the total amount affecting the bank does not change, and the reconciliation of bank amounts remains intact.  In this case, un-doing and re-doing the reconciliation may be unnecessary, unless you are required, for a specific reason, to restate the entire reconciliation with these changes in place.

When the amount affecting the overall bank balance requires altering, or if you need to void or delete a transaction and re-enter it, additional attention is required.  Making such a change will affect the integrity of your previous reconciliation reports.  The nice thing about QuickBooks however, is that it won't let you destroy the integrity of those previous reconciliation reports.  If you find yourself performing such an alteration to a  reconciled transaction, you will want to become familiar with the report called, "Previous Reconciliation Discrepancy Report".  To access this report, select [Reports] in the menu ribbon, then [Banking] then the aforementioned report.  Select the appropriate bank account in the popup and you have a document that can assist you in accounting for the necessary correcting adjustments to the current bank reconciliation and provide a nice addendum to the affected reconciliation report.  This report should adequately document the adjustments, but I would urge you to confirm this with your tax advisor.

In the event you deternine that you need to restate your previous reconciliation reports due to your changes, you may engage in a more time-intensive process of un-doing and re-doing those prior reconciliations.  The process that allows you to do this is quite simple.  Select [Banking] in the menu ribbon, then [Reconcile].  In the resulting popup window, select the appropriate account.  Click [Undo Last Reconciliation] in the bottom row of buttons.  Repeat this process until you have un-reconciled the period containing the transaction that needs to be corrected.  Make your changes, and then re-reconcile and reprint each reconciliation report.

If these instructions do not match your current version of QuickBooks, or if you would like additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.