How do I undo multiple past bank reconciliations and start over in QuickBooks Online?

Yes, you can undo those five reconciliations without touching the transactions you haven't changed. Undoing a reconciliation only changes a transaction's reconciled status, it never deletes the transaction itself. In QuickBooks Online you have two ways to do it: undo an entire reconciliation period at once if you're signed in as the primary admin, or unreconcile transactions one at a time from the register.

Step 1: Decide how far back to go

Start with your most recent reconciliation and work backward until you reach the last period you're confident was correct. That's the point you'll re-reconcile forward from.

Step 2: Undo the reconciliations

If you're the primary admin, you can undo an entire reconciliation period in a few clicks:

1. Sign in as the primary admin.
2. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Reconcile.
3. Select History by account.
4. Find the reconciliation you want to undo (you may need to change the report period).
5. In the Action column, select the dropdown, then Undo.
6. Review the warning, check the box, then select Undo reconciliation, then Done.

Before you do this: undoing an entire reconciliation is permanent and deletes the reconciliation report and any attachments for that period, so download anything you need first. Undoing one period also undoes every period after it, so you'd typically undo back to the last month that was still correct rather than each of the five individually.

If you'd rather remove specific transactions instead (or don't have primary admin access), you can unreconcile them one at a time from the register:

1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Chart of accounts.
2. Find the account, then select View register.
3. Select a reconciled transaction (it shows an R in the checkmark column) to expand it.
4. Select the checkmark box repeatedly until it's blank.
5. Select Save, and repeat for each transaction you need to change.

Step 3: Fix your beginning balance before you re-reconcile

Once you've undone reconciliations, it's normal to see a beginning balance discrepancy. Here's how to clear it:

1. Make sure every transaction for the period is matched, categorized, posted, or excluded in Bank transactions.
2. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Reconcile, and select the account. You'll see an alert that your beginning balance is off.
3. Select We can help you fix it to open the Reconcile Discrepancy Report, which lists what changed and how to fix each item.
4. If your balance is still off after that, check the audit log (under Settings) for deleted or voided transactions, since those don't show up in the discrepancy report.

You're done with this step once the total discrepancy shows $0.00.

Step 4: Re-reconcile, month by month

Yes, starting from your earliest correct statement and working forward is the right approach. For each month:

1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Reconcile.
2. Choose the account, then enter the ending balance and ending date from that month's statement.
3. Match each transaction against your statement until the difference shows $0.00.
4. Select Finish now, then Done, and move on to the next month.

Keep going in order until you're caught up to the current period. Since your beginning balance is already corrected from Step 3, each month should reconcile cleanly from there.

Let us know which month you're starting from if you run into anything unexpected along the way.